Forbes.com
By TIM TALLEY, Associated Press
06.27.11, 07:02 PM EDT
OKLAHOMA CITY -- The Oklahoma Supreme Court Monday declined to consider a lawsuit that challenges the Legislature's plan to transfer $101.7 million in state fuel tax revenue to state agencies that are not involved in road and bridge construction and maintenance.
The decision by the nine-member court clears the way for the money to be transferred from a state transportation fund to help fill a $500 million hole in the state budget for the fiscal year that begins Friday.
The lawsuit, filed on June 8 by Oklahoma City attorney Jerry Fent, alleged that transferring fuel taxes to agencies not involved in transportation is unconstitutional because the state Constitution says "no tax levied and collected for one purpose shall ever be devoted to another purpose."
But an order signed by Chief Justice Steven Taylor says the state's highest court would not assume original jurisdiction of the lawsuit. It indicates all nine of the court's justices concurred in the decision.
"The events of which the petitioner complains are neither factually established, nor in any case perceptibly contrary to the Oklahoma Constitution," the two-paragraph order states... FULL ARTICLE
Posted on
Mon, June 27, 2011
by John Cox