State ex rel. Brewster v. Cumiskey

Citations

• 97 Kan. 343
• 155 P. 47
• 1916 Kan. LEXIS 296

Syllabus

<p>SYLLABUS BY THE COURT.</p> <p>Oil Inspection — Oil Inspection Fee Invalid — Inspection Fees Paid-under Protest to be Returned. The fee of ten cents per barrel chargeable for the inspection of kerosene, gasoline, benzine, and other petroleum products, under section 8 of chapter 200 of the Laws of 1913, is clearly and grossly in excess of the amount reasonably necessary to effectuate the lawful purposes of the act. At the time of its enactment, and ever since that time, the law was, and has been, depended on by the executive and legislative departments of the state government as a revenue measure to bring to the state treasury large sums of money in known excess of the cost of administering the law as an inspection law. The legislature of 1915, although cognizant of the facts and although of the opinion that three cents per barrel was an adequate inspection fee, failed to change the law. The fee is charged and collected for revenue purposes and not merely to defray the cost of inspection. Therefore, that-portion of section 8 fixing the fee at ten cents per barrel as an inspection fee is void. Section 1 of article 11 of the constitution requiring a uniform and equal rate of assessment and taxation forbids collection of the fee as a property tax, and no other provision of law authorizes collection of the fee. ■'</p>