Court Opinion

ID: 9551160
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 18:48:34.467179+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T15:23:11.154262
License: Public Domain

SHEPARD, Justice,
dissenting.
I cannot agree with the majority’s analysis of the “delegation” question. All previous opinions of the Court, including Greater Boise Auditorium v. Royal Inn of America, 106 Idaho 884, 684 P.2d 286 (1984), have dealt with the ability of municipalities and other local units of government to tax as being delegated authority by the legislature. Although Greater Boise Auditorium overruled State v. Nelson, 36 Idaho 713, 213 P. 358 (1923), the delegation of legislative authority analysis was not disturbed. Likewise, although Greater Boise Auditorium did not involve a municipality, nevertheless it was my view that the artificial distinction between municipalities and other local units of government was abolished in Greater Boise Auditorium. I see no reason, and the majority has furnished none, to abandon the legislative delegation analysis of Greater Boise Auditorium. I see the majority’s utilization of the specific constitutional language as unavailing, and view the distinction between “investment” and “delegation” as a distinction, if any, without a difference. To that extent I agree with that portion of the dissent of Bistline, J.
Necessarily then do I view it necessary to examine the safeguards attempted to be provided here with those safeguards approved in Greater Boise Auditorium v. Royal Inn of America, supra. I view the failure of the legislature to prescribe a maximum amount of tax which may be levied as contrary to the strictures of Greater Boise Auditorium. I cannot agree with the majority that the requirement that the imposition of the tax must be approved by a large segment of the voters is a panacea and substitute for the otherwise safeguards required by Greater Boise Auditorium. I would have less concern if the tax were general in nature, such as a sales tax on all retail sales, which would impact all citizens and businesses uniformly. In the instant case, however, the tax is clearly designed to impact and raise money from a transient group of people not permanent residents of a municipality. That tax will be collected by businesses renting accommodations for that transient population or selling intoxicants by the drink to that same transient group. While such a tax scheme is not perhaps unlawfully discriminatory per se, it nevertheless selects a relatively small and select number of business*431es as targets for the tax. Hence, with perhaps á jaundiced eye it is my view that the “safeguard” found by the majority in the election approval process is largely illusory and insufficient to replace the necessary safeguards enunciated in Greater Boise Auditorium.