Hoover Alabama Legal News:

The Alabama Supreme Court reversed itself Friday and ruled illegal a 10-cent tax on tobacco products levied by some Jefferson County cities.

"I think the Supreme Court got it right on the legality of the tax," said lawyer Pete Short, who filed a lawsuit seeking to get the tax overturned. "The law was clear that cities in Jefferson County could not tax tobacco products."

The high court ruled that money collected under the tax by Bessemer, Hoover and Hueytown - about $1.8 million - go to Cooper Green Hospital after a third of the sum is awarded in attorney fees.

With regard to money collected by Trussville, Mountain Brook and Homewood, the court ordered Bessemer Circuit Judge Dan King to either dismiss the case against them, or transfer the case to the Birmingham division for a judge there to make a ruling. The court ruled that King - who presides in the Bessemer Cutoff - had no jurisdiction over the cities in the Birmingham division.

Efforts to reach King on Friday were unsuccessful.

King's dismissing the case would mean those cities would get the money they've collected. Transferring the case to Birmingham would mean the money would remain in escrow until a Birmingham judge, in essence, concurs in the Supreme Court's ruling. If a Birmingham judge rules that those cities illegally collected the tax, it's unclear what happens to the money the cities have collected.

Since January 2004, a 10-cent tax on cigarettes and other tobacco products has been collected in those Jefferson County cities. State Sen. E.B. McClain filed a lawsuit, claiming the tax was illegal. His lawsuit asked that the money collected go to Cooper Green Hospital for the treatment of tobacco-related illnesses.

A total of about $2.1 million has been collected in tobacco taxes. The money has been held by the circuit court clerk in Bessemer.

King ruled the tobacco tax illegal in August 2004. The cities appealed the ruling and the Supreme Court reversed King's ruling. Short, McClain's lawyer, filed a motion asking the court to review its decision. Short argued that a 1947 law repealed all tobacco taxes and barred cities in Jefferson County from taxing tobacco. The cities countered that the law barred taxation by requiring the affixation of a stamp. The cities said the tax is valid if it did not require a tax stamp.

Civil appeals Judge Tommy Bryan participated in reviewing the case after Justice Tom Parker recused himself. Parker, one of the justices who originally ruled the tax was legal, stepped down from the case in February because he was related to one of the lawyers representing Hueytown.

Hoover collected a little over $800,000, the most of any of the cities, according to court records. Bessemer collected $591,800, the second highest amount.

Hoover, Alabama

Hoover, Alabama

City flag	City seal
Location of Hoover, Alabama
County	Jefferson County Shelby County
Area  - Total  - Water	113.1 km² (43.7 mi²) 0.5 km² (1.3 mi²) 1.17%
Population  - Total (2000)  - Metropolitan  - Density	62,742 1,052,238 561.7/km²
Time zone	Central: UTC–6
Location	33°23′11″N, 86°48′18″W
Mayor	Tony Petelos
City website

Hoover is a city in Jefferson and ShelbyAlabama, in the United States. A suburb of Birmingham, the population of the city was 62,742 as of the 2000 (census) and was estimated to be 67,469 in 2005. Hoover is now one of the three primary cities in the Birmingham-Hoover-Cullman Combined Statistical Area, consisting of the Birmingham-Hoover metropolitan statistical area and the Cullmanmicropolitan area. Hoover’s neighborhoods and planned communitiesAppalachian Mountains.

Hoover is home to the Riverchase Galleria, which is one of the largest shopping centers in the Southeast and Alabama's most visited tourist destination. Also, it is one of the largest mixed-used centers in the country (around 2 million in square footage). The anchors of this shopping center are JCPenney, Parisian, Belk, Macy's, and Sears. ^[1]

The Birmingham Barons minor league baseball team, which traces its history to 1885, plays its home games at the 10,800 seat Hoover Metropolitan Stadium.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia