442
Opinion of the Court
Alabama's laws may not be reached by a county's occupational tax. See 1967 Ala. Acts 406, § 4.12 The dispositive measure, however, is the Public Salary Tax Act, which does not require the local tax to be a typical "income tax." Just as the statute in Howard consented broadly to "any tax measured by net income, gross income, or gross receipts," 344 U. S., at 629, the Public Salary Tax Act consents to any tax on "pay or compensation," which Jefferson County's surely is. The sole caveat is that the tax "not discriminate . . . because of the [federal] source of the pay or compensation," 4 U. S. C. § 111, and we next consider that matter.13
C
In Davis, the Court held that a state tax exempting retirement benefits paid by the State but not those paid by the Federal Government violated the Public Salary Tax Act's nondiscrimination requirement. See 489 U. S., at 817-818. Jefferson County's tax, by contrast, does not discriminate
12 Justice Breyer observes that these exemptions are various, numerous, and large. See post, at 451-452, 458-464. In this regard, we note the representation of counsel for Jefferson County at oral argument that "92 percent of the people who earn wages in [the] county pay [the] tax." Tr. of Oral Arg. 14. Counsel further stated that federal employees are at least proportionately represented among the eight percent exempt from the county's tax because they pay license fees to the State of Alabama. These figures are not in the record, counsel explained, "because this issue was never raised until we got to this Court." Ibid.; see also id., at 14-15 (counsel for Jefferson County represented that of 12,000 federal employees in the county, 1,209 pay state license taxes and do not pay the county's occupational tax).
13 The District Court ruled that the judges had failed to establish that the county's tax discriminates against federal officers or employees because of the source of their pay or compensation. See Jefferson County, 850 F. Supp., at 1539-1540. On appeal there was no contention that this determination was erroneous. See Jefferson County, 92 F. 3d, at 1566, n. 9. The judges nevertheless press the argument that the tax is discriminatory as an alternative ground for affirmance. See Brief for Respondents 34-37.
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