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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]DC certainly is able to impose a commuter tax or something similar that would hit schools and other businesses; plenty of other cities do that, and I recall reading it has been proposed in DC many times. [/quote]
Why, no, we can't.  Our Congressional masters have explicitly forbidden it ....  [/quote]
Do you know that for fact -- i.e., that the Congressional Oversight committees explicitly forbid a commuter tax or anything similar?  Or are you just saying we in DC would have to make sure it is not blocked by Congress?  I don't know whether it's ever been proposed before, or what the outcome was.  Can you educate me?[/quote]

Yes, it's a fact.  The Home Rule Act of 1973 forbids the DC Council from taxing any portion of a non-resident's personal income.  http://www.abfa.com/ogc/tit6.htm (see Section 602(5)).  That ban has been litigated in, and upheld by, lower federal courts, most recently in 2005.  That case was appealed to the Supreme Court, which refused to hear it.  (Justice Roberts was one of the appeals court judges who upheld the ban below).  DC Council will, no doubt, continue to fight the ban -- there's been talk about an amendment to the Charter (which, itself, would require Congressional approval and, if successful, would merely remove the categorical prohibition.  Tax legislation, like any other DC legislation, would still be subject to Congressional override).  The most recent proposal I heard in the Council (last Spring) was to tax the income of DC government employees who lived outside the jurisdiction.  Don't know whether that went anywhere.  Without a Charter Amendment, I can't see the federal courts upholding it. [/quote]

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