Opinion ID: 2630054
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: proposition 218 and government code section 53753

Text: The Court of Appeal in Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Assn. v. City of Riverside (1999) 73 Cal.App.4th 679, 681-682 [86 Cal.Rptr.2d 592] usefully summarized the purpose of Proposition 218: Proposition 218 can best be understood against its historical background, which begins in 1978 with the adoption of Proposition 13. `The purpose of Proposition 13 was to cut local property taxes. [Citation.]' [Citation.] Its principal provisions limited ad valorem property taxes to 1 percent of a property's assessed valuation and limited increases in the assessed valuation to 2 percent per year unless and until the property changed hands. (Cal. Const., art. XIII A, §§ 1, 2.) To prevent local governments from subverting its limitations, Proposition 13 also prohibited counties, cities, and special districts from enacting any special tax without a two-thirds vote of the electorate. (Cal. Const., art. XIII A, § 4; Rider v. County of San Diego (1991) 1 Cal.4th 1, 6-7 [2 Cal.Rptr.2d 490, 820 P.2d 1000].) It has been held, however, that a special assessment is not a special tax within the meaning of Proposition 13. ( Knox v. City of Orland (1992) 4 Cal.4th 132, 141 [14 Cal.Rptr.2d 159, 841 P.2d 144], and cases cited.) Accordingly, a special assessment could be imposed without a two-thirds vote. (1) In November 1996, in part to change this rule, the electorate adopted Proposition 218, which added articles XIII C and XIII D to the California Constitution. Proposition 218 allows only four types of local property taxes: (1) an ad valorem property tax; (2) a special tax; (3) an assessment; and (4) a fee or charge. (Cal. Const., art. XIII D, § 3, subd. (a)(1)-(4); see also Cal. Const., art. XIII D, § 2, subd. (a).) It buttresses Proposition 13's limitations on ad valorem property taxes and special taxes by placing analogous restrictions on assessments, fees, and charges. Proposition 218's findings and declarations state: The people of the State of California hereby find and declare that Proposition 13 was intended to provide effective tax relief and to require voter approval of tax increases. However, local governments have subjected taxpayers to excessive tax, assessment, fee and charge increases that not only frustrate the purposes of voter approval for tax increases, but also threaten the economic security of all Californians and the California economy itself. This measure protects taxpayers by limiting the methods by which local governments exact revenue from taxpayers without their consent. (Prop. 218, § 2; Stats. 1996, p. A-295; also reprinted at Historical Notes, 2A West's Ann. Cal. Const. (2010 supp.) foll. art. 13 C, § 1, p. 110.) It also states: The provisions of this act shall be liberally construed to effectuate its purposes of limiting local government revenue and enhancing taxpayer consent. (Prop. 218, § 5.) Article XIII D, enacted as part of Proposition 218, specifically addresses the means by which local government agencies may impose assessments and property-related fees. `Assessment' means any levy or charge upon real property by an agency for a special benefit conferred upon the real property. `Assessment' includes, but is not limited to, `special assessment,' `benefit assessment,' `maintenance assessment' and `special assessment tax.' (Art. XIII D, § 2, subd. (b).) `Fee' or `charge' means any levy other than an ad valorem tax, a special tax, or an assessment, imposed by an agency upon a parcel or upon a person as an incident of property ownership, including a user fee or charge for a property related service. ( Id., § 2, subd. (e).) Article XIII D, section 4 sets forth in considerable detail the procedures for adopting assessments. Assessments are levied in proportion to the special benefit conferred on a parcel ( id., § 4, subd. (a)), as calculated in an engineer's report ( id., subd. (b)), and each affected property owner must receive detailed notice about the assessment ( id., subd. (c)). Subdivision (d) provides: Each notice mailed to owners of identified parcels within the district pursuant to subdivision (c) shall contain a ballot which includes the agency's address for receipt of the ballot once completed by any owner receiving the notice whereby the owner may indicate his or her name, reasonable identification of the parcel, and his or her support or opposition to the proposed assessment.  (Italics added.) Subdivision (e) provides: The agency shall conduct a public hearing upon the proposed assessment not less than 45 days after mailing the notice of the proposed assessment to record owners of each identified parcel. At the public hearing, the agency shall consider all protests against the proposed assessment and tabulate the ballots. The agency shall not impose an assessment if there is a majority protest. A majority protest exists if, upon the conclusion of the hearing, ballots submitted in opposition to the assessment exceed the ballots submitted in favor of the assessment. In tabulating the ballots, the ballots shall be weighted according to the proportional financial obligation of the affected property. Article XIII D, section 6, concerning property-related fees, provides a somewhat different procedure. Once the amount of the fee per parcel is calculated, the agency must provide written notice to each affected property owner and the opportunity to protest the fee. At the public hearing, the government agency is to tabulate all the written protests to the proposed fee, and if a majority of owners of the identified parcels protests, the fee will not be imposed. (Art. XIII D, § 6, subd. (a).) If, however, there is no majority protest, the proposed fee is put before the voters for approval. Subdivision (c) sets forth the manner of conducting such an election and states in full: Except for fees or charges for sewer, water, and refuse collection services, no property related fee or charge shall be imposed or increased unless and until that fee or charge is submitted and approved by a majority vote of the property owners of the property subject to the fee or charge or, at the option of the agency, by a two-thirds vote of the electorate residing in the affected area. The election shall be conducted not less than 45 days after the public hearing. An agency may adopt procedures similar to those for increases in assessments in the conduct of elections under this subdivision.  (Italics added.) After passage of Proposition 218, the Legislature passed in 1997 Government Code section 53750 et seq., [2] designed to clarify the implementation of Proposition 218. (Stats. 1997, ch. 38, § 5, p. 366.) Section 53753 addressed the procedures for protesting assessments. As originally enacted, section 53753 contained no provisions for assessment ballot secrecy. The statute provided that [e]ach assessment ballot shall be signed and either mailed or otherwise delivered to the address indicated on the assessment ballot. (Former § 53753, subd. (c), as enacted by Stats. 1997, ch. 38, § 5, pp. 366, 369.) It further provided that [t]he majority protest proceedings described in this subdivision shall not constitute an election or voting for purposes of Article II of the California Constitution or of the California Elections Code. ( Id., subd. (e)(4), as enacted by Stats. 1997, ch. 38, § 5, pp. 366, 370.) Section 53753 was amended in 2000 to provide for a certain measure of assessment ballot secrecy. According to the legislative history, the amendment was initiated by the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association, the original sponsors of Proposition 218. The impetus for the amendment was the practice in some cities of putting pressure on property owners to change their votes after they had submitted their ballots but before the deadline for submitting ballots. (Assem. Com. on Local Government, Analysis of Sen. Bill No. 1477 (1999-2000 Reg. Sess.) as amended May 9, 2000, p. 2.) On the other hand, the legislative history reveals that earlier, unsuccessful legislative attempts to protect the secrecy of assessment ballots were viewed as too extreme. ( Ibid. ) Instead, the 2000 amendment made clear that ballot secrecy was to be preserved before the assessment ballots were tabulated, but that the ballots were to be made a public record thereafter. Section 53753, subdivision (c), as amended in 2000, therefore now provides in pertinent part: Assessment ballots shall remain sealed until the tabulation of ballots pursuant to subdivision (e) commences, provided that an assessment ballot may be submitted, or changed, or withdrawn by the person who submitted the ballot prior to the conclusion of the public testimony on the proposed assessment at the hearing required pursuant to subdivision (d). Section 53753, subdivision (e) provides in pertinent part: At the conclusion of the public hearing conducted pursuant to subdivision (d), an impartial person designated by the agency who does not have a vested interest in the outcome of the proposed assessment shall tabulate the assessment ballots submitted, and not withdrawn, in support of or opposition to the proposed assessment. . . . [¶] . . . During and after the tabulation, the assessment ballots . . . shall be treated as disclosable public records, as defined in Section 6252, and equally available for inspection by the proponents and the opponents of the proposed assessment. (Italics added.) Most of the other original provisions of section 53753, including the requirement that ballots be signed and the proviso that these procedures are not elections within the meaning of article II, were not modified by the 2000 amendment and remain in force today.