Reversing a Franklin County court decision, the Missouri Court of Appeals ruled Tuesday that the tax rates imposed and collected by the library district from 2000 through 2006 were excessively high because it unlawfully rounded up tax rates in violation of the Hancock Amendment.

The case, Kenneth D. Rohrer, Bill V. Flurry, Jack Koehr vs. Linda Emmons, Collector of Franklin County, et al., is another in what has become a series of taxpayer challenges to property tax rates levied by Franklin County taxing authorities. In this case as well as in previous cases, taxpayers alleged that the library district used an improper tax rate ceiling in calculating its 2000 property tax rates and the resulting higher tax rate levies constituted a violation of the Hancock Amendment.

The same argument was used successfully against the county in a companion lawsuit which eventually led to a structured settlement in 2006 where taxpayers received nearly $1.9 million worth of tax credits through 2010 after an appeals court ruled that the practice of rounding up did violate the Hancock Amendment.

The "tax lid" amendment, named after its sponsor Mel Hancock, was passed by voters in 1980. The purpose of the amendment is to limit taxes by establishing tax and revenue limits and expenditure limits for the state and other political subdivisions.

The taxpayers in the case were seeking a variety of relief including an order declaring the library's district's tax levy for the years 2000 through 2006 unlawful; a recalculation of the tax rates for the years in question; taxpayer refunds, punitive damages and attorneys' fees.

Attorneys involved in the case did not return phone calls Tuesday afternoon.