Redevelopment Agency of San Marcos v. Cal. Comm'n on State Mandates

The California Commission on State Mandates (the Commission) denied a test claim by the Redevelopment Agency of the City of San Marcos (the Agency) (Gov. Code, § 17550 et seq.), which sought a determination that the State of California should reimburse the Agency for moneys transferred into its Low and Moderate Income Housing Fund (the Housing Fund) pursuant to Health and Safety Code sections 33334.2 and 33334.3. Those sections require a 20 percent deposit of the particular form of financing received by the Agency, tax increment financing generated from its project areas, for purposes of improving the supply of affordable housing. The Agency claimed that this tax increment financing should not be subject to state control of the allocations made to various funds and that such control constituted a state-mandated new program or higher level of service for which reimbursement or subvention was required under article XIII B of the California Constitution, section 6 (hereafter section 6; all further references to articles are to the California Constitution). (Cal. Const., art. XVI, § 16; § 33670.)

The Agency brought a petition for writ of administrative mandamus to challenge…