Opinion ID: 2209486
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Question Number Two

Text: I answer the second question posed to us in the affirmative. By law, the General Assembly has authorized RIAC to impose a charge on the customers of rental-car companies for the purpose of providing funds to pay for the proposed Warwick station project. See G.L. 1956 § 1-2-1.1. Accordingly, since July 1, 2001, rental-car companies have collected these so-called customer facility charges (CFC) from their customers. Because the General Assembly has authorized RIAC to impose CFCs upon customers who directly or indirectly use the Warwick station project or any of its component facilities, I believe that the applicable law does not prohibit a uniform charge, regardless of whether rental-car companies choose to locate their rental offices within the facility or at some off-site location from which they would transport their airport-using customers to and from the facility. See Alamo Rent-A-Car, Inc. v. Sarasota-Manatee Airport Authority, 825 F.2d 367, 369, 371-74 (11th Cir.1987) (rejecting an equal-protection challenge to a uniform-charge scheme based on an allegation that off-site rental-car companies were being charged the same access fees as rental-car companies with locations on the airport premises); see also Alamo Rent-A-Car, Inc. v. Board of Supervisors of Orange County, 221 Cal.App.3d 198, 272 Cal. Rptr. 19, 25 (1990); cf. Town of Lincoln v. City of Pawtucket, 745 A.2d 139, 142, 144-46 (R.I.2000) (rejecting constitutional challenge to uniform ratescharged by the Narragansett Bay Commission for remediating a so-called combined-sewer-overflow problem).