UMB Bank, N.A., et al. v. Landmark Towers Association, Inc.

It is a long-standing principle of this Court that the Due Process Clause does not require a specific benefit to taxpayers who are levied a general tax for funding government services or public improvements. Based on this principle, local governments in Colorado and throughout the country have funded public infrastructure through the creation of infrastructure taxing districts, which sell municipal bonds that are repaid by general ad valorem property taxes imposed on residents of the districts. Relying on an unusual fact pattern in this Court’s century-old decision in Myles Salt v. Board of Commissioners, 239 U.S. 478 (1916) (“Myles Salt”), the Colorado Court of Appeals jeopardized this crucial financing mechanism by concluding that the Due Process Clause requires taxpayers within a public infrastructure taxing district to derive a special benefit from the general ad valorem property tax imposed. The question presented is: Should the Court remove the cloud over local governments and the national public finance industry by overruling or clarifying Myles Salt to confirm that the Due Process Clause does not require general ad valorem property taxes imposed by an infrastructure taxing district to provide a special benefit to taxpayers within the district?