|
|
|
Washington wants pot tax trial in state court
Press Release |
2014/06/03 18:58
|
The state attorney general's office has asked a federal judge in Seattle to dismiss a lawsuit challenging Washington's authority to tax marijuana sales.
In the motion Friday to U.S. District Judge Marsha Pechman, the state says Martin Nickerson failed to appeal the tax assessments in a timely manner and that the issue should be resolved in state court.
The case arises from the state's attempt to collect sales taxes from a medical marijuana dispensary in Bellingham. Attorney Douglas Hiatt, who represents Nickerson, said it could throw a wrench in Washington's plans for collecting taxes on recreational marijuana, too.
The lawsuit challenges Washington state's authority to tax marijuana as long as marijuana remains illegal under federal law. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Court: Ohio overcharged employers for years
Press Release |
2014/05/16 21:33
|
The director of the state insurance fund for injured workers said Friday that he's disappointed with an unusually pointed appeals court decision that says the fund overcharged employers by hundreds of millions of dollars.
Steve Buehrer, Ohio Bureau of Workers' Compensation administrator and CEO, said the agency is considering its options.
Buehrer said he's pleased the court recognized that many businesses benefited from a program that put companies in group rating plans. But the court also said the plans resulted in nearly 300,000 companies being overcharged.
The 8th Ohio District Court of Appeals on Thursday said the plans amounted to an illegal rating system that resulted in employers being overcharged nearly $860 million over several years. It said the agency set up a system of winners and losers by giving discounted premiums to companies that joined group insurance plans and charging companies outside of the plans excessive rates to pay for the discounts.
"Reduced to its essence, this appeal is about a cabal of Ohio Bureau of Workers' Compensation bureaucrats and lobbyists for group sponsors who rigged workers' compensation insurance premium rates so that for employers who participated in the BWC's group rating plan, it was 'heads we win,' and for employers who did not participate in the group rating plan, it was 'tails you lose,'" the court said.
The court's unanimous ruling affects about 270,000 mostly small-business owners who paid non-group premiums from July 2001 to June 2009. Many are unaware they are covered by the class-action lawsuit that lead to the ruling. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Bankrupt Stockton defends financial plan in court
Press Release |
2014/05/13 18:24
|
The largest city in California to file for bankruptcy protection is asking a judge Monday to approve its plan for reorganizing more than $900 million in long-term debt to rescue the city from two years of financial uncertainty.
Standing in Stockton's way is Franklin Templeton Investments, which says the city is treating it unfairly. In 2009, Templeton loaned Stockton $35 million to build firehouses, parks and move its police dispatch center. Franklin says the city today is offering it $350,000.
The city has reached deals with all of its major creditors, except for Franklin, which is taking Stockton to a trial before U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Christopher Klein.
Stockton's bankruptcy attorney Marc Levinson recently told the City Council that he knows Franklin isn't happy. "We are choosing our battles and fighting where we have to fight and making deals where we can," Levinson said.
An inland port city 80 miles east of San Francisco, Stockton filed for Chapter 9 protection in 2012, making it the nation's largest bankrupt city before Detroit filed for bankruptcy last year. Vallejo went through bankruptcy before Stockton. San Bernardino filed shortly after Stockton, but it has yet to present an exit plan. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Casino law hinges on Massachusetts high court case
Press Release |
2014/05/05 21:08
|
The fate of casino gambling in Massachusetts may hinge on a case before the state's highest court Monday.
The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court is set to hear arguments in a case centered on whether a question should be allowed on the November ballot asking voters if they want the state's 2011 casino law repealed. The court is expected to issue a decision by July.
If allowed on the ballot, the referendum could upend the state's ongoing casino licensing process.
Gambling giants MGM, Wynn, Mohegan Sun and others have expressed concern they could lose millions of dollars they've invested in the planning, development and promotion of their proposals if the referendum prevails. They also argue the state risks losing much more.
"Jobs certainty and billions of dollars in economic development hang in the balance," said Carole Brennan, a spokeswoman for MGM, which has proposed an $800 million casino project in downtown Springfield. "The Gaming Act allows for the creation of more than 10,000 jobs and the recapture of billions of dollars in tax revenues that are currently leaving the state. It doesn't make sense to forgo those opportunities."
State Attorney General Martha Coakley, a Democrat running for governor this year, has ruled that the question violates the state constitution and shouldn't be allowed on the ballot. |
|
|
|
|
|
| Lawyer & Law Firm Websites |
|
|
Legal News RSS Feed
