County assessor filed petition seeking review of Missouri State Tax Commission’s decision that solar energy system was exempt from property taxes as a solar energy system not held for resale, or alternatively, for declaratory judgment that statute exempting solar energy systems not held for resale from property taxes violated constitutional provision limiting tax exemption to specifically-enumerated property.
County was joined as a plaintiff. Taxpayer filed counterclaim seeking declaratory judgment that prior tax assessments were void. The Circuit Court dismissed claim seeking judicial review of Commissioner’s decision, and entered declaratory judgment that exemption was constitutional and prior assessments were void. County and county assessor appealed.
The Supreme Court held that legislature did not have authority to enact statute exempting solar energy systems not held for resale from property taxes.
Constitutional provisions granting legislature authority to create subclasses of tangible personal property and fix tax rates for such subclasses did not implicitly permit legislature to enact statute exempting solar energy systems not held for resale from property taxes, since separate constitutional provision limited tax exemptions to specifically-enumerated property and explicitly stated that all non-enumerated exemptions were void, solar energy systems did not fall within any category of enumerated property, and permitting legislature to use its authority to fix tax rates to set 0% tax rate for any type of real or personal property would effectively create backdoor for tax exemptions not enumerated in constitution.