Court Opinion

ID: 9675306
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 04:48:54.378793+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:16:33.179397
License: Public Domain

OPINION CONCURRING IN RESULT
EAGER, Judge.
I concur in the result of the principal opinion but file this separate opinion to note my serious doubt of what I deem to be the implication therein that the earnings tax of Kansas City is a matter of governmental or state-wide concern. I am not convinced that the matter quoted from the case of Carter Carburetor Corp. v. City of St. Louis, 356 Mo. 646, 203 S.W.2d 438, 444, correctly states the law and I feel that the question should be open for interpretation and decision when it arises. I am inclined to the view that such a tax is a local matter which may be regulated by a city charter, but at this point I am not so unhesitatingly convinced of that position as is Judge Seiler.
For the reasons already pointed out so clearly in the other opinions, namely, the enactment of §§ 92.210-92.300, RSMo (1967 Cum.Supp.), which expressly prohibit such a tax in excess of ½ of 1%, I agree that any such charter amendment as the city now proposes to submit would be inconsistent with the “laws of the state” as now existing and, therefore, in conflict with § 19 of Art. 6 of the Constitution which is the very source of the city’s charter power.