ICMA signed onto an amicus curiae brief filed by State and Local Legal Center (SLLC) in the Supreme Court which argued that the city of Indianapolis didn’t violate the Equal Protection Clause when it forgave the assessments of homeowners who paid for sewer improvements in multi-year installments but issued no refunds to homeowners who paid for the same improvements in a lump sum. The Supreme Court held 6-3 that the city did not violate equal protection because it had a rational basis—administrative considerations—for distinguishing between lot owners who already paid for their share of the sewer improvements and those who had not.

When the city moved from one method of financing sewer improvements to another method, it forgave the debt of homeowners who paid for their sewer improvements in installments but gave no refund to lump sum payers. Lump sum payers sued arguing the city violated the U.S. Constitution’s Equal Protection Clause. Distinctions in tax classifications comply with the Equal Protection Clause if they have a rational basis. 

Justice Breyer, writing for the majority, concluded that administrative considerations—in maintaining an administrative system that would collect debt for up to 30 years, for 20-plus construction projects, with monthly payments as low as $25 per month—provided a rational basis for distinguishing between those that had paid their assessments in full and those that had not. Citing the SLLC’s brief, the Court pointed out if the city failed to forgive installment payers’ debt it would have to “keep files on old, small, installment-plan debts, and (a city official says) possibly spend hundreds of thousands of dollars keeping computerized debut-tracking systems current.” 

Jon Laramore and Scott Chinn of Faegre Baker Daniels in Indianapolis, Indiana, wrote the SLLC’s brief. The SLLC’s brief was also signed onto by the National Association of Counties, the National Conference of State Legislatures, the National League of Cities, and the United States Conference of Mayors.

Visit the SLLC’s website at http://www.statelocallc.org/ to download a copy of the brief and to read the Court’s opinion.