Yesterday, the US Supreme Court denied requests to review either the Baltimore or Cincinnati billboard tax cases.

Billboard Insider’s take: 

• Ohio billboard companies win because an Ohio state supreme court decision to invalidate a selective billboard tax is upheld.
• Maryland billboard companies lose because the Maryland court of appeals (highest court in Maryland) upheld the selective Baltimore billboard tax.  The Maryland impact, however, will be muted because most Maryland cities severely restrict billboards.
• Lawyers win because a selective billboard tax will almost certainly be litigated in every other state in which it is tried due to the split state legal precedents and the lack of Supreme Court ruling.

Kerry Yoakum, SVP of Government Affairs at the OAAA says this:

In both instances, requests for the Court to consider the cases, petitions for certiorari, were denied.  While this might close the most recent chapter of industry activity before the U.S. Supreme Court, our fight for industry fairness and our strong support for the industry will certainly continue and may lead us back in the future as these state courts came to vastly different conclusions regarding the targeted taxation of billboards.

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