SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA RAPID TRANSIT DISTRICT, Plaintiff and Respondent, v. HELEN M. BOLEN, Defendant and Appellant; ATCHISON, TOPEKA AND SANTA FE RAILWAY COMPANY et al., Interveners and Appellants.
No. S015986
Supreme Court of California
Jan. 30, 1992
1 Cal. 4th 654
Marilyn L. Garcia, Brobeck, Phleger & Harrison, John J. Wasilczyk and Earle Miller for Defendant and Appellant.
MacDonald, Halsted & Laybourne, John R. Shiner, Stephanie Berrington McNutt, Lisa Winfield Liberatore, Hill, Farrer & Burrill, William M. Bitting, Vincent C. Page, Kevin H. Brogan and Dean E. Dennis for Interveners and Appellants.
Bird, Marella, Boxer, Wolpert & Matz, Vincent J. Marella, Dorothy Wolpert, Mark T. Drooks and Diane P. Shakin for Plaintiff and Respondent.
De Witt W. Clinton, County Counsel (Los Angeles), David B. Kelsey, Assistant County Counsel, Nossaman, Guthner, Knox & Elliott, James C. Powers and Alvin S. Kaufer as Amici Curiae on behalf of Plaintiff and Respondent.
OPINION
ARABIAN, J.--The principal question before us is whether the equal protection guarantees of the state and federal Constitutions are violated by a statute conditioning the right to vote on the ownership of real property and alloting votes on the basis of its assessed value. We hold that, under the narrow circumstances presented, such a voting scheme is reasonably related to the objectives of the statute and thus survives constitutional scrutiny.
I
A
The Southern California Rapid Transit District (hereafter SCRTD or transit district) is the lead agency for the construction, financing, and operation of “a comprehensive mass rapid transit system in the southern California area, and particularly in Los Angeles County.” (
Although the transit district is statutorily authorized to establish assessment districts without voter approval, a referendum must be held if requested by the “owners of at least 25 percent of the assessed value of real property” within a proposed assessment district. (
In addition to the foregoing franchise restrictions, the statute directs that votes in any referendum be alloted on the basis of the assessed value of the real property for ad valorem tax purposes. Qualified owners are alloted one vote for each $1,000 of assessed value of their real property. (
B
We have described special or local assessments of the sort authorized by the Legislature here as a “compulsory charge placed by the state upon real property within a pre-determined district, made under express legislative authority for defraying in whole or in part the expense of a permanent public improvement therein . . . .” (San Marcos Water Dist. v. San Marcos Unified School Dist. (1986) 42 Cal.3d 154, 161 [228 Cal.Rptr. 47, 720 P.2d 935] (quoting Spring Street Co. v. City of Los Angeles (1915) 170 Cal. 24, 29 [148 P. 217], internal quotation marks omitted); their use as a means of financing
The uses of the special assessment as a financing device for public improvements are as manifold as the forms of such improvements themselves. It has been employed to finance such variegated public improvements as the construction of drains and sewers (Dawson v. Town of Los Altos Hills (1976) 16 Cal.3d 676 [129 Cal.Rptr. 97, 547 P.2d 1377] (Dawson)), residential subdivisions (Burrey v. Embarcadero Mun. Improvement Dist. (1971) 5 Cal.3d 671 [97 Cal.Rptr. 203, 488 P.2d 395] (Burrey)), gas distribution works (County of Riverside v. Whitlock (1972) 22 Cal.App.3d 863 [99 Cal.Rptr. 710] (Whitlock)), flood control projects (City of Larkspur v. Marin County Flood Control etc. Dist. (1985) 168 Cal.App.3d 947 [214 Cal.Rptr. 689]), the redevelopment of blighted areas (In re Redevelopment Plan for Bunker Hill (1964) 61 Cal.2d 21 [37 Cal.Rptr. 74, 389 P.2d 538]), and the construction of a transit tunnel (Larsen v. San Francisco (1920) 182 Cal. 1 [186 P. 757]).
In recent years, the special assessment has found a new field of application in the context of the construction of massive urban rapid transit systems, the extraordinary capital costs of which have heightened pressure for the exploration of novel forms of financing. Grounded in the fact that the installation of a transit station and related facilities at a point along a rapid transit corridor enhances the value of real property in the immediate vicinity by generating intensified commercial activity, the special assessment has been promoted as a means by which transit authorities can recoup some of the value added to the surrounding real property and the resulting “windfall” enrichment of property owners. (See Note, Rapid Transit Financing: Use of the Special Assessment (1977) 29 Stan.L.Rev. 795.)
