Sproul v. State Tax Commission

The constitutionality of a part of the legislative design for forest fire protection in eastern Oregon is the issue in this case. The statute attacked levies an assessment of one cent per acre on those lands in eastern Oregon which the legislature found present a special fire hazard. The fund raised by this levy is used for the payment of fire protection and suppression costs.

The trial court decided that the one-cent-per-acre levy was an exercise of the state’s taxing power. It held that it was a property tax and it was invalid because it was not assessed upon an ad valorem basis.

The statute…