HomeMy Public PortalAboutExhibit MSD 30Q - Legal Summary in Response to Question 17MEMORANDUM
To: Rate Commission
From: Susan Myers 01
Re: Legal Summary In Response to Question 17 of the Rate Commission's 151 Discovery
Request
Date: March 22, 2018
MSD was created under Article VI, § 30(b) of the Missouri Constitution. Upon approval by the voters,
MSD's Charter "shall become the organic law of the territory ... and shall take the place of and
supersede all laws, charter provisions and ordinances inconsistent therewith relating to said territory."
Mo. Const. art. VI, § 30(b). The powers granted by § 30(b) are "immune from legislative interference"
because they were intentionally and expressly conferred by constitutional amendment. State ex inf.
Dalton v. Dearing, 263 S.W.2d 381, 386 (Mo. bane 1954); Gluck v. Terminal R.R. Ass '17 of St. Louis, 702
S.W.2d 476 (Mo. banc 1986) (state statute upheld because it was not "inconsistent" with MSD's
applicable rules). The superseding effect of the MSD Charter is similar to and "even greater than" the
constitutional provisions allowing home rule in certain counties under Article VI, Section 18, which
supersedes statutes relating to "matter[s] of local concern." See State ex inf. Dalton v. Metropolitan St.
Louis Sewer Dist., 275 S.W.2d 225, 228 (Mo. bane 1955); State ex rel. St. Louis County v. Campbell, 498
S.W.2d 833, 836 (Mo. App. 1973).
MSD's Charter allows the District to assess any charge, fee, or tax that is necessary to carry out its
obligations of providing sewer and drainage services. Under Charter § 3.020(1), MSD has the broad,
general powers:
To have jurisdiction, control, possession, and supervision of such sewer and drainage
systems and facilities as are placed under its jurisdiction by the provisions of this Plan, or
may hereafter be placed under its jurisdiction in the manner herein provided; to maintain,
operate, reconstruct, and improve the same as a comprehensive sewer and drainage
system, and to make additions, betterments, and extensions thereto; to protect the public
health and welfare by preventing or abating the pollution of water; and to have all the
rights, privileges, and jurisdiction necessary or proper for carrying such powers into
execution. No enumeration of powers in this Plan shall operate to restrict the meaning of
this general grant of power or to exclude other powers comprehended within this general
grant.
More specifically, under Charter § 3.020(16), MSD has the power "[t]o establish by ordinance a schedule
or schedules of rates, rentals, and other charges, to be collected from all the real property served by the
sewer facilities of the District, whether public or private, and to prescribe the manner in which and time at
which such rates, rentals, and charges are to be paid, and to change such schedule or schedules from time
to time as the Board may deem necessary, proper, or advisable, and to collect or enforce collection of all
such charges." If a statutory exemption were to be applied to the stormwater capital rate it would create a
clear inconsistency between the two provisions. In which case the Charter would supersede. Finally,
under Charter § 3.020(20), MSD has the power "[t]o levy, assess, and collect taxes on all taxable property
within the District or a subdistrict ...."