As applied to rapid transit financing, the mechanics of the assessment process do not differ materially from its use in conjunction with other public improvements. Briefly, the authorized public entity adopts a resolution of its intention to impose an assessment, determines the boundaries of the planned
C
In 1984, as part of its implementation of the assessment district revenue device, the SCRTD board appointed a benefit assessment policy task force, composed of representatives of a cross-section of property owners along the planned Metro Rail transit corridor, and charged it with the task of conducting a study and making recommendations for structuring the benefit assessment districts. Following a series of public hearings, the task force submitted its recommendations to the SCRTD board in 1985. In substance, it found that the property within the proposed assessment districts would benefit from the installation of Metro Rail transit stations through enhanced land values, higher lease rates and occupancy levels, increased retail sales, easier visitor access, reduced parking costs, and the intensification of land development. Following public notice and additional hearings, the SCRTD board adopted the resolutions necessary to proceed with the establishment of the benefit districts.
After submission of the resolutions to the Los Angeles City Council as required by statute and modification by that body to exempt residential property owners within the proposed districts from assessment, the transit district took final action on the matter in July of 1985 by establishing two benefit districts, one covering real property within the one-half mile radii of the four Metro Rail transit stations planned for the downtown central business district, and a second covering the real property within a one-third mile radius of the Wilshire-Alvarado transit station.
The SCRTD board‘s final resolutions established an initial assessment rate of $.30 per square foot of assessable property, with a maximum rate of $.42 per square foot-a rate calculated to raise a total of $130.3 million in capital funding over a multiyear assessment period, or roughly 11 percent of the total cost of the 4.4-mile segment. The board also acceded to the exemption of residential property within the two benefit districts, required as a condition for Los Angeles City Council approval, and directed that the assessments otherwise be levied uniformly throughout the two districts and that they expire in the year 2008 or earlier. Although assessment notices for the 1986-1987 year were mailed to commercial property owners within the two districts, at the request of affected property owners the board subsequently deferred collection of any assessments until 1992.
Soon after the foregoing administrative action was taken, this suit was filed. Brought by SCRTD against its secretary, Helen M. Bolen, the complaint sought a writ of mandate directing her to certify additional resolutions of the SCRTD board authorizing the sale of $200 million in municipal bonds secured by revenues from the benefit assessments, the object of the suit being to judicially validate the actions of the board in establishing the two benefit districts before the bonds were issued.2 (Cf. Whitlock, supra, 22 Cal.App.3d 863, 868 & fn. 6;
After reviewing the administrative record supporting the task force‘s recommendations and taking additional evidence, the superior court upheld the property-based voting scheme at issue against claims that it violated the equal protection guarantees of the state and federal Constitutions. The trial court likewise validated the assessment districts in all other respects against the nonconstitutional objections of interveners and Bolen, entered judgment for the transit district on its claims, issued its writ directing defendant Bolen to certify the board resolutions authorizing issuance of the revenue bonds, and denied interveners any relief.
The Court of Appeal reversed. In its view, the property-based voting scheme was constitutionally flawed in two respects. First, it violated equal protection by invidiously discriminating against nonproperty owners. According to the Court of Appeal‘s reasoning, public transportation affects all citizens, not merely property owners, and the financing, operation, and maintenance of Metro Rail will impact all segments of the population of greater Los Angeles. Since the benefits and the burdens of the assessments fall indiscriminately on property owners and nonproperty owners alike, the principle of “one person, one vote” is triggered, requiring a compelling state interest to justify the exclusion of nonproperty owners from the franchise. Finding none, the Court of Appeal pronounced that part of the statutory voting scheme void.
In addition, the Court of Appeal concluded that the differing methods adopted by the Legislature in alloting votes and imposing assessments under the statute-the former linked to the ad valorem tax value of the property, the latter tied to parcel size-were fundamentally unfair because of the
We reverse the judgment of the Court of Appeal.
II
It is important to underline at the outset what is not before us in this case. The question at issue is not whether Metro Rail should be built and, if so, how its costs should be distributed. Neither are we asked to consider directly the desirability or usefulness of special assessment districts as a financing device to recapture some of the economic value added to a commercial area as a result of locating a rapid transit station within it. Questions concerning metropolitan transportation policy in greater Los Angeles, and the economic, environmental and aesthetic aspects of Metro Rail and of benefit assessment districts, important as they undoubtedly are as public issues, are not presented by this case, having been debated, sometimes litigated (see, e.g., Rapid Transit Advocates, Inc. v. Southern Cal. Rapid Transit Dist. (1986) 185 Cal.App.3d 996 [230 Cal.Rptr. 225]), and resolved in other forums over the past decade.
