Montana, like many other States, imposes a severance tax on mineral production in the State. In this appeal, we consider whether the tax Montana levies on each ton of coal mined in the State, Mont. Code Ann. § 15-35-101 et seq. (1979), violates the Commerce and Supremacy Clauses of the United States Constitution.
I
Buried beneath Montana are large deposits of low-sulfur coal, most of it on federal land. Since 1921, Montana has imposed a severance tax on the output of Montana coal mines, including coal mined on federal land. After commissioning a study of coal production taxes in 1974, see House Resolutions Nos. 45 and 93, Senate Resolution No. 83, 1974 Mont. Laws 1619-1620, 1653-1654, 1683-1684 (Mar. 14 and
Appellants, 4 Montana coal producers and 11 of their out-of-state utility company customers, filed these suits in Montana state court in 1978. They sought refunds of over $5.4 million in severance taxes paid under protest, a declaration that the tax is invalid under the Supremacy and Commerce Clauses, and an injunction against further collection of the tax. Without receiving any evidence, the court upheld the tax and dismissed the complaints.
On appeal, the Montana Supreme Court affirmed the judgment of the trial court. — Mont.—, 615 P.2d 847 (1980). The Supreme Court held that the tax is not subject to scrutiny under the Commerce Clause
We noted probable jurisdiction, 449 U.S. 1033 (1980), to consider the important issues raised. We now affirm.
II
A
As an initial matter, appellants assert that the Montana Supreme Court erred in concluding that the Montana tax is not subject to the strictures of the Commerce Clause. In appellants' view, Heisler's "mechanical" approach, which looks to whether a state tax is levied on goods prior to their entry into interstate commerce, no longer accurately reflects the law. Appellants contend that the correct analysis focuses on whether the challenged tax substantially affects interstate commerce, in which case it must be scrutinized under the Complete Auto Transit test.
We agree that Heisler's reasoning has been undermined by more recent cases. The Heisler analysis evolved at a time when the Commerce Clause was thought to prohibit the States from imposing any direct taxes on interstate commerce.
The Court has, however, long since rejected any suggestion that a state tax or regulation affecting interstate commerce is immune from Commerce Clause scrutiny because it attaches only to a "local" or intrastate activity. See Hunt v. Washington Apple Advertising Comm'n, 432 U.S. 333, 350 (1977); Pike v. Bruce Church, Inc., 397 U.S. 137, 141-142 (1970); Nippert v. Richmond, 327 U.S. 416, 423-424 (1946). Correspondingly, the Court has rejected the notion that state taxes levied on interstate commerce are per se invalid. See, e. g., Washington Revenue Dept. v. Association of Wash. Stevedoring Cos., 435 U.S. 734 (1978); Complete Auto Transit, Inc. v. Brady, supra. In reviewing Commerce Clause challenges to state taxes, our goal has instead been to "establish a consistent and rational method of inquiry" focusing on "the practical effect of a challenged tax." Mobil Oil Corp. v. Commissioner of Taxes, 445 U.S. 425, 443 (1980). See Moorman Mfg. Co. v. Bair, 437 U.S. 267, 276-281 (1978); Washington Revenue Dept. v. Association of Wash. Stevedoring
In the first place, there is no real distinction—in terms of economic effects—between severance taxes and other types of state taxes that have been subjected to Commerce Clause scrutiny.
We therefore hold that a state severance tax is not immunized from Commerce Clause scrutiny by a claim that the tax is imposed on goods prior to their entry into the stream of interstate commerce. Any contrary statements in Heisler and its progeny are disapproved.
B
Appellants do not dispute that the Montana tax satisfies the first two prongs of the Complete Auto Transit test. As the Montana Supreme Court noted, "there can be no argument here that a substantial, in fact, the only nexus of the severance of coal is established in Montana." — Mont., at —, 615 P. 2d, at 855. Nor is there any question here regarding apportionment or potential multiple taxation, for as the state court observed, "the severance can occur in no other state" and "no other state can tax the severance." Ibid. Appellants do contend, however, that the Montana tax is invalid under the third and fourth prongs of the Complete Auto Transit test.
