Taxation-State and Local Commons^™

Pink Tax And Other Tropes, Bridget J. Crawford

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

Law reform advocates should be strategic in deploying tax tropes. Through an examination of five common tax phrases—the “nanny tax,” “death tax,” “soda tax,” “Black tax,” and “pink tax”—this Article demonstrates that tax rhetoric is more likely to influence law when used to describe specific economic injustices resulting from actual government duties, as opposed to figurative inequalities. In comparison, slogans describing figurative taxes are less likely to influence law and human behavior, even if they have descriptive force in both popular and academic literature as a short-hand for group-based disparities. This Article catalogues and evaluates what makes for effective tax …

The New Qui Tam: A Model For The Enforcement Of Group Rights In A Hostile Era, Myriam E. Gilles, Gary Friedman

Articles

The present Administration has made clear it has no interest in enforcing statutes designed to protect workers, consumers, voters, and others. And, as we have chronicled in prior work, the ability of private litigants to enforce these laws has been undercut by developments in the case law concerning class actions—particularly class-banning arbitration clauses. As these critical enforcement methods recede, will alternative methods of prosecuting claims arise? How might they work? Are they politically and fiscally sustainable? We focus here on a promising approach just now coming into view: qui tam legislation authorizing private citizens to bring representative claims on behalf …

Never Let A Good Crises Go To Waste, Richard Pomp

Faculty Articles and Papers

A problem with temporary tax study commissions is that by the time their findings are released, changes in the political environment may have rendered their suggestions worthless. Permanent standing commissions are needed. The temporary crisis of the current pandemic, an opportunity for tax reform, illustrates this point.

In this article, Professor Pomp argues for the creation of a permanent state body tasked with managing tax reform. It would perform research and analysis, educate legislatures about how current law operates, initiate proposals, and draft legislation. Being permanent, such a body would be proactive enough to respond to a temporary crisis.

In …

Introduction To Feminist Judgments: Rewritten Tax Opinions, Anthony C. Infanti, Bridget J. Crawford

Book Chapters

Could a feminist perspective change the shape of the tax law? Most people understand that feminist reasoning has tremendous potential to affect, for example, the law of employment discrimination, sexual harassment, and reproductive rights. Few people may be aware, however, that feminist analysis can likewise transform tax law (as well as other statutory or code-based areas of the law). By highlighting the importance of perspective, background, and preconceptions on the reading and interpretation of statutes, Feminist Judgments: Rewritten Tax Opinions shows what a difference feminist analysis can make to statutory interpretation. This volume, part of the Feminist Judgments Series, brings …

Hillenmeyer, "Convenience Of The Employer," And The Taxation Of Nonresidents' Incomes, Edward A. Zelinsky

Articles

In Hillenmeyer v. Cleveland Board of Review, Ohio’s Supreme Court unanimously declared that Cleveland’s municipal income tax violated the Due Process Clause of the U.S. Constitution by taxing a nonresident athlete under the “games-played” method rather than the “duty-days” method. According to the Ohio court, the games-played approach overtaxed Mr. Hillenmeyer by allocating to Cleveland Mr. Hillenmeyer’s compensation from the Chicago Bears using the percentage of the Bears’ games played in Cleveland. By this approach, Cleveland taxed Mr. Hillenmeyer extraterritorially, reaching income he earned from services he performed for the Bears outside of Cleveland’s borders. Due Process, the Ohio …

Lgbt Families, Tax Nothings, Anthony C. Infanti

Articles

The federal tax laws have never been friendly territory for LGBT families. Before the enactment of the federal Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), the federal tax laws turned a blind eye to the existence of LGBT families by tacitly embracing state law discrimination against same-sex couples. When it enacted DOMA in 1996, Congress ensured that it would be able to continue to turn a blind eye to LGBT families even if one or more states were to legally recognize families headed by same-sex couples. In a real sense, LGBT families have been, and continue to be, tax outlaws.

This overt …

The Judicial Instinct To Harmonize Statutes, Steve R. Johnson

Scholarly Publications

Judges like to reach results that harmonize statutory meanings, both meanings within given statutes and meanings among statutes. That inclination applies as fully in tax cases as in nontax cases, and in state and local tax cases as well as in federal tax cases. Effective advocates in state-local tax controversies recognize that judicial tropism and use it, whenever possible, in their clients’ interests.

