Court Opinion

ID: 9763379
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-29 02:43:37.980165+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:29:42.053609
License: Public Domain

WINTERSHEIMER,
concurring in part and dissenting in part.
I concur with the parts of the Majority Opinion which apparently endorse the legislative philosophy of dedication of tax funds to a particular perceived need. I also concur with the concept of deference to the General Assembly in matters of taxation in general. I further concur with the analysis of the Fourteenth Amendment and Sections 1, 2 and 3 of the Kentucky Constitution. However, I must respectfully dissent from those aspects of the Opinion which deal with the application of constitutional principles to the specific facts of this ease in regard to the subclassification of physicians.
As I noted in my concurring opinion in Gillis v. Yount, Ky., 748 S.W.2d 357 (1988), the question becomes whether it was arbitrary and unreasonable for the legislature to create a separate subelassification in this ease. The problem centers on the classification of those 60 percent of the physicians who participate in Medicaid as contrasted with those 40 percent of physicians who do not participate in the program in any way. One of the greatest dangers to thoughtful analysis in any case involving taxation and the relationship between the judiciary and the legislature or executive is a generalization. Each case must be carefully examined on its own merit.
Here the principal problem relates to a benefityburden test which produces an arbitrary tax on those 40 percent of the physicians who do not participate in the program. Such a situation is more than unfair or unequal — it is arbitrary. It is understood that this analysis already accepts the segregation *881of physicians from general taxpayers into a class of their own. Classification by the legislature should be affirmed except as here where there is no rational basis and the legislation is arbitrary. Delta Air Lines, Inc. v. Commonwealth, Revenue Cabinet, Ky., 689 S.W.2d 14 (1985).
Any extension of the benefits/burdens test can lead to further assignment of tax revenue from all contractors, engineers and architects who could possibly benefit from providing construction work on the state’s highways. The same limited application of taxation and the revenues produced thereby could be applied to lawyers for the benefit of the justice system. The list of potential classifications is endless. The problem with disparate treatment of members of a subclass is that it singles out those who do not participate in a particular program as having derived a benefit therefrom. It is impossible to distinguish the benefit the nonparticipating physicians have in funding Medicaid from that of the general population.
The classification is invalid as it applies to 40 percent of the physicians who do not participate in Medicaid. Cf. Board of Education of Jefferson Co. v. Board of Education of Louisville, Ky., 472 S.W.2d 496 (1971).
In this legislation, the classification created is both too narrow and too broad. It is too narrow because it does not include as taxpayers other people who receive payment for services to Medicaid patients such as chiropractors, dentists, nurses, mid-wives and transportation providers. It has always been the law that it is essential to the constitutionality of taxation that it apply equally to all persons in a given class. A tax which discriminates between different members of a class or subclass should be considered void. Denton v. Potter, 284 Ky. 114, 143 S.W.2d 1056 (1940).
The legislation does not apply equally to all who are nonphysicians who have been included in the class. There is a difference in tax rates because physicians are taxed at 2 percent of gross; hospitals are taxed at 2-¾ percent of gross; and pharmacies are taxed at 25 cents per prescription. In addition, physicians who prescribe medicine are prohibited from passing on the tax to their patients while pharmacies are allowed to pass on their provider tax to third party payers. Kentucky has long prohibited disparate treatment of persons selling medicine as a violation of the Kentucky Constitution Section 59. Commonwealth v. Payne Medicine Co., 138 Ky. 164, 127 S.W. 760 (1910).
Taxing only certain healthcare providers to fund Medicaid is as flawed as would be a system which would tax only school teachers to pay for new educational facilities or taxing only licensed psychologists to pay for public mental health care facilities, or taxing only policemen to pay for victim compensation programs. Cf. Coy v. Florida Birth-Related Neurological Injury Compensation Plan, Fla., 595 So.2d 943, Kogan J. dissenting, cert. denied, McGibony v. Florida Birth-Related Neurological Injury Compensation Plan, — U.S. —, 113 S.Ct. 194, 121 L.Ed.2d 137 (1992). An extension of this idea would perhaps include a tax on grocery store operators on gross receipts to maintain a food stamp program.
The class is too broad because not every physician receives payment from Medicaid. In order for a classification to be constitutional, it must be framed as to be exclusively applicable to the person or things sought to be embraced therein. Priest v. State Tax Commission, 258 Ky. 391, 80 S.W.2d 43 (1935). It is clearly a gratuitous oversimplification of the law to announce that all physicians somehow benefit from Medicaid payments. If legislation is so broad in its scope as to embrace objects not naturally belonging therein, it does not pass the test under Section 59 of the Kentucky Constitution. Safety Building & Loan Co. v. Ecklar, 106 Ky. 115, 50 S.W. 50 (1899). A more constitutionally valid system might tax physicians who receive payments for services to Medicaid patients.
Physicians are not the direct or intended beneficiaries of Medicaid programs, the indigent patients are. Participating physicians and other healthcare providers are compensated for their services rendered and therefore receive indirect benefits. A number of shortcomings brings the constitutionality of the legislation into question. The problems *882include the question of equal protection and arbitrary legislation, the issue of the title not indicating that the bill involves a tax but rather revenue and finance, and veto arguments. The Majority Opinion has properly decided these issues.
The Franklin Circuit Court reasoned correctly that the imposition of a tax on certain physicians was a violation of Section 59 of the Kentucky Constitution which prohibits special legislation. The tax was not limited to the 60 percent of the physicians who participated in the Medicaid program and by assumption benefited thereby, but applied to all physicians rendering health care services in the State. I believe it was incorrectly assumed that an increase in funding was an indirect benefit to those doctors who did not participate.
Although we can only decide the case before us, I do not believe this Court should ignore the fact that there are a number of other cases involving state taxation. The public press reports that the Revenue Cabinet is now involved in 11 major lawsuits. It is not difficult to understand why the taxpayers are very concerned in a society in which ordinary working people will pay in excess of 40 percent of their gross income in taxation. As noted by the Majority Opinion, the question of taxation is a peculiarly legislative function of government. The only role of the court is to review a specific tax on the grounds of arbitrariness or improper classification. Each case must be reviewed on a case-by-case approach.
This Court decided Commonwealth of Kentucky, Revenue Cabinet v. Cope, 875 S.W.2d 87 (Ky.1994) on January 31, 1994, to the effect that a legislative grant of exemption was a legitimate classification between private and government pension plans. There is a difference between the imposition of taxes and the grant of an exemption from taxes. It was possibly a shortcoming that the Cope, supra, decision did not make it clear that the legislature could exempt all pensions, both private and governmental as one of the options to which the court deferred. The legislature still has that option.
“The power to tax involves the power to destroy” noted Chief Justice John Marshall in M’Culloch v. Maryland, 17 U.S. (4 Wheat.) 316, 4 L.Ed. 579 (1819). The duty of the judiciary is to distinguish between constitutional error and proper deference to the legislature. Unequal treatment really should not be acceptable although it is seemingly approved by the Majority Opinion.
There may be many different views as to how to apply the same standards. The responsibility for fashioning fair tax laws is that of the General Assembly. It cannot be delegated and it cannot be assumed by any other branch of government.
STUMBO, J., joins in this opinion.