Inland Oversight Committee v. City of Ontario

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 (the District Law). (Sts. & Hy. Code, §§ 36600-36671.) 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), par. (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…