Tax or fee? Pastors push back against city's 'annual registration fee'

c. 2013 St. Louis Post-Dispatch

EAST ST. LOUIS, Ill. (RNS) After the city's director of emergency services delivered an opening prayer, the City Council took up some standard issues -- maintenance of a traffic light, filling in a pot hole.

    But eventually the council members got around to Item 8E -- the reason City Hall was filled with pastors on a Thursday night.