Mills v. County of Trinity

In Mills v. County of Trinity (1980) 108 Cal.App.3d 656, the Court considered whether the two-thirds voter approval requirement applied to fees for county services in processing subdivision, zoning, and other land-use applications. (Mills, supra, 108 Cal.App.3d at pp. 658-659.) Mills held that "the 'special tax' referred to in section 4 of article XIII A does not embrace fees charged in connection with regulatory activities which fees do not exceed the reasonable cost of providing services necessary to the activity for which the fee is charged and which are not levied for unrelated revenue purposes." (Id. at p. 659.) The Court explained that "since the trial court held the fees imposed by the county's charges constitute a 'special tax' as a matter of law, the factual question whether or not such fees exceed the reasonable cost of the related regulatory activity has never been litigated. On remand that issue must be tried." (Id. at p. 663.) Accordingly, the disposition in Mills was to "reverse and remand for a factual determination of whether the fees in question are reasonably compensatory for the costs occasioned by the regulated activities." (Id. at p. 660.)