Part I discusses the harmonization instinct generally. Part II illustrates application of the harmonization approach in state and local cases. Part III notes some limitations on and unsettled questions regarding the harmonization.

When General Statutes And Specific Statutes Conflict, Steve R. Johnson

Scholarly Publications

It’s no secret that the pace of lawmaking in the United States has accelerated dramatically in recent decades. So much so that one may be forgiven for thinking that the best law reform would be a moratorium on further law reform – - to give citizens, their legal representatives, and government officials the opportunity to catch up with the laws we already have made.

Legislatures, agencies, and courts all have made their contributions to the torrent of lawmaking. The phenomenon has been attributed to various causes, including growing populations, greater population densities as a result of urbanization, rapid technological changes, …

Legislative Rhetoric, Or How To Oppose Anything, Steve R. Johnson

Scholarly Publications

This installment of the column involves a change of focus. Instead of looking at the end of the legislative process – how courts interpret enacted statutes – this installment looks at the phase at which bills are enacted by or defeated in the legislature. However, the two phases have underlying similarities. As we will see, arguments used in legislative advocacy have counterparts in statutory interpretation advocacy. Our topic is particularly timely. Proposals to revise state and local tax statutes are always with us, of course, but recent budgetary stresses have increased both the number and significance of those proposals.

This …

Supertext And Consistent Meaning, Steve R. Johnson

Scholarly Publications

Opponents of textualism as an approach to statutory interpretation sometimes deride it as myopic. The textualist, those opponents contend, puts on blinders, narrowing the perhaps vast panorama of possible perspectives on meaning to a narrow slice of the whole. Modern textualists beg to differ. They view that criticism as reductionist and are often quick to distinguish textualism from mere literalism. Thus, the leading contemporary textualist jurist – U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia – cautions:

Textualism should not be confused with so-called strict constructionism, a degraded form of textualism that brings the whole philosophy into disrepute .... [T]he good textualist …

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The Two Kinds Of Legislative Intent, Steve R. Johnson

Scholarly Publications

What is a court trying to do when it interprets or applies a statute? This installment of my column looks at two different answers to that question, doing so through the lens of cases involving state and local tax statutes. Both approaches sometimes use the language of “intent,” so it becomes important for the state-local tax practitioner to understand, and to accommodate his or her arguments to the kind of intent that actually controls in the particular jurisdiction.

The first part describes the two approaches: subjective intent and objectified intent. The second part describes a middle position that some courts …

Interpreting State Tax Exemptions, Deductions, And Credits, Steve R. Johnson

Scholarly Publications

Modern tax statutes serve many purposes beyond simply raising revenue, and the contours of those statutes are shaped by many (and sometimes conflicting) economic, social, and political objectives. Legislatures choose a variety of structural mechanisms – including exemptions, deductions, and credits – to advance those policy goals. Sometimes those features are drafted with less than meticulous precision. Other times, business practices have evolved since enactment of the provisions. In either event, revenue agencies and courts are frequently required to interpret those provisions.

This installment of “Interpretation Matters” concerns one such principle of interpretation: The canon that exemptions, deductions, and credits …

Pro-Taxpayer Interpretation Of State-Local Laws, Steve R. Johnson

Scholarly Publications

Sometimes, from a taxpayer’s perspective, it is better to be challenging a state or local tax determination than a federal tax determination. One reason for that is the canon that “[tax] statutes are to be construed most favorably for the taxpayer.” Scores, if not hundreds, of federal tax cases espoused that principle, especially during the 1890s to 1940s. However, the principle fell into disuse at the federal level in ensuing decades and, indeed, was replaced by prorevenue canons. A seeming attempt to revivify the canon at the federal level earlier this decade appears to have withered on the vine. In …

Stormwater Utility Fees: Considerations & Options For Interlocal Stormwater Working Group (Iswg), New England Environmental Finance Center

Economics and Finance

Stormwater utilities are a concept whose time seems to have arrived. Established by relatively few communities in the 1970s as a method of funding flood control measures, stormwater utilities now exist in over 400 municipalities and counties throughout the United States. During the next 10 years, their numbers are expected to swell dramatically – by one estimate to over 2,000 by the year 2014.

