Jack Bogdanski Sues City of Portland Over Arts Tax

Blogger known as Bojack calls $35 tax unconstitutional

Jack Bogdanski
By AARON MESH

Lewis & Clark Law School professor and blogger Jack Bogdanski has filed a lawsuit against the City of Portland in Oregon Tax Court, alleging the city's $35 arts tax violates the state constitution.

Bogdanski's lawsuit, obtained today by WW, was filed on March 7.

It's the only lawsuit pending against the arts tax, according to a tax court clerk in Salem.

Bogdanski's suit asks the tax court to find the arts tax violates a constitutional ban on a head tax or poll tax.

He also asks the state to bar the city from ever collecting the arts tax from Bogdanski, and to provide him with "additional relief as the court may deem appropriate."

The city is already trying to change the language of the tax, passed in November, to make it more clearly like an income tax. Mayor Charlie Hales announced today he's asking City Council to pass an emergency ordinance to change the arts tax by raising the minimum annual earnings above $1,000. Hales called the current standards "silly."

Bogdanski has not discussed filing a suit on his blog, though he has dropped hints. Today he wrote that "at least one lawsuit over (the arts tax) issue has already been filed."

Here's an image of the lawsuit:

 

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