The Municipal Analysts Group of New York is hosting a luncheon program at 12:15 p.m. today on Davis v. Kentucky Department of Revenue,193 S.W.3d 557 (Ky. App. 2006), in which the Kentucky Court of Appeals held that the state’s tax system violates the dormant commerce clause of the U.S. Constitution by exempting interest on Kentucky state & local bonds while taxing interest on out of state bonds. The opinion notes that Kentucky’s system is used in a majority of states, and that the only court to consider the commerce clause issue (Ohio) upheld the constitutionality of the system.  (Kentucky has filed a cert. petition in the U.S. Supreme Court, and the taxpayers have filed their response.)

Note that the US Supreme Court is scheduled to decide the status of Davis at today’s conference. Because of strong interest expressed by MAGNY’s sister regional societies, an audio-only replay and podcast of the proceedings will be available via NFMA’s website after the luncheon.

The speakers at today’s program are:

• Walter Hellerstein (Professor, University of Georgia)
• Greg Germain (Professor, Syracuse University)
• John Mousseau (Vice President and Portfolio Manager, Cumberland Advisors)

For more on Davis, see this alert from Loeb & Loeb’s Tax & Wealth Services Group. Prior TaxProf Blog coverage:

• Davis: Another Constitutional Shot Across the Tax Bow (with extensive commentary by Richard Pomp, Kirk Stark, Calvin Johnson & Greg Germain) (9/5/06)
• WSJ on Davis (9/6/06)
• Hellerstein on Davis (9/6/06)
• Kentucky Files Cert. Petition in Davis (11/13/06)
• Taxpayers Respond to Kentucky’s Cert. Petition in Davis (1/22/07)