Tanque Verde Enterprises v. City of Tucson

691 P.2d 310, 142 Ariz. 544, 1983 Ariz. App. LEXIS 735
CourtCourt of Appeals of Arizona
DecidedDecember 30, 1983
Docket2 CA-CIV 4781
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 691 P.2d 310 (Tanque Verde Enterprises v. City of Tucson) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Arizona primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Tanque Verde Enterprises v. City of Tucson, 691 P.2d 310, 142 Ariz. 544, 1983 Ariz. App. LEXIS 735 (Ark. Ct. App. 1983).

Opinions

OPINION

HOWARD, Chief Judge.

This is an appeal by the city challenging the trial court's finding that Section 19-28(149) of the Tucson Code, imposing an occupational license tax on swap meet proprietors, was confiscatory and unconstitutional. Appellee, Tanque Verde Enterprises (Tanque Verde), has cross-appealed from the trial court’s finding that a subsequent version of the above ordinance is valid and constitutional.

Tanque Verde conducts a swap meet on Tanque Verde Road in Tucson. It rents spaces to vendors from which they display and sell their wares. On April 7, 1981, the land on which the meet is located was annexed into the city, thus subjecting Tanque Verde to Section 19-28(149) of the Tucson Code which required Tanque Verde to pay to the city each month as an occupational license tax $1 per vendor space plus 2 per cent of its gross receipts, exclusive of the $1.

Shortly after the annexation, on June 1, 1981, Tucson Code Section 19-28(149) was repealed and a new Section 19-28(149) was enacted. The new section required a swap meet proprietor to pay an occupational license tax in the sum of 4 per cent of its gross receipts.

Tanque Verde paid, under protest, the occupational license tax for the period April 7, 1981, to April 30, 1981, ($5,343.12) and for the month of May ($8,909.11). The city contends that Tanque Verde failed to sustain its burden of proving the original ordinance was unconstitutional, that Tanque Verde’s evidence was speculative and that the trial court’s findings were clearly erroneous.

Tanque Verde disagrees and seeks to support the judgment by asserting that the ordinance was invalid for other reasons which we shall discuss later in this opinion.

There can be no doubt that the City of Tucson has the authority to impose an occupational license tax. See Chapter IV, Section 1(18) of the Tucson City Charter. Therefore, the test is not whether the tax was reasonable, but whether or not it was prohibitory, or, to put it another way, the test is whether the rates will annihilate the whole business and not just any given firm. Kaufman v. City of Tucson, 6 Ariz.App. 429, 433 P.2d 282 (1967). Those and only those occupations which are subject to regulation under the police power and of a character that may be absolutely prohibited may be taxed to the point of prohibition. Martin v. Nocero Ice Cream Company, 269 Ky. 151, 106 S.W.2d 64 (1937); City of Louisville v. Koehler, 264 S.W.2d 80 (Ky.App.1954). The occupation of being a swap meet operator is not one that can be absolutely prohibited. Therefore, if the tax imposed here was prohibitory, it violated the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution. See Magnano Company v. Hamilton, 292 U.S. 40, 54 S.Ct. 599, 78 L.Ed. 1109 (1934).

This brings us to the question of the burden of proof. The party attacking a license tax has the burden of proving it to be confiscatory. Bellington v. Township of East Windsor, 108 A.2d 179, 32 N.J.Super. 243 (1954). A tax is presumed to be [546]*546constitutional and the trial court must be satisfied beyond a reasonable doubt that it is unconstitutional in order to so hold. J. C. Penney Company v. Arizona Department of Revenue, 125 Ariz. 469, 610 P.2d 471 (App.1980).

What was the evidence in this case which led the trial court to conclude the original licensing ordinance was invalid? Appellee’s accountant testified that if it had to pay the tax for the months of April and May, it would sustain a net loss and if the tax had continued throughout the year it would have had a net loss for the whole year. Appellee’s vice president, Mr. Weaver, testified that during the time in question, the average charge per vendor per day was $5.50, that he asked the vendors whether they would be willing to pay one more dollar and they said they would not. Appellee absorbed the $1 rather than pass it on to the vendors. Mr. Weaver once tried to charge for valet parking for two spaces at fifty cents each space but people would not pay for it because they could still park in the back of the area free of charge.

An economist testified that since Mr. Weaver was a good businessman, he assumed that appellee was maximizing its profits which meant that if it passed the $1 tax along to the vendors, they would not pay it and revenues would decrease by 20% thus causing appellee to have to close his business. It was his opinion that the tax was confiscatory.

The evidence disclosed that appellee was the only swap meet in town at the time of trial. There was another one in existence which was incorporated into the city by the annexation but it failed shortly thereafter.

The trial court made the following findings of fact which were critical to its decision:

(8) That the Swap Meet tried to raise income by charging parking fees and raising fees, but this was not effective; * * * * * *
(10) That the expert economist stated that the tax imposed as an occupational license fee as required by the Tucson Code, Section 19-28(149) would annihilate the swap meet business. He further stated that a tax which taxed a vendor at $1 per vendor’s space per day, or fraction thereof, plus 2% of the gross receipts, was a confiscatory tax, and the Court accepts this uncontroverted opinion as fact; ...”

As for finding of fact No. 8, it is clearly erroneous. The swap meet never tried to raise the fees. All Mr. Weaver did was to take a survey as his vendors came in the gate and went around the swap meet listening to them talk. There was absolutely no evidence that appellee ever actually tried to collect the tax. As for the parking fees, the only evidence was the attempt to charge for valet parking. This attempt did not show appellee tried to raise fees by charging for parking.

The testimony of the expert witness was based on sheer conjecture. The theory of “maximizing profits” may have its place in economic theory but it is not the sort of material out of which one can build an attack upon the constitutionality of a taxing statute. The attacker needs concrete facts and not speculation. See Foster Trading Corporation v. Luckett, 303 S.W.2d 315 (Ky.App.1957). Appellees entire case was based upon the assumption that it could not pass the tax on to its vendors. There was nothing more than that, an assumption. As observed by the courts in Foster Trading Corporation v. Luckett, supra, and Bellington v. Township of East Windsor, supra, in the absence of an attempt to comply with the ordinance, any contention as to its effect is necessarily speculative.1

Appellee asking the vendors if they would pay another $1 if demanded does not constitute an attempt to pass on the tax. Appellee failed to show beyond a reasonable doubt that the ordinance was confiscatory and thereby unconstitutional.

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Related

Tanque Verde Enterprises v. City of Tucson
691 P.2d 302 (Arizona Supreme Court, 1984)
Tanque Verde Enterprises v. City of Tucson
691 P.2d 310 (Court of Appeals of Arizona, 1983)

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Bluebook (online)
691 P.2d 310, 142 Ariz. 544, 1983 Ariz. App. LEXIS 735, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/tanque-verde-enterprises-v-city-of-tucson-arizctapp-1983.