It's the only lawsuit pending against the arts tax, according to a tax court clerk in Salem.



Bogdanski's suit asks the tax court to find the arts tax violates a constitutional ban on a head tax or poll tax.



He also asks the state to bar the city from ever collecting the arts tax from Bogdanski, and to provide him with "additional relief as the court may deem appropriate."



The city is already trying to change the language of the tax, passed in November, to make it more clearly like an income tax. Mayor Charlie Hales announced today he's asking City Council to pass an emergency ordinance to change the arts tax by raising the minimum annual earnings above $1,000. Hales called the current standards "silly."

