CALIFORNIA FARM BUREAU FEDERATION v. CALIFORNIASTATE WATER RESOURCES CR Part II
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.
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