09/04/2007
NFIB Legal Foundation urges California Supreme Court to nullify unfair funding fees collected by the State Water Resources Control Board
CONTACT: Melissa Sharp, 202-314-2068
Washington, D.C.--California's state water fees are flooding state coffers due to an unconstitutional funding scheme approved by the state Legislature. The funding scheme allows the Legislature to charge discrete groups of people fees to fund the State Water Resources Control Board despite the fact that those charged lacked a reasonable relationship to the burdens or benefits of the agency.
The California Farm Bureau initially sued the SWRCB challenging both the authorizing legislation, Wat. Code ยง1525, and its accompanying regulations, on the grounds that the laws were unconstitutional because the fees collected were excessive and exceeded the agency's regulatory costs. The case has now reached the California Supreme Court. The National Federation of Independent Business Legal Foundation filed an amicus brief with the state's supreme court arguing that both the authorizing legislation and accompanying regulations are unconstitutional.
"Imposing fees on a subset of citizens while the general public enjoys the benefits of the agency is absurd," said Karen Harned, executive director of NFIB's Legal Foundation. "This funding scheme is unreasonable and more importantly unconstitutional. The state legislature should not be permitted to select certain groups to tax in order to fund a particular agency. If the court allows the state to do this, all citizens, and businesses in particular, are in trouble. What's to stop the state from deciding to fund huge agencies through special fees imposed on small businesses? We strongly urge the court to find against this funding scheme."
The case at issue is California Farm Bureau Federation et al. v. California State Water Resources Control Board. To obtain a copy of NFIB Legal Foundation's amicus brief email Melissa.Sharp@nfib.org.