The reasons for this growth are multifold. Federal stormwater regulations passed in the 1980s (Phase I of the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System Program, or NPDES), motivated many larger communities to seek alternative funding sources and …

The 2003 Revised Uniform Estate Tax Apportionment Act, Douglas A. Kahn

Articles

Editors' Synopsis: This Article describes the significant sections of the 2003 Uniform Estate Tax Apportionment Act (the "2003 Uniform Act'). The Article explains the purpose and operation of the 2003 Uniform Act's various sections and notes some of the differences between the 2003 Uniform Act and its prior version.

A California Flat Tax For Real Middle Class Relief, Assembly Republican Caucus Office Of Policy Research

California Assembly

No abstract provided.

Allocation Of Sales Tax And Other Local Government Revenues: Developing Workable Incentives For Balanced Development, Assembly Committee On Local Government

California Assembly

No abstract provided.

Report Of The Senate Commission On Property Tax Equity And Revenue To The California State Senate, Senate Commission On Property Tax Equity And Revenue

California Senate

No abstract provided.

Proposition 136 "Taxpayers Right To Vote" - Analysis Of Issues And Provisions, Senate Revenue And Taxation Committee, Senate Local Government Committee, Assembly Local Government Committee

California Joint Committees

No abstract provided.

Overview Of Current Court Challenges To Proposition 13 And Its Implementing Laws: Assessment Of Similar Properties And Revenue Allocation To Local Agencies, Assembly Revenue And Taxation Committee

California Assembly

No abstract provided.

Land Use And Local Revenue Sharing: Playing The Zero-Sum Game, Senate Committee On Local Government, Assembly Committee On Local Government

California Joint Committees

No abstract provided.

Proposition 99 And The Tax On Other Tobacco Products, Joint Legislative Budget Committee

California Joint Committees

No abstract provided.

Overview Of California's Income Tax Laws: The Personal Income Tax And The Bank And Corporation Tax, Assembly Revenue And Taxation Committee

California Assembly

As Enacted by AB 53 (Kiehs) and SB 572 (Garamendi) of 1987, The California Tax Fairness, Simplification and Conformity Act of 1987; and SB 85 (Alquist) of 1986, California Unitary Reform and Modified by 1988 Legislation

Mineral Leasing In Indian Country, Reid Peyton Chambers

Natural Resource Development in Indian Country (Summer Conference, June 8-10)

9 pages.

Contains footnotes.

The Industry Perspective: The Pros And Cons Of Mineral Development In Indian Country, William A. White

Natural Resource Development in Indian Country (Summer Conference, June 8-10)

17 pages.

The Governmental Context For Development In Indian Country: Modern Tribal Institutions And The Bureau Of Indian Affairs, Susan M. Williams

Natural Resource Development in Indian Country (Summer Conference, June 8-10)

26 pages.

Agenda: Natural Resource Development In Indian Country, University Of Colorado Boulder. Natural Resources Law Center

Natural Resource Development in Indian Country (Summer Conference, June 8-10)

Conference organizers and/or faculty included University of Colorado School of Law professors David H. Getches, Charles F. Wilkinson, Lawrence J. MacDonnell and Richard B. Collins.

Indian reservations constitute about 2.5% of all land in the country and 5% of all land in the American West. During the last two decades, Indian natural resources issues have moved to the forefront as tribal governments have dramatically expanded their regulatory programs, judicial systems. and resource development activities. This major symposium will address current developments and assess likely future directions in the areas of tribal, federal, and state regulation; tribal-state intergovernmental agreements; financing; mineral …

A State Bond Pooling Authority For California: Pipe Dream Or Reality?, Senate Committee On Local Government

California Senate

No abstract provided.

Proposition 13, Ten Years Later, Joint Legislative Budget Committee

California Joint Committees

No abstract provided.

The Use Of Benefit Assessments Since Proposition 13, Senate Committee On Local Government

California Senate

No abstract provided.