The Kansas Court of Appeals today tossed out the Mission, Kan., transportation user fee, ruling it was an excise tax not permitted by the Kansas Legislature.
Mission, Kan., had collected a transportation user fee on all improved real estate and used it on public street maintenance. If the owner did not pay the fee, the city imposed late fees, interest and attached a lien on the real estate.
Two landowner associations in Mission filed suit to overturn the tax.
The appeals court held the fee was a tax because it was a forced payment by all improved landowners, used for governmental service.
According to the ruling, the Kansas Legislature has prohibited cities from imposing excise taxes, with five exceptions. The court stated this was not one of the exceptions.
“We hold the transportation user fee enacted by the city of Mission is an excise tax banned by law and is therefore void,” the appeals court ruled.
The court’s decision is at http://www.kscourts.org/Cases-and-Opinions/opinions/CtApp/2015/20150702/111521.pdf.