A coalition of California local governments and water agencies Monday proposed a ballot measure to allow local governments to set water rates they believe encourage water conservation.
Introduced by the League of California Cities, California State Association of Counties, and Association of California Water Agencies, the measure comes eight months after an appellate court struck down a Southern California city’s method of charging water users based on a tiered-rate system – essentially charging larger users a higher per-unit rate. Gov. Jerry Brown likened the ruling to putting a “straitjacket on local government at a time when maximum flexibility is needed” given the protracted water shortage.
In the case out of San Juan Capistrano, the 4th District Court of Appeal ruled in April that tired rates must correspond to the cost of delivering the service. That was the premise of a 1996 ballot measure stating a city cannot impose service fees that exceed the true cost of the service.
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