State Tax Discrimination Supreme Court Brief Amici Curiae of INGAA 7-14-08

 

On July 14, 2008, INGAA and the Council on State Taxation sumitted a brief Amici Curiae in Support of Petitioner, Columbia Gas Transmission Corporation in Columbia Gas Transmission Corporation v. Richard A. Levin, Tax Commissioner of Ohio, No. 07-1554. 

The question presented in the case is whether an Ohio tax that levies a rate more than three times higher on interstate natural gas pipeline property than on property that belongs to local natural gas distribution companies violates the Commerce Clause bar against discriminatory taxes, and undermines federal natural gas policy, where the interstate and local companies offer directly competing services in some (but not all) of the markets in which they operate.