Section 46 Municipal Taxation of Another Taxing Authority

• Library: Tax Law 2009

The municipal corporation’s ability to tax another taxing authority is not quite as well defined. The municipal corporation may very well be a drainage or library district. Grand River Drainage Dist. of Cass & Bates Counties v. Reid,111 S.W.2d 151 (Mo. 1937); St. Louis County Library Dist. v. Hopkins,375 S.W.2d 71 (Mo. 1964). Generally, to have the taxing authority of the municipal corporation sustained against the state or a political subdivision of it or another municipal corporation, there must be some improvement or benefit to the property. Norborne Land Drainage Dist. Co. of Carroll County v. Cherry Valley Tp., of Carroll County,31 S.W.2d 201 (Mo. banc 1930); Jackson v. Bd. of Educ. of Cedarville Tp. Rural Sch. Dist., Greene County,154 N.E. 247 (Ohio 1926). See also Lakewood Park Cemetery Ass’n v. Metro. St. Louis Sewer Dist.,530 S.W.2d 240 (Mo. banc 1975). By constitutional prohibition, the state is precluded from taxing any political subdivision or municipal corporation for municipal purposes, State ex rel. Jones v. Chariton Drainage Dist. No. 1,158 S.W. 633 (Mo. banc 1913), although it is exactly for this purpose that the municipal corporation may tax. As...