Section VI Section 8

Constitution

Effective - 04 May 1995, see footnote   

  VI Section 8.  Classification of counties — revisions to article VI passed by the 88th general assembly to be retroactive. — Provision shall be made by general laws for the organization and classification of counties except as provided in section 18(a) or section 18(m) of this article or otherwise in this constitution.  The number of classes shall not exceed four, and the organization and powers of each class shall be defined by general laws so that all counties within the same class shall possess the same powers and be subject to the same restrictions.  The revisions to this article submitted by the first regular session of the eighty-eighth general assembly are intended to be applied retroactively and no law adopted by the general assembly or ordinance or order adopted by the governing body of a county shall be declared unconstitutional if such law, ordinance or order would have been constitutional had this section, as amended, been in effect at the time the law was passed, unless the law is declared unconstitutional pursuant to a different provision of this constitution.

­­--------

Source: Const. of 1945 (Amended April 4, 1995).

(1952) Land Tax Collection Law is not a local or special law prohibited by § 40, Art. III of the Constitution nor does it violate § 8, Art. VI relating to classification of counties. Collector v. Parcels of Land, 362 Mo. 1054, 247 S.W.2d 83.

(1962) Provision, added to § 48.030 by House Bill 297 in 1959, that no county of the fourth class should move to the third class until approved by majority of the electors voting on the question, was in violation of Art. VI, § 8, in that it created an additional class of counties. Chaffin v. County of Christian (Mo.), 359 S.W.2d 730.

(1980) Such portions of statute providing procedure for exemption from "Sunday Sales Law" which treated first class counties by "area" were unconstitutional in violation of Art. VI, § 8, in that such portions treated first class county not included in an "area" and not covered by other special legislation allowing exemption from "Sunday Sales Law." Gramex Corp. v. Von Romer (Mo.), 603 S.W.2d 521.

(2001) Since Art. VI, §§ 18(a) to 18(l) provide for a form of county government separate from and outside the four classes required in this section, no county adopting a charter as provided in such sections can both be a county of the first classification and have a charter form of government. Leiser v. City of Wildwood, 59 S.W.3d 597 (Mo. App. E.D.).