California Farm Bureau v. California State Water Board – Lawful Regulatory Fee or Invalid Tax?

California Supreme Court

At issue is whether the legislature may order a state agency to fund the budget of one of its divisions by "fees" imposed on a discrete subset of persons, even though many of the division's activities don't relate to them; for example, the state admitted that 30 percent of the division's activities benefit the public generally. Court approval of this legislative scheme would give the legislature free rein to do the same for a myriad of other agencies, including funding ever-larger agency budgets on the backs of small segments of society, such as businesses, through the imposition on them of unfair "fees."

Status: PENDING. Brief in support of California Farm Bureau filed Sept. 5, 2007.