In mid-November 2013, the Missouri Supreme Court ruled that the St. Louis Metropolitan Sewer District (MSD) stormwater fee is actually a tax, which violates the state's constitution because it was established without voter approval. The court opinion states, "A tax by any other name remains a tax. It cannot be transformed into a user fee by adept packaging any more than a zoologist can transform a horse into a zebra with a bucket of paint. Here, no matter how many stripes MSD paints on it, the stormwater user charge is not a user fee." The stormwater fee, based on impervious surface area and established in 2008, was intended to help the sewer district raise nearly $60 million per year to address stormwater budget shortfalls.
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