It is essential to determine the legality of the tax on public lighting. In this vein, it is wise to know whether the municipal councils have the power to choose and regulate the tax in their respective territories, from the orbit jurisprudential development both administrative law and the tax law. With the development of jurisprudence after the enactment of Law 97 of 1913 (the tax authority on public lighting service) and Act 84 of 1915 it was extended to other municipalities, to date has raised several theses for and against the legality of the tax. For that reason, it is necessary to study deeply the subject, and their development over time. It is necessary, to solve this question , in order to establish a line of decisions to the future, to the extent that municipalities would be extremely affected in the event that the State Council, to take the opposite view. In order to achieve this goal, we will review all judgments issued by the State Council and the Constitutional Court from 1913 to 2011 relating to this topic, focusing more attention on the failures of the past two decades.