Citizens Ass'n v. Orange County Local Agency Formation Commission

*1185Opinion

BEDSWORTH, J.

I. INTRODUCTION

Taxpayers living in Huntington Beach have been paying two taxes which taxpayers in next-door Sunset Beach haven’t. First, Huntington Beach taxpayers have been paying a utility tax of 5 percent. Second, they have been paying a “retirement property tax” of about $15 per each $100,000 of assessed valuation, on top of Proposition 13’s 1 percent limit, for Huntington Beach pension costs incurred prior to the passage of Proposition 13 in 1978.1

Until now the taxpayers of Sunset Beach have been spared those taxes. Sunset Beach is a relatively small strip of land,…