What is at issue is the substantially narrower question whether the principle of “one person, one vote,” laid down by the United States Supreme Court in Reynolds v. Sims (1964) 377 U.S. 533 [12 L.Ed.2d 506, 84 S.Ct. 1362] (Reynolds), applies to the property-based assessment district voting scheme described above, or whether the circumstances qualify as those in which the Constitution does not stand as a “roadblock[] in the path of innovation, experiment, and development among units of local government.”3 (See Avery v. Midland County (1968) 390 U.S. 474, 485 [20 L.Ed.2d 45, 53-54, 88 S.Ct. 1114] (Avery).) As with much of the jurisprudence of equal protection, the answer to that question is significantly affected by the threshold selection of the appropriate level of judicial scrutiny.
If the principle of one person, one vote applies to voting in the assessment district referenda, the state is placed under a substantial burden of demonstrating a compelling justification for an exclusion from the voting franchise resting on the ownership of real property. If, however, this case qualifies as an exception to the principle of Reynolds, the constitutional test is the less demanding one of whether the voting scheme is either “wholly irrelevant” or “reasonably related” to the statutory objectives. As we shall explain, the crucial task in the case of property-based voting schemes is to identify the constitutionally relevant factual basis for selecting one level of scrutiny over the other.
A
The solution to the equal protection problem posed by the statutory classification in this case lies in a trio of post-Reynolds decisions of the high court which recognize an exception to the principle of one person, one vote. In substance, these cases hold that the right protected by Reynolds-equality at the ballot box-is not fundamental under limited circumstances.4 As the court formulated the exception in Avery, supra, 390 U.S. 474, 483-484 [20 L.Ed.2d 45, 53], these circumstances consist of “a special-purpose unit of government assigned the performance of functions affecting definable groups of constituents more than other[s] . . . .” Where these two conditions jointly occur, the strict demands of Reynolds, supra, 377 U.S. 533, do not apply and voting power “may be apportioned in ways which give greater influence to the citizens most affected by the organization‘s functions” (Avery, supra, at p. 484 [20 L.Ed.2d at p. 53]) without violating the guarantee of equal protection provided that the resulting classification is reasonably related to the statutory objective.
The first condition focuses on the extent to which the public entity involved is vested with governmental powers. In Avery, supra, 390 U.S. 474, the court held that Reynolds applied to the election of a countywide “commissioners court,” a local body exercising “general governmental powers over the entire geographic area served by [that] body.” (390 U.S. at p. 485
The second branch of the equal protection analysis looks to the impact of the election outcome on voters and nonvoters. It focuses on the extent to which a contested statutory voting classification is supported by “genuine difference[s] in the relevant interests” of those enfranchised and those excluded by a given voting scheme. (See Lockport v. Citizens for Community Action (1977) 430 U.S. 259, 268 [51 L.Ed.2d 313, 322-323, 97 S.Ct. 1047] (Lockport) [upholding concurrent majority voting requirements for city and non city residents in county wide referendum].) If the class enfranchised by the scheme at issue is “primarily affected” or “primarily interested” in the election and “those excluded are in fact substantially less interested or affected than those the statute includes” (Kramer, supra, 395 U.S. at p. 632 [23 L.Ed.2d at p. 592]), the voting scheme does not deny equal protection so long as the statutory classification is not “wholly irrelevant” to the achievement of the statute‘s objectives. (Kotch v. Pilot Comm‘rs (1947) 330 U.S. 552, 556 [91 L.Ed. 1093, 1096-1097, 67 S.Ct. 910]; McGowan v. Maryland (1961) 366 U.S. 420, 425-426 [6 L.Ed.2d 393, 398-399, 81 S.Ct. 1101].)
B
In Salyer Land Co. v. Tulare Water District (1973) 410 U.S. 719 [35 L.Ed.2d 659, 93 S.Ct. 1224] (Salyer), the conditions required to support an exception to the principle of Reynolds materialized in the form of a contested election of the board of directors of a California water storage district. In ruling that a property-based voting scheme was not subject to the principle of one person, one vote, the court invoked both the “special-purpose unit of government” and the “primarily affected or interested” criteria to anchor its result.
