Municipal: Countywide Sales Tax-Constitutionality of Distribution Statutes

Plaintiff appealed from the trial court’s judgment finding that statutes governing distribution of countywide sales taxes were constitutional, after arguing that the state’s statutes authorizing the taxes were constitutionally invalid special laws because St. Louis County was the only county meeting those statutory requirements.

The proper test for identifying whether a statute was an unconstitutional special law was whether or not there was a reasonably conceivable set of facts providing a rational basis for the classifications; where St. Louis County’s distinctive characteristics supported a rational basis for applying the statutes to only that county, plaintiff’s constitutional challenge failed.

Judgment is affirmed.

City of Chesterfield v. State (MLW No. 74351/Case No. SC96862 – 10 pages) (Supreme Court of Missouri, Breckenridge, J.) Appealed from circuit court, Cole County, Beetem, J. (Edward D. Robertson Jr. and Mary D. Winter, Jefferson City, Charles W. Hatfield and Jeremy Root, Jefferson City, and Christopher Blase Graville, Clayton, for appellant) (First Assistant and Solicitor D. John Sauer and Emily A. Dodge Jefferson City, James H. White, St. Louis, Robert J. Golterman, Michael L. Jente and John M. Hessell, St. Louis, and Matthew J. Fairless, John A. Young and  Jared D. Howell, St. Charles, for appellees)