Appellants assert that the Montana tax "discriminate[s] against interstate commerce" because 90% of Montana coal is shipped to other States under contracts that shift the tax burden primarily to non-Montana utility companies and thus
Instead, the gravamen of appellants' claim is that a state tax must be considered discriminatory for purposes of the Commerce Clause if the tax burden is borne primarily by out-of-state consumers. Appellants do not suggest that this assertion is based on any of this Court's prior discriminatory tax cases. In fact, a similar claim was considered and rejected in Heisler. There, it was argued that Pennsylvania had a virtual monopoly of anthracite coal and that, because 80% of the coal was shipped out of State, the tax discriminated against and impermissibly burdened interstate commerce. 260 U. S., at 251-253. The Court, however, dismissed these factors as "adventitious considerations." Id., at 259. We share the Heisler Court's misgivings about judging the validity of a state tax by assessing the State's "monopoly" position or its "exportation" of the tax burden out of State.
The premise of our discrimination cases is that "[t]he very purpose of the Commerce Clause was to create an area of free trade among the several States." McLeod v. J. E. Dilworth Co., 322 U.S. 327, 330 (1944). See Hunt v. Washington Apple Advertising Comm'n, 432 U. S., at 350; Boston Stock Exchange v. State Tax Comm'n, supra, at 328. Under such a regime, the borders between the States are essentially irrelevant. As the Court stated in West v. Kansas Natural Gas Co., 221 U.S. 229, 255 (1911), "`in matters of foreign
Furthermore, appellants' assertion that Montana may not "exploit" its "monopoly" position by exporting tax burdens to other States, cannot rest on a claim that there is need to protect the out-of-state consumers of Montana coal from discriminatory tax treatment. As previously noted, there is no real discrimination in this case; the tax burden is borne according to the amount of coal consumed and not according to any distinction between in-state and out-of-state consumers. Rather, appellants assume that the Commerce Clause gives residents of one State a right of access at "reasonable" prices to resources located in another State that is richly endowed with such resources, without regard to whether and on what terms residents of the resource-rich State have access to the resources. We are not convinced that the Commerce Clause, of its own force, gives the residents of one State the right to control in this fashion the terms of resource development and depletion in a sister State. Cf. Philadelphia v. New Jersey, supra, at 626.
Appellants argue that they are entitled to an opportunity to prove that the amount collected under the Montana tax is not fairly related to the additional costs the State incurs because of coal mining.
The Montana Supreme Court held that the coal severance tax is "imposed for the general support of the government." — Mont., at —, 615 P. 2d, at 856, and we have no reason to question this characterization of the Montana tax as a general revenue tax.
This Court has indicated that States have considerable latitude in imposing general revenue taxes. The Court has, for example, consistently rejected claims that the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment stands as a barrier against taxes that are "unreasonable" or "unduly burden-some." See, e. g., Pittsburgh v. Alco Parking Corp., 417 U.S. 369 (1974); Magnano Co. v. Hamilton, 292 U.S. 40 (1934); Alaska Fish Salting & By-Products Co. v. Smith, 255 U.S. 44 (1921). Moreover, there is no requirement under the Due Process Clause that the amount of general revenue taxes collected from a particular activity must be reasonably related to the value of the services provided to the activity. Instead, our consistent rule has been:
See St. Louis & S. W. R. Co. v. Nattin, 277 U.S. 157, 159 (1928); Thomas v. Gay, 169 U.S. 264, 280 (1898).
There is no reason to suppose that this latitude afforded the States under the Due Process Clause is somehow divested by the Commerce Clause merely because the taxed activity has some connection to interstate commerce; particularly when the tax is levied on an activity conducted within the State. "The exploitation by foreign corporations [or consumers] of intrastate opportunities under the protection and encouragement of local government offers a basis for taxation as unrestricted as that for domestic corporations." Ford Motor Co. v. Beauchamp, 308 U.S. 331, 334-335 (1939); see also Ott v. Mississippi Valley Barge Line Co., 336 U.S. 169 (1949). To accept appellants' apparent suggestion that the Commerce Clause prohibits the States from requiring an activity connected to interstate commerce to contribute to the general cost of providing governmental services, as distinct from those costs attributable to the taxed activity, would place such commerce in a privileged position. But as we recently reiterated. "[i]t was not the purpose of the commerce clause to relieve those engaged in interstate commerce from their just share of state tax burden even though it increases
Furthermore, there can be no question that Montana may constitutionally raise general revenue by imposing a severance tax on coal mined in the State. The entire value of the coal, before transportation, originates in the State, and mining of the coal depletes the resource base and wealth of the State, thereby diminishing a future source of taxes and economic activity.
