Court rules in favor of cities in lawsuit over administrative fee

<br>(Oklahoma City-AP) -- Cities across the state are in line for an extra eight (M) million dollars a year under a ruling by the state Supreme Court. <br><br>The court ruled today that the Oklahoma Tax

Wednesday, March 14th 2001, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

(Oklahoma City-AP) -- Cities across the state are in line for an extra eight (M) million dollars a year under a ruling by the state Supreme Court.

The court ruled today that the Oklahoma Tax Commission has no legal authority to charge an administrative fee to cities for collecting local sales taxes.

The cities of Broken Arrow, Norman, Oklahoma City and Tulsa challenged a law that permitted the tax commission to keep additional money from counties and cities to pay the cost of collecting and distributing local sales tax revenues.

The court ruled the law permits cities and the tax commission to negotiate a fee for collection of local sales taxes.

That fee is the only portion of local sales tax revenues that cities agreed to allow the tax commission to retain. The additional administrative fee is not authorized under the law.