City of San Jose v. State of California

Opinion

BAMATTRE-MANOUKIAN, J.

In 1979 the voters of the State of California (State) adopted an initiative which added article XIII B to the state Constitution. This followed in the wake of Proposition 13, which had added article XIII A the previous year. Section 6 of article XIII B imposed limits on the State’s authority to mandate new programs or increased services on local governmental entities, whose taxing powers had been severely restricted by Proposition 13. Under section 6, whenever the state mandated such a program, the State would be required to reimburse the local entity for the…