The relevant inquiry under the fourth prong of the Complete Auto Transit test
Against this background, we have little difficulty concluding that the Montana tax satisfies the fourth prong of the Complete Auto Transit test. The "operating incidence" of the tax, see General Motors Corp. v. Washington, 377 U. S., at 440-441, is on the mining of coal within Montana. Because it is measured as a percentage of the value of the coal taken, the Montana tax is in "proper proportion" to appellants' activities within the State and, therefore, to their "consequent enjoyment of the opportunities and protections which the State has afforded" in connection with those activities. Id., at 441. Cf. Nippert v. Richmond, 327 U. S., at 427.
Appellants argue, however, that the fourth prong of the Complete Auto Transit test must be construed as requiring a factual inquiry into the relationship between the revenues generated by a tax and costs incurred on account of the taxed activity, in order to provide a mechanism for judicial disapproval under the Commerce Clause of state taxes that are excessive. This assertion reveals that appellants labor under a misconception about a court's role in cases such as this.
In the first place, it is doubtful whether any legal test could adequately reflect the numerous and competing economic, geographic, demographic, social, and political considerations that must inform a decision about an acceptable rate or level of state taxation, and yet be reasonably capable of application in a wide variety of individual cases. But even apart from the difficulty of the judicial undertaking, the nature of the factfinding and judgment that would be required of the courts merely reinforces the conclusion that questions about the appropriate level of state taxes must be resolved through the political process. Under our federal system, the determination is to be made by state legislatures in the first instance and, if necessary, by Congress, when particular state taxes are thought to be contrary to federal interests.
Furthermore, the reference in the cases to police and fire protection and other advantages of civilized society is not, as appellants suggest, a disingenuous incantation designed to avoid a more searching inquiry into the relationship between the value of the benefits conferred on the taxpayer and the amount of taxes it pays. Rather, when the measure of a tax is reasonably related to the taxpayer's activities or presence in the State—from which it derives some benefit such as the
III
A
Appellants contend that the Montana tax, as applied to mining of federally owned coal, is invalid under the Supremacy Clause because it "substantially frustrates" the purposes of the Mineral Lands Leasing Act of 1920, ch. 85, 41 Stat. 437, 30 U. S. C. § 181 et seq. (1976 ed. and Supp. III) (1920 Act), as amended by the Federal Coal Leasing Amendments Act of 1975, Pub. L. 94-377, 90 Stat. 1083 (1975 Amendments). Appellants argue that under the 1920 Act, the "economic rents" attributable to the mining of coal on federal land—i. e., the difference between the cost of production (including a reasonable profit) and the market price of the coal— are to be captured by the Federal Government in the form of royalty payments from federal lessees. The payments thus
As an initial matter, we note that this argument rests on a factual premise—that the principal effect of the tax is to shift a major portion of the relatively fixed "economic rents" attributable to the extraction of federally owned coal from the Federal Treasury to the State of Montana—that appears to be inconsistent with the premise of appellants' Commerce Clause claims. In pressing their Commerce Clause arguments, appellants assert that the Montana tax increases the cost of Montana coal, thereby increasing the total amount of "economic rents," and that the burden of the tax is borne by out-of-state consumers, not the Federal Treasury.
This Court had occasion to construe § 32 soon after it was enacted. The Court explained:
It necessarily follows that if the Montana tax is "otherwise lawful." the 1920 Act does not forbid it.
