JUDGE WILL HOLD HEARING PRIOR TO APRIL 1
Last fall, Platte County voters approved a quarter cent sales tax for children’s mental health services. Several weeks later, citing the wording of a state law on the topic that uses the word “may” and not “shall,” Platte County commissioners voted unanimously not to impose the tax.
Now, two Platte County residents have filed a lawsuit asking the court to overturn the commissioners’ decision and for the county to levy the sales tax.
Platte County Circuit Court Judge Megan Benton has been assigned to hear the case.
The county is to issue its response to the lawsuit petition by March 3. Then the petitioners shall have until March 7 to file a reply.
In a docket entry made in the case, it is noted that the court shall conduct a hearing in the matter before April 1.
“Counsel for petitioners and respondents shall contact the court to obtain dates for the hearing,” states the docket entry in court records.
On Feb. 19, residents Greg Plumb and Tara Bennet filed their lawsuit asking the court to impose the sales tax that voters approved and for the Missouri Department of Revenue to begin collecting the tax as early as April 1.
Voters passed the tax at the Nov. 6 election by a wide margin, with 56% in favor to 44% opposed.
Reached for comment on the lawsuit, Platte County Presiding Commissioner Scott Fricker said commissioners are confident the law is on their side.
“We’re confident that the commission acted in accordance with state law and we look forward to a swift conclusion with a ruling in the commission’s favor,” Fricker said this week.
County commissioners had opposed the tax from the start, and had declined to place the measure on a ballot despite a petition drive that acquired sufficient number of voter signatures to place the measure on a ballot. Eventually, proponents of the tax were successful in getting the Platte County Circuit Court to order the Platte County Board of Elections to place the tax question on the November ballot.
In the lawsuit filed in circuit court on Feb. 19, attorney Charles Hatfield for Plumb and Bennett states that “desperate for a way to avoid levying a voter approved children’s services tax, commission respondents have said they rely on the use of ‘may’ in the first sentence of Section 67.1775.1 to justify their refusal to implement the will of the people.”
The petition goes on to point out that commissioners “apparently adopted the advice of the Platte County counselor.” The petition states the county counselor said that “it is discretionary and it’s up to the commission after being authorized by the public, pursuant to the initiative petition, now it is up to the commission to decide whether or not to levy that tax and in our, my, legal opinion as the county counselor.”
Hatfield, the attorney for the petitioners, goes on to argue that the use of the word “may” at the beginning of Section 67.1775 “simply identifies the pre-conditions for a county to have authority (emphasis added) to levy a children’s services tax. It does not (emphasis added) vest commissioners with discretion to do what they want after a vote of the people.”
Hatfield argues that “several Missouri statutes use similar language to that found in Section 67.1775 to grant a governing body authorization to impose a sales tax and similarly require the governing body to levy the tax after voter approval.”
Hatfield argues that language in state statute “authorizes Platte County to adopt the children’s services tax through a vote of the people, which is exactly what the Platte County voters did.”
“So the word ‘may’ is just a prelude to how the children’s services tax may be adopted. Focusing on the word ‘may’ in the beginning of the statute ignores what happens after a majority vote in favor of the children’s services tax occurs,” Hatfield writes in the lawsuit against the county commission and DOR.
“The word ‘shall’ appears 24 times in Section 67.1775,” Hatfield adds. “Generally, the word ‘shall’ connotes a mandatory duty.”
Members of the commission who voted not to begin the voter-approved tax were Fricker, second district commissioner Joe Vanover, and Dagmar Wood, who was first district commissioner at the time.
Wood left office on Dec. 31, replaced by the newly-elected Allyson Berberich.
Vanover did not respond to The Landmark’s request for comment on the filing of the lawsuit by proponents of the tax. KSHB TV-41 reported that Vanover gave the television station this quote:
“The radical left only cares about raising taxes and advancing their woke agenda. Instead of helping children, they are wasting money on lawyers. Groups like Beacon Mental Health and Feed Northland Kids are supposed to be charities, but they diverted thousands for a political campaign last election. It is disgusting when so-called charities raise money for children but spend it on lawsuits and politics.”
