The Inland Oversight Committee v. City of Ontario CA4/2

I. INTRODUCTION

In 2013, defendant and respondent, City of Ontario, with the consent of defendant

and respondent, City of Rancho Cucamonga, established the Greater Ontario Tourism

Marketing District (the GOTMD), pursuant to the Property and Business Improvement

District Law of 1994. (Sts. & Hy. Code, §§ 36600-36671.)1 The GOTMD is comprised

of all lodging businesses operating in the two cities, and its mandate is to market and

promote the businesses as “tourist, meeting and event destinations” with assessments

imposed on the businesses based on their room rates and rental volumes. (See § 36632.)

Plaintiff and appellant, The Inland Oversight Committee (IOC), sued the cities to

invalidate the assessments on the ground they were a “tax” that was not approved by a

majority or supermajority of the cities’ voters as article XIII C of the California

Constitution required. (Cal. Const., art. XIII C, §§ 1, subd. (e)(2), 2, subds. (b) [majority

voter approval required for general taxes], (d) [supermajority voter approval required for

special taxes].) IOC claims the assessments are either a general tax requiring majority

voter approval or a special tax requiring supermajority…