Court Opinion

ID: 9599330
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 01:17:50.796407+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:01:44.802995
License: Public Domain

Rosellini, J.
(dissenting) — The majority fails to discuss or give any significance-to the meaning of preemption as *593found in RCW 82.02.020. The Court of Appeals’ decision correctly states the rule as applied to the meaning of preemption:
When a state preempts a particular field of taxation, it may be inferred reasonably that it intends to exclude municipalities from such a field. 16 E. McQuillin, Municipal Corporations § 44.14 (3d ed. 1972). The term “preemption” is broader than the term “exemption.” Preemption indicates a complete take-over of a field of taxation to the exclusion of all interference while an exemption is a special freedom from taxation imposed upon others. A preemption precludes an invasion, while an exemption grants a dispensation. The terms are used loosely and interchangeably at times so that the total context of a holding must be examined to discover its true purport. In this light, read Columbia & P.S.R.R. v. Chilberg, 6 Wash. 612, 34 P. 163 (1893), which held it within the power of the legislature to entirely exempt certain property from taxation and, if and when it did, such an exemption would deprive a municipality of power to impose any tax upon such property.
P. Lorillard Co. v. Seattle, 8 Wn. App. 510, 514, 507 P.2d 1212 (1973).
I would adopt the Court of Appeals opinion written by Callow, J., as my opinion, and for the reasons cited therein I would affirm the Court of Appeals and the trial court in exempting the tax on gross proceeds derived from engaging in the business of cigarette sales.
Wright, J., concurs with Rosellini, J.
Petition for rehearing denied June 24, 1974.