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15. The strongest ground upon which the concessionaire could challenge the occupancy tax is that it violates the

The legislature of the state enacted a statute imposing an occupancy tax on the occupants of real estate within that state that is not subject to state real estate taxes. The statute was intended to equalize the state tax burden on such occupants with that of people occupying real estate that is subject to state real estate taxes. Pursuant to that statute, the state Department of Revenue attempted to collect the state occupancy tax from the concessionaire because the federal facilities occupied by the concessionaire were not subject to state real estate taxes. The concessionaire sued to invalidate the state occupancy tax as applied to him.

The United States Department of the Interior granted a concessionaire the food and drink concession stand in a federal park located in a particular state. The concessionaire operated his concession stand out of the federally owned facilities in the park. The federal statute authorizing the Interior Department to grant such concession stands provided that the grantees would pay only a nominal rental fee for use of these federal facilities because of the great benefit their concession stands would provide to the people of the United States.