Attorney: Car-rental companies to appeal ruling on surcharge

PHOENIX – Car-rental companies will ask the Arizona Supreme Court to review a lower court’s ruling that a car-rental tax surcharge imposed in Maricopa County to pay for building a football stadium and other sports and recreational facilities is legal.

The companies’ attorneys argued that a constitutional provision on use of transportation money means the surcharge revenue can be used only to build and maintain roads, but the Court of Appeals said Tuesday the constitutional provision wasn’t intended cover every tax or fee in any way related to vehicles.

Judge Diane Johnsen wrote that the provision is triggered by a vehicle’s operation on a public roadway.

Attorney Shawn Aiken responded by saying the tax provision relates to the operation of a car because everyone who rents a car intends to operate it.