City of Hawarden v. US West Communications, Inc.

NEUMAN, Justice.

This appeal concerns the legality of a Ha-warden city ordinance that assesses a percentage-of-revenue fee for the use of public property, including utility rights-of-way. An affected utility, US West Communications, Inc., claimed the ordinance violates state and federal regulatory schemes governing telephone utilities, and the fee amounts to an unauthorized tax. The district court agreed with the utility and dismissed the city’s suit to enforce the fee. For the reasons that follow, we affirm.

The parties have stipulated to the operative facts. US West and its predecessors have…