Comprising 193,000 acres of intensively cultivated farmland, the water storage district was populated by only 60 adults, most of whom were
Because there was “no way that the economic burdens of district operations [could] fall on residents qua residents, and the operation of the district[] primarily affect[s] land within [its] boundaries,” the court concluded that “the popular election requirements enunciated in Reynolds and succeeding cases are inapplicable to elections such as the general election of [the] Water District.” (Salyer, supra, 410 U.S. at pp. 729-730 [35 L.Ed.2d at p. 667].) The equal protection question, the court said, was simply “whether the State‘s decision to deny the franchise to residents of the district while granting it to landowners was ‘wholly irrelevant to achievement of the [statute‘s] objectives,’ [citation].” (Id. at p. 730 [35 L.Ed.2d at pp. 667-668].)
Salyer, supra, 410 U.S. 719, is analytically linked to the court‘s subsequent decision in Ball v. James (1981) 451 U.S. 355 [68 L.Ed.2d 150, 101 S.Ct. 1811] (Ball). On facts strikingly different from those of Salyer, the court reached an identical result, ruling that the principle of Reynolds, supra, 377 U.S. 533, did not apply to an election for the directors of the Salt River District, a water reclamation district encompassing 236,000 acres in central Arizona whose governing board was elected by those owning land within the district, voting power being apportioned according to the number of acres owned. (Ball, supra, 451 U.S. at pp. 370-372 [68 L.Ed.2d at pp. 162-164].)
Like the water storage district in Salyer, the primary purpose of the Salt River District was the conservation and distribution of water owned by its landowning membership. But unlike the district in Salyer, the Salt River
Despite recognition that these activities were “more diverse and affected far more people” than those in Salyer, supra, 410 U.S. 719, the court held that “these distinctions do not amount to a constitutional difference.” (Ball, supra, 451 U.S. at pp. 365-366 [68 L.Ed.2d at pp. 159-160].) This was so, the majority reasoned, because despite its manifold activities, the Salt River District did “not exercise the sort of governmental powers that invoke the strict demands of Reynolds.” (Id. at p. 366 [68 L.Ed.2d at p. 160].) Its powers did not run the gamut of those typical of a general government, and those that it did exercise were incidental to and in the service of its relatively narrow mission of storing, conserving, and distributing water to its landowner members. (Id. at pp. 368-369 [68 L.Ed.2d at pp. 161-162].) “The constitutionally relevant fact is that all water delivered by the Salt River District is distributed according to land ownership, and the District does not and cannot control the use to which the landowners who are entitled to the water choose to put it.” (Id. at pp. 367-368 [68 L.Ed.2d at p. 161], fn. omitted.)
Coordinate with its limited purpose and functions, the reclamation district‘s activities fell disproportionately on the specific class which the statutory voting scheme enfranchised-its landowner membership. Only they were subject to the acreage-based taxing power of the district, only they had committed capital to the district through assessments, and only their land was subject to liens to secure district bonds. (Ball, supra, 451 U.S. at p. 370 [68 L.Ed.2d at pp. 162-163].) Since the district‘s operations had a disproportionate effect on those enfranchised, “the voting scheme . . . [was] constitutional because it bears a reasonable relationship to its statutory objectives.” (Id. at p. 371 [68 L.Ed.2d at p. 163].)
No one reviewing this area of the high court‘s equal protection jurisprudence can fail to be impressed with the result in Ball-not because the opinion represents an analytical advance over the principles developed in Salyer, but because it illustrates the majority‘s steadfast willingness to
Viewing the record in this case through the lens of that insight, one conclusion seems evident. Manifestly, the benefit districts at issue here are not invested with and do not exercise powers remotely similar to the “general governmental powers” to which the principle of Reynolds, supra, 377 U.S. 533, presumptively applies. And unlike the substantial but narrowly directed complement of powers exercised by the water districts in Salyer and Ball, the benefit assessment districts lack virtually any of the incidents of government. In fact, they are little more than formalistic, geographically defined perimeters whose raison d‘être is to serve as the conceptual medium for the recognition of economic benefits conferred and the imposition of a corresponding fiscal burden. (Compare Whitlock, supra, 22 Cal.App.3d 863, 874 [assessment district “simply denotes the land area benefited by the proposed improvements and to be assessed for the costs thereof“], and Dawson, supra, 16 Cal.3d 676, 683 [special assessment district “is not a legal entity with officers and corporate rights and duties“], with Burrey, supra, 5 Cal.3d 671, 677 [Reynolds applied to municipal improvement
The transit district itself, of course, is invested with and exercises substantial governmental powers; indeed, it has been described as having “virtual autonomy in self-governance” and “a regional governmental body with statewide concerns.” (Rapid Transit Advocates, Inc. v. Southern Cal. Rapid Transit Dist., supra