Taxpayers Win = Taxpayers Loss

Time for another story about taxpayers getting the shaft.

Last week the Iowa Supreme Court ruled in favor of the plantiff in a nearly 8-year old suit against the city of Des Moines.  In short, the court reaffirmed decisions previously made at lower judiciary level that the city had illegally charged citizens a franchise fee on their utility bills.

In the end, the city has been ordered to refund $9 million.  Case closed (after 8 years) right?

Um, maybe not.  Des Moines' city 'leaders' are considering spending even more money on their lost cause to appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court, which almost certainly will not hear the case because it doesn't have enough widespread application.

And regardless, the city council is making it clear that they will ultimately recoup the funds from taxpayers anyway, by using some other tax source to fund the $9 million from those same tax-ees.  So the taxpayers win the lawsuit after being screwed, and the reward is to get screwed a second time.

In other words, Des Moines' city 'leaders' aren't even going to make an effort to find a way to minimize the impact of their mistake by stopping their legal appeals, or god forbid, reducing expenses.  There is something so fundamentally wrong with this, it's no wonder fringe groups like the Tea Party can gain popular support.

At least props go to the district court judge who's original order was upheld by the Iowa Supreme Court.  When the city argued that the fee should be upheld because not doing so would have the same impact on taxholders, here's what he wrote in his ruling:

“The court disagrees with the City’s position that equity mandates there be no refund to the class. If the court was to accept the City’s position no refund under the City’s benefit/no detriment argument the court would be sending a message to all cities in Iowa that as long as cities use funds from the illegal taxation for the good and honorable purposes, the taxpayers don’t have anything to complain about and have no right to a refund of the funds illegally collected. The City’s position in this regard is not supported by any just, fair or equitable principle. The court should not and will not send such a message."

Along with the plaintiff, he's the warrior for the taxpayers.