Opinion

ACI Plastics, Inc. v. City of St. Louis

  • 724 S.W.2d 513
  • 1987 Mo. LEXIS 270
Court
Supreme Court of Missouri
Filed
Feb 17, 1987
Status
Published
Author
Blackmar
On the bench
Billings, Blackmar, Donnelly, Higgins, Rendlen, Robertson, Welliver
Cited by
3 cases
Authority
More cited than 20.9%

The opinion

BLACKMAR, Judge,

concurring.

The holding that the challenged ordinance submitted to the voters “is invalid because it contained more than one subject in violation of the City’s charter” is sufficient to decide the case. We simply cannot tell whether the voters would have approved both of the revenue measures, if they had been submitted separately. The common element of raising revenue is too broad an umbrella to cover both of these very different taxing measures. 508 Chestnut, Inc. v. City of St. Louis, 389 S.W.2d 823, 828-29 (Mo.1965) is distinguishable because the classification of “license taxes” is sufficiently narrow.

Inasmuch as there is a violation of the plural subject provision, no part of the ordinance can stand. Any holding that a part could retain validity would defeat the purpose of art. IV, § 13 of the Charter.

I agree with the discussion of the proper method for submitting a “sales tax” to the votes, but see no need to comment on whether the Board of Aldermen might resuscitate a “gross receipts tax” approved by the voters but then improperly converted into a sales tax by the Board.

The judgment is properly reversed.

This is a copy of a public record, reproduced as it was published. It is not legal advice, and it may not be the version a court would rely on. Check the official source before you cite it.

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