Columbus “Admissions Tax” Will be in Court and on Ballot
1851 Center spearheads legal action to protect citizens from municipal “ticket taxes” on arts and entertainment that force funding of private art
Columbus, OH – The 1851 Center for Constitutional Law today moved to protect Ohioans from special city taxes on tickets to art, theater, movie, sports and other performances.
The non-profit legal center leads a broad coalition business owners and residents seeking to prohibited so-called “ticket taxes” through both a municipal charter amendment and targeted public-interest litigation.
In December 2018, Columbus City Council politicians imposed a five percent “admissions tax,” on art, entertainment, and event tickets effective July 1. The city’s ordinance directs all revenue collected from this tax to the privately-run Greater Columbus Arts Council.
“Funding private art and the operations of private art corporations is neither an essential nor proper function of government,” said 1851 Center Executive Director Maurice Thompson. “It is especially troubling when a city already awash in tax revenue funds purely-private causes and interests by imposing even higher taxes on residents,” explained 1851 Center Executive Director Maurice Thompson.
The charter amendment, drafted by the 1851 Center, will amend the Columbus Charter to provide “No person shall be compelled to pay, directly or indirectly, any tax or fee to gain entrance to any performance, place, association, or event in the City of Columbus.” Petitions must submit 11,030 valid signatures by July 3 to place the amendment on the November ballot.
The 1851 Center has also served city hall with a taxpayer demand letter on behalf of Columbus taxpayers and businesses who will be subject to the tax. If the City fails to take action within 30 days, the 1851 Center will sue on behalf of these businesses and taxpayers. The demand letter lays out the legal case against taxing some to fund the private art and art corporations of others:
- As the Supreme Court recently explained in Janus v. AFSCME, forcing citizens to fund the private political and “artistic” speech of a purely private corporation unconstitutionally compels citizens to support objectionable private speech.
- Taxing citizens to expressly fund a private corporation, with no strings attached, “raises money for a corporation,” which violates Article VIII of the Ohio Constitution.
- Taxing private expression that government disfavors, while exempting politically-connected special interests, only to use the funds to prop up competing private expression that government favors violates the both equal protection and freedom of expression guarantees.
“It’s inappropriate for government to pick winners and losers by taxing expression it views as too pedestrian, such as concerts, movies, and sports, to prop up sometimes-competing elitist artistic expression,” added Thompson. “People, not politicians or special interests, should assess and determine the value and worth of art.”
Read the 1851 Center’s Taxpayer Demand Letter HERE.
Read the 1851 Center’s proposed Charter Amendment forbidding “Admissions Taxes” HERE.
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