CALIFORNIA FARM BUREAU FEDERATION v. STATE WATER RESOURCES CONTROL BOARD Part-I
The California Constitution provides that any act to increase taxes must be passed by a two-thirds vote of the Legislature.[1] On the other hand, statutes that create or raise regulatory fees need only the assent of a simple majority.[2] In 2003, the Legislature passed amendments to the Water Code[3] by a 53 percent majority. Current section 1525 was enacted as part of these amendments. The threshold issue here is whether section 1525, subdivision (a) imposes a tax or a fee. We hold that the amendments and section 1525 do not explicitly impose a tax and, therefore, are not facially unconstitutional. However, because the record is unclear as to whether the fees were reasonably apportioned in terms of the regulatory activity's costs and the fees assessed, we direct the Court of Appeal to remand the matter to the trial court to make these findings.
A second issue is whether the Water Code amendments, or their implementing regulations, violate the supremacy clause of the United States Constitution by over-assessing the beneficial interests of those who hold contractual rights to delivery of water from the federally administered Central Valley Project (hereafter, the federal contractors). We conclude that the statutes are not facially unconstitutional. We further determine that the constitutionality of the implementing regulations depends on whether they fairly assess and apportion the federal contractors' beneficial interests. However, because of conflicting factual assertions and an unclear record concerning the extent and value of those interests, we also direct remand to the trial court for findings on this issue.
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