Adkins v. Capehart

(Filed July 16, 1998)

In 1995, in the predecessor case to the instant case, the United Mine Workers of America, the West Virginia Education Association, the West Virginia Citizen Action Group and the West Virginia Environmental Council joined with several individual citizens to assert the claim that West Virginia’s present system for valuing, assessing and taxing coal reserves is unconstitutional.

This is not an abstract issue. These plaintiffs have a lot at stake in the taxation of coal reserves. Unconstitutionally low taxation of coal reserves means less money for public education, for…