The Official Site of the 1851 Center for Constitutional Law
The Drees Company v. Hamilton Township
February 1, 2010, the 1851 Center filed an amicus brief with the Twelfth District Court Appeals, arguing that Ohio townships, which do not have the power to levy taxes, cannot levy back-door taxes on new homeowners and developers merely by labeling those taxes as “impact fees.”
In August 2009, the 1851 Center drafted ballot language that was adopted by Citizens United to Eliminate Ohio’s Estate Tax for an Initiated Statute effort. If successful, the measure will eliminate the Ohio Estate Tax as of 2012. The Ohio Attorney General has approved the language and the group is now collecting the needed signatures to place the issue before the general assembly.
Download a petition here.
Learn more about the effort to eliminate the estate tax here.
On May 26 the Buckeye Institute’s 1851 Center for Constitutional Law filed an amicus brief before the Ohio Supreme Court on behalf of the Ohio Grocer’s Association. The Brief argues that because the Ohio Constitution prohibits a sales tax on food, because Ohio’s Commercial Activities Tax taxes grocers based upon the amount of food they sell, and because Ohio grocers, like any business, pass the tax on to Ohio consumers, the CAT, as applied to food, is an unconstitutional sales tax on food.
View the Amicus Brief here.
In May 2009, the 1851 Center filed an amicus brief in Ohio Grocers Association v. Wilkins. The brief argues that Ohio’s Commercial Activities Tax is an unconstitutional excise tax on food. It is levied on Ohio grocers based on the amount of food they sell and grocers then pass the cost of the tax on to Ohioans when they purchase food. The 1851 Center was recruited by the principal attorneys for the Ohio Grocers Association and worked in tandem with the Tax Foundation to explain the economics of the tax to the Supreme Court of Ohio. Unfortunately the Supreme Court of Ohio recently overturned the Court of Appeals and ruled against the Ohio Grocers.
