Tag: billboard tax

Cincinnati Asks Supreme Court to Review Cincy Tax Case

Cincinnati has petitioned the US Supreme Court to  review the issue of whether a municipal excise tax on billboards abridges freedom of speech.  The Ohio State Supreme Court ruled that a billboard tax infringed on the first amendment rights of a small group of speakers.  A Maryland Supreme Court ruled […]

Maryland Court of Appeals Upholds Baltimore Billboard Tax

The highest court in Maryland upheld a billboard tax enacted in 2013 by the Baltimore City Council.  It was a 6-1 decision.  You can read the decision here. The original Ordinance required a tax, assessed annually based on the size and type of display: $15 per square foot for an […]

Ohio Supreme Court to Hear Billboard-tax Case

Insider has been tracking two significant tax cases in Cincinnati and Baltimore. The Supreme Court of Ohio accepted an appeal of the legal challenge to Cincinnati’s targeted tax on billboards. In June, 2018, the City of Cincinnati enacted a billboard tax as part of a last-minute “emergency” measure to help […]

Cincy Billboard Tax Case Setback

Yesterday a three judge court of appeals in Hamilton County Ohio reinstated the Cincinnati billboard tax by a 3-0 vote.  A lower court had blocked the tax on a first amendment challenge in October 2018. The Ohio court explained the decision as follows:  “The city’s billboard tax applies to billboards […]

Billboard Tax Cases Worth Watching

The Maryland Court of Appeals will review a challenge to Baltimore’s Billboard tax.  Clear Channel Outdoor has asked courts to overturn a tax at the rate of $15 per square foot for digital billboards and $5 per square foot on other billboards.  Clear Channel Outdoor says the tax is constitutionally […]

Mike Norton on the Cincinnati Billboard Tax

In June 2018 the city of Cincinnati passed a 7% tax on billboard revenues.  Lamar and Norton Outdoor got the tax blocked in court.  The case is on appeal.  On Wednesday’s Billboard Insider podcast Insider asked Mike Norton what he learned from that experience: I would like to think that […]

Injunction against Cincinnati Billboard Tax is Permanent

The court injunction blocking Cincinnati’s billboard tax is now permanent. On November 9, a judge in Cincinnati converted his preliminary injunction to a permanent injunction. In his seven-page entry, the judge also criticized the legal theory used to uphold a billboard tax in Baltimore.  A circuit court in Maryland recently […]

Baltimore Judge: Billboards are not “Speech”

Clear Channel Outdoor plans to appeal an adverse court decision in Baltimore that says the city’s targeted tax on billboards does not harm free speech. Clear Channel has challenged Baltimore’s billboard tax, which is based on square footage, since it was imposed in 2013. On February 27, 2018, a Maryland […]

Billboard Tax Collection Overreach

A side story to the now overturned Cincinnati billboard tax was the tax’s draconian enforcement provisions: The billboard tax was imposed on an “advertising host” which was defined to mean “any person who owns or controls an outdoor advertising sign, including the persons agent, affiliate, employee or other representative who […]

Judge Blocks Cincy Billboard Tax Citing First Amendment

CINCINNATI, OH (October 17) – Court of Common Pleas Judge Curt C. Hartman today invalidated Cincinnati’s new excise tax on billboards as a burden on speech protected by the First Amendment. “Government may not single out and direct or target a tax solely at the exercise of First Amendment rights […]