Cal. Bldg. Indus. Ass'n v. State Water Res. Control Bd.
Annotate this CaseWhen parties discharge waste that could affect the quality of California’s water they must pay a permit fee set by the State Water Resources Control Board, Wat. Code, 13260. In 2011, two of the five Board seats were vacant; two of the remaining three members approved an increase of fees for the 2011-2012 fiscal year. CBI argued that section 183 required the fees to be approved by a majority of the five-person Board and that the increase was an illegal tax because the fee imposed on the dischargers in the storm water program (one of eight areas in the permit program) exceeded the cost of regulating this particular program. The court of appeal upheld the fee; section 181, not section 183, applied to adoption of the fee schedule and the vote by a majority of the Board’s quorum complied with section 181. Section 13260 requires that the total fees collected from all waste dischargers must equal the costs of regulating the entire waste discharge permit program.
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