California
court rejects city's tiered water rates
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[April 21, 2015]
By Curtis Skinner
(Reuters) - A state appeals court ruled on
Monday that a southern California city's tiered water rates, developed
in an effort to combat overuse during the state's ongoing drought,
violated the state's Constitution.
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The three-judge panel for the state's 4th District Court of Appeal
sided with taxpayers of the Los Angeles-area city of San Juan
Capistrano, who filed a lawsuit against the city's plan to charge
differing rates based on water usage.
The judges said in the 29-page opinion that the cost schedule was
unconstitutional because it made some consumers pay more for water
than it cost the government to provide it, violating a
voter-approved proposition.
"We do hold that above-cost-of-service pricing for tiers of water
service is not allowed by Proposition 218 and in this case, [the
city] did not carry its burden of proving its higher tiers reflected
its costs of service," they wrote.
The panel sent the case back to a lower court, adding that the rate
tiering can be legal if a connection between pricing and costs can
be demonstrated.
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2015/Apr/21/images/ads/current/maskeauction_sda_022614.png) The ruling comes as a potential blow for municipalities attempting
to find solutions for the state's ongoing drought. The Los Angeles
Times reported that at least two-thirds of water providers in the
state use some type of tiered system, including the Los Angeles
Department of Water and Power.
"The practical effect of the court's decision is to put a
straitjacket on local government at a time when maximum flexibility
is needed," Governor Jerry Brown said in a statement, adding that
the state's attorneys were reviewing the ruling.
Brown earlier this month ordered an overall 25 percent cut in urban
water use though the first statewide mandatory reductions in
California's history, as it enters the fourth year of a devastating
drought.
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On Saturday, state water regulators revised the still-tentative
drought plan by easing cuts for Los Angeles and San Diego and
bumping up reduction targets in the areas that consume the most
water in an apparent response to criticism from cities.
The plan, developed by the state's Water Resources Control Board, is
scheduled to be approved in early May, but officials said more
fine-tuning could take place before then.
(Corrects headline to say court instead of judge)
(Reporting by Curtis Skinner in San Francisco; Editing by Simon
Cameron-Moore)
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