CALIFORNIA FARM BUREAU FEDERATION v. CALIFORNIASTATE WATER R...
CALIFORNIA FARM BUREAU FEDERATION v. CALIFORNIASTATE WATER RESOURCES CR Part II
CALIFORNIA FARM BUREAU FEDERATION v. CALIFORNIASTATE WATER RESOURCES CR Part II 02:22:2007
CALIFORNIA FARM BUREAU FEDERATION v
CALIFORNIAFARM BUREAU FEDERATION v. CALIFORNIASTATE WATER RESOURCES CONTROL BOARD
Filed 1/17/07
CERTIFIED FOR PUBLICATION
COPY
IN THE COURT OF APPEAL OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA
THIRD APPELLATE DISTRICT
(Sacramento)
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CALIFORNIAFARM BUREAU FEDERATION et al.,
Plaintiffs and Appellants,
v.
CALIFORNIASTATE WATER RESOURCES CONTROL BOARD,
Defendant and Respondent.
C050289
(Super. Ct. Nos. 03CS01776, 04CS00473)
STORY CONTINUED FROM PART I……….
f. Sections 1540 and 1560
Sections 1540 and 1560 concern the allocation of annual fees, or an appropriate portion of the fees, to persons who have contracts with fee payers who decline to pay based on their sovereign immunity.[1]
g. Section 1551
Section 1551 creates a Water Rights Fund into which the BOE must deposit the fees it collects on behalf of the SWRCB. The Water Rights Fund is separate from the General Fund and the fees collected may be used only for programs specified in section 1552. These include the expenditures by the BOE in connection with collecting the SWRCB fees, payment of refunds pursuant to the Revenue and Taxation Code, and expenditures by the SWRCB â€
Description
Water Code Sec. 1525, which authorizes State Water Resources Control Board to impose annual fees on holders of water right permits and licenses and which does not limit such fees to the costs of regulation, does not on its face violate Proposition 13, but certain fees imposed under emergency regulation were unconstitutional as applied where annual fee payers were forced to subsidize significant costs of certain regulatory activities affecting other parties that were not required to pay the fees. Water Code Secs. 1540 and 1560, authorizing SWRCB to impose annual fees on persons and entities that contract for water from the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, are not on their face preempted by federal law and do not violate equal protection or due process rights but violate the Supremacy Clause as applied by emergency regulations establishing formula that requires the federal contractors to pay for the entire amount of annual fees that would otherwise be imposed on the bureau.
