Y’all remember the Howard Jarvis Tax Association fire tax lawsuit? Well, there’s good news and bad news. The bad news is that the lawsuit ship has foundered on the shoals of civil procedure. Payback relief is, at best delayed, if not altogether put out of reach by the lower court judge deciding to dismiss the suit for, as she puts it, unseasonable delay of five years. She reasons that plaintiffs should be penalized by throwing the petition out – even though the delay was caused by defendants’ foot-dragging on discovery – without considering the merits. HJTA responded by citing the lawsuit as an exception to the five-year rule and is filing a notice of appeal to the Court of Appeal. That will take at least a year out of the history in this case, in my view. It’s a long road ahead. The good news is that the annual fee will not have to be paid by property owners because the Legislature agreed to take the “fee” out of another pot. That was HJTA’s lobbying contribution and so no one will have to worry about what would happen if one gets another notice from the Franchise Tax Board or its successor agency. Maybe we will get the money back eventually and maybe not – but at least we won’t have to pay any more of this onerous fee…er…tax. Stay tuned.
– Phil Johnson, Boulder Creek