Appellants contend that the Montana tax is not "otherwise lawful" because it conflicts with the very purpose of the 1920 Act. We do not agree. There is nothing in the language or legislative history of either the 1920 Act or the 1975 Amendments to support appellants' assertion that Congress intended to maximize and capture all "economic rents" from the mining of federal coal, and then to distribute the proceeds in accordance with the statutory formula. The House Report on the 1975 Amendments, for example, speaks only in terms of a congressional intent to secure a "fair return to the public." H. R. Rep. No. 94-681, pp. 17-18 (1975). Moreover, appellants' argument proves too much. By definition, any state taxation of federal lessees reduces the "economic rents" accruing to the Federal Government, and appellants' argument would preclude any such taxes despite the explicit grant of taxing authority to the States by § 32. Finally, appellants' contention necessarily depends on inferences to be drawn from §§ 7 and 35 of the 1920 Act, 30 U. S. C. §§ 207 and 191, which, as amended, prescribe the statutory formula for the division of the payments received by the Federal Government. See Complaint ¶¶ 38-41, J. S. App. 57a-58a. Yet § 32 of the 1920 Act, as set forth in 30 U. S. C. § 189, states that "[n]othing in this chapter"—which includes §§ 7 and 35—"shall be construed or held to affect the rights of the States . . . to levy and collect taxes upon . . . output of mines . . . of any lessee of the United States." And if, as the Court has held, the States may "levy and collect taxes as though the [federal] government were not concerned," Mid-Northern Oil Co. v. Walker, supra, at 49, the manner in which the Federal Government collects receipts from its lessees and then shares them with the States has no bearing on the validity of a state tax. We
B
The final issue we must consider is appellants' assertion that the Montana tax is unconstitutional because it substantially frustrates national energy policies, reflected in several federal statutes, encouraging the production and use of coal, particularly low-sulfur coal such as is found in Montana. Appellants insist that they are entitled to a hearing to explore the contours of these national policies and to adduce evidence supporting their claim that the Montana tax substantially frustrates and impairs the policies.
We cannot quarrel with appellants' recitation of federal statutes encouraging the use of coal. Appellants correctly note that § 2 (6) of the Energy Policy and Conservation Act of 1975, 89 Stat. 874, 42 U. S. C. § 6201 (6), declares that one of the Act's purposes is "to reduce the demand for petroleum products and natural gas through programs designed to provide greater availability and use of this Nation's abundant coal resources." And § 102 (b) (3) of the Powerplant and Industrial Fuel Use Act of 1978 (PIFUA), 92 Stat. 3291, 42 U. S. C. § 8301 (b) (3) (1976 ed., Supp. III), recites a similar objective "to encourage and foster the greater use of coal and other alternate fuels, in lieu of natural gas and petroleum, as a primary energy source." We do not, however, accept appellants' implicit suggestion that these general statements demonstrate a congressional intent to pre-empt all state legislation that may have an adverse impact on the use of coal. In Exxon Corp. v. Governor of Maryland, 437 U.S. 117 (1978), we rejected a pre-emption argument similar to the one appellants urge here. There, it was argued that the "basic national policy favoring free competition" reflected in the Sherman Act pre-empted a state law regulating retail distribution of gasoline. Id., at 133. The Court acknowledged
PIFUA prohibits new electric power plants or new major fuel-burning installations from using natural gas or petroleum as a primary energy source, and prohibits existing facilities from using natural gas as a primary energy source after 1989. 42 U. S. C. §§ 8311 (1), 8312 (a) (1976 ed., Supp. III). Appellants contend that "the manifest purpose of this Act to favor the use of coal is clear." Brief for Appellants 37. As the statute itself makes clear, however, Congress did not intend PIFUA to pre-empt state severance taxes on coal. Section 601 (a) (1) of PIFUA, 92 Stat. 3323, 42 U. S. C. § 8401 (a) (1) (1976 ed., Supp. III), provides for federal financial
This section clearly contemplates the continued existence, not the pre-emption, of state severance taxes on coal and other minerals.
Furthermore, the legislative history of § 601 (a) (2) reveals that Congress enacted this provision with Montana's tax specifically in mind. The Senate version of the PIFUA bill provided for impact aid, but the House bill did not. See H. R. Conf. Rep. No. 95-1749, p. 93 (1978). The Senate's proposal for impact aid was opposed by the House conferees, who took the position that the States would be able to satisfy the demand for additional facilities and services caused by increased coal production through imposition of severance taxes and, in Western States, through royalties received under the Mineral Lands Leasing Act. See Transcript of the Joint Conference on Energy 1822, 1824, 1832, 1834-1837, 1839 (1977) (Tr.), reprinted in 2 U. S. Dept. of Energy, Legislative History: Powerplant and Industrial Fuel Use Act, 777, 779, 787, 789-792, 794 (1978) (Legislative History). In explaining the objections of the House conferees, Representative Eckhardt pointed out:
Section 601 (a) (2) was obviously included in PIFUA as a response to these concerns, for it provides that severance taxes and royalties are to be "taken into account" in determining eligibility for impact aid. The legislative history of § 601 (a) (2) thus confirms what seems evident from the face of the statute—that Montana's severance tax is not pre-empted by PIFUA. Since PIFUA is the only federal statute that even comes close to providing a specific basis for appellants' claims that the Montana statute "substantially frustrates" federal energy policies, this aspect of appellants' Supremacy Clause argument must also fail.
IV
In sum, we conclude that appellants have failed to demonstrate either that the Montana tax suffers from any of the constitutional defects alleged in their complaints, or that a
So ordered.
JUSTICE WHITE, concurring.
This is a very troublesome case for me, and I join the Court's opinion with considerable doubt and with the realization that Montana's levy on consumers in other States may in the long run prove to be an intolerable and unacceptable burden on commerce. Indeed, there is particular force in the argument that the tax is here and now unconstitutional. Montana collects most of its tax from coal lands owned by the Federal Government and hence by all of the people of this country, while at the same time sharing equally and directly with the Federal Government all of the royalties reserved under the leases the United States has negotiated on its land in the State of Montana. This share is intended to compensate the State for the burdens that coal mining may impose upon it. Also, as JUSTICE BLACKMUN cogently points out, post, at 643, n. 9, another 40% of the federal revenue from mineral leases is indirectly returned to the States through a reclamation fund. In addition, there is statutory provision for federal grants to areas affected by increased coal production.
But this very fact gives me pause and counsels withholding our hand, at least for now. Congress has the power to protect interstate commerce from intolerable or even undesirable burdens. It is also very much aware of the Nation's energy needs, of the Montana tax, and of the trend in the energy-rich States to aggrandize their position and perhaps lessen the tax burdens on their own citizens by imposing unusually high taxes on mineral extraction. Yet, Congress is so far content to let the matter rest, and we are counseled by the Executive Branch through the Solicitor General not to overturn the Montana tax as inconsistent with either the Commerce Clause
JUSTICE BLACKMUN, with whom JUSTICE POWELL and JUSTICE STEVENS join, dissenting.
In Complete Auto Transit, Inc. v. Brady, 430 U.S. 274 (1977), a unanimous Court observed: "A tailored tax, however accomplished, must receive the careful scrutiny of the courts to determine whether it produces a forbidden effect on interstate commerce." Id., at 288-289, n. 15. In this case, appellants have alleged that Montana's severance tax on coal is tailored to single out interstate commerce, and that it produces a forbidden effect on that commerce because the tax bears no "relationship to the services provided by the State." Ibid. The Court today concludes that appellants are not entitled to a trial on this claim. Because I believe that the "careful scrutiny" due a tailored tax makes a trial here necessary, I respectfully dissent.
I
The State of Montana has approximately 25% of all known United States coal reserves, and more than 50% of the Nation's low-sulfur coal reserves.
In 1975, following the Arab oil embargo and the first federal coal conversion legislation, the Montana Legislature, by 1975 Mont. Laws, ch. 525, increased the State's severance tax on coal from a flat rate of approximately 34 cents per ton to a maximum rate of 30% of the "contract sales price." Mont. Code Ann. § 15-35-103 (1979).
As the Montana Legislature foresaw, the imposition of this severance tax has generated enormous revenues for the State. Montana collected $33.6 million in severance taxes in fiscal year 1978, H. R. Rep. No. 96-1527, pt. 1, p. 3 (1980), and appellants alleged that it would collect not less than $40 million in fiscal year 1979. App. to Juris. Statement 55a. It has been suggested that by the year 2010, Montana will have collected more than $20 billion through the implementation of this tax. Hearings 22 (statement of Rep. Vento).
Appellants' complaint alleged that Montana's severance tax is ultimately borne by out-of-state consumers, and for the purposes of this appeal that allegation is to be treated as true.
II
This Court's Commerce Clause cases have been marked by tension between two competing concepts: the view that interstate commerce should enjoy a "free trade" immunity from state taxation, see, e. g., Freeman v. Hewit, 329 U.S. 249, 252 (1946), and the view that interstate commerce may be required to "`pay its way,'" see, e. g., Western Live Stock v. Bureau of Revenue, 303 U.S. 250, 254 (1938). See generally Complete Auto Transit, Inc. v. Brady, 430 U. S., at 278-281, 288-289, n. 15; Simet & Lynn, Interstate Commerce Must Pay Its Way: The Demise of Spector, 31 Nat. Tax J. 53 (1978); Hellerstein, Foreword, State Taxation Under the Commerce Clause: An Historical Perspective, 29 Vand. L. Rev. 335, 335-339 (1976). In Complete Auto Transit, the Court resolved that tension by unanimously reaffirming that interstate commerce is not immune from state taxation. 430 U. S., at 288. But at the same time the Court made clear that not all state taxation of interstate commerce is valid; a state tax will be sustained against Commerce Clause challenge only if "the tax is applied to an activity with a substantial nexus with the taxing State, is fairly apportioned, does not discriminate against interstate commerce, and is fairly related to the services provided by the State." Id., at 279. See Maryland v. Louisiana, 451 U.S. 725, 754 (1981).
The Court today acknowledges and, indeed, holds that a Commerce Clause challenge to a state severance tax must be evaluated under Complete Auto Transit's four-part test. Ante, at 617. I fully agree. I cannot agree, however, with the Court's application of that test to the facts of the present case. Appellants concede, and the Court properly concludes,
The Court's conclusion to the contrary rests on the premise that the relevant inquiry under the fourth prong of the Complete Auto Transit test is simply whether the measure of the tax is fixed as a percentage of the value of the coal taken. Ante, at 626. This interpretation emasculates the fourth prong. No trial will ever be necessary on the issue of fair relationship so long as a State is careful to impose a proportional rather than a flat tax rate; thus, the Court's rule is no less "mechanical" than the approach entertained in Heisler v. Thomas Colliery Co., 260 U.S. 245 (1922), disapproved today, ante, at 617.
The Court's prior cases neither require nor support such a startling result.
Thus, the Court has been particularly vigilant to review taxes that "single out interstate business," since "[a]ny tailored tax of this sort creates an increased danger of error in apportionment, of discrimination against interstate commerce, and of a lack of relationship to the services provided by the State." Complete Auto Transit, 430 U. S., at 288-289, n. 15.
As a number of commentators have noted, state severance taxes upon minerals are particularly susceptible to "tailoring." "Like a tollgate lying athwart a trade route, a severance or processing tax conditions access to natural resources." Developments in the Law: Federal Limitations on State Taxation of Interstate Business, 75 Harv. L. Rev. 953, 970 (1962). Thus, to the extent that the taxing jurisdiction approaches a monopoly position in the mineral, and consumption is largely outside the State, such taxes are "[e]conomically and politically analogous to transportation taxes exploiting geographical position." Brown, The Open Economy: Justice Frank-furter and the Position of the Judiciary, 67 Yale L. J. 219, 232 (1957) (Brown). See also Hellerstein, Constitutional Constraints on State and Local Taxation of Energy Resources, 31 Nat. Tax J. 245, 249-250 (1978); R. Posner, Economic Analysis of Law 510-514 (2d ed. 1977) (Posner). But just as a port State may require that imports pay their own way even though the tax levied increases the cost of goods purchased by inland customers, see Michelin Tire Corp. v. Wages, 423 U.S. 276, 288 (1976),
III
It is true that a trial in this case would require "complex factual inquiries" into whether economic conditions are such that Montana is in fact able to export the burden of its severance tax, ante, at 619, n. 8.
To be sure, the task is likely to prove to be a formidable one; but its difficulty does not excuse our failure to undertake it. This case poses extremely grave issues that threaten both to "polarize the Nation," see H. R. Rep. No. 96-1527, pt. 1, p. 2 (1980), and to reawaken "the tendencies toward economic Balkanization" that the Commerce Clause was designed to remedy. See Hughes v. Oklahoma, 441 U.S. 322, 325-326 (1979). It is no answer to say that the matter is better left to Congress:
I would not lightly abandon that role.
FootNotes
"nationalize all industries, it would nationalize and withdraw from state jurisdiction and deliver to federal commercial control the fruits of California and the South, the wheat of the West and its meats, the cotton of the South, the shoes of Massachusetts and the woolen industries of other States, at the very inception of their production or growth, that is, the fruits unpicked, the cotton and wheat ungathered, hides and flesh of cattle yet `on the hoof,' wool yet unshorn, and coal yet unmined, because they are in varying percentages destined for and surely to be exported to States other than those of their production." 260 U. S., at 259-260.
Of course, the "fruits of California" and the "wheat of the West" have long since been held to be within the reach of the Commerce Clause. Pike v. Bruce Church, Inc., 397 U.S. 137 (1970); Wickard v. Filburn, 317 U.S. 111 (1942).
At oral argument before the Montana Supreme Court, appellants' counsel suggested that a tax of "perhaps twelve and a half to fifteen percent of the value of the coal" would be constitutional. — Mont., at —, 615 P. 2d, at 851.
One commentator has suggested that these "user" charges "are not true revenue measures and . . . the considerations applicable to ordinary tax measures do not apply." P. Hartman, State Taxation of Interstate Commerce 20, n. 72 (1953). Instead, "user" fees "partak[e] . . . of the nature of a rent charged by the State, based upon its proprietary interest in its public property, [rather] than of a tax, as that term is thought of in a technical sense." Id., at 122. See generally id., at 122-130.
Section 35 was amended by § 9(a) of the 1975 Amendments to provide for a new statutory formula which is currently in effect. Under this formula, the State in which the mining occurs receives 50% of the revenues, the reclamation fund receives 40%, and the United States Treasury the remaining 10%. 30 U. S. C. § 191.
Significantly, however, other Western States have considered or are considering raising their taxes on coal production. Ibid. One study concluded that "`[t]ax leadership' in the western states appears to be an emerging reality," and that informal cartel arrangements may arise among these States. Church, Conflicting Federal, State and Local Interest Trends in State and Local Energy Taxation: Coal and Copper—A Case in Point, 31 Nat. Tax J. 269, 278 (1978) (Church). Indeed, the 1974 Montana Subcommittee on Fossil Fuel Taxation, see n. 4, supra, was directed by the Montana Legislature "to investigate the feasibility and value of multi-state taxation of coal with the Dakotas and Wyoming, and to contract and cooperate joining with these other states to achieve that end . . . ." House Resolution No. 45, 1974 Mont. Laws, p. 1620. The Subcommittee recommended that the Executive pursue this goal. Subcommittee on Fossil Fuel Taxation, supra, at 2.
"Most of Montana's coal is shipped out of state to power plants and utility companies in the Midwest. In reviewing the [long-term] contracts between the coal companies and the utility companies who purchase the coal, all of the contracts that were shown to our Legislative Committee contain an escalation clause for taxes. In other words, the local companies simply add the additional taxes to their bill, and the entire cost is passed on to the purchasers in the Midwest or elsewhere. Because most of the purchasers are regulated utility companies, it is reasonable to assume these companies will, in turn, pass on their extra costs to their customers." Towe, Explanation of Reasons for Montana's Coal Tax 4, cited in Brief for Appellants 34.
The Court has continued to scrutinize carefully taxes on interstate commerce that are designed to reimburse the State for the particular costs imposed by that commerce. See, e. g., Evansville-Vanderburgh Airport Authority Dist. v. Delta Airlines, Inc., 405 U.S. 707 (1972); Clark v. Paul Gray, Inc., 306 U.S. 583 (1939); Ingels v. Morf, 300 U.S. 290 (1937). In analyzing such taxes, it has required that there be factual evidence in the record that "the fees charged do not appear to be manifestly disproportionate to the services rendered." Clark, 306 U. S., at 599. The Court concludes that this test has no bearing here because the Montana Supreme Court held that the coal severance tax was "`imposed for the general support of the government.'" Ante, at 621. In fact, however, the matter is not nearly so clear as the Court suggests. The Montana court also implied that the tax was designed at least in part to compensate the State for the special costs attributable to coal mining,— Mont., at —, —, 615 P. 2d, at 850, 855, as have appellees here. Brief for Appellees 1-3, 26-27.
Indeed, the stated objectives of the 1975 amendment were to: "(a) preserve or modestly increase revenues going to the general fund, (b) to respond to current social impacts attributable to coal development, and (c) to invest in the future, when new energy technologies reduce our dependence on coal and mining activity may decline." Statement to Accompany the Report of the Free Joint Conference Committees on Coal Taxation 1 (1975). Since the tax was designed only to "preserve or modestly increase" general revenues, it is appropriate for a court to inquire here whether the "surplus" revenue Montana has received from this severance tax is "manifestly disproportionate" to the present or future costs attributable to coal development.
"I do not think the United States would come to an end if we lost our power to declare an Act of Congress void. I do think the Union would be imperiled if we could not make that declaration as to the laws of the several States. For one in my place sees how often a local policy prevails with those who are not trained to national views and how often action is taken that embodies what the Commerce Clause was meant to end." O. Holmes, Law and the Court, in Collected Legal Papers 291, 295-296 (reprint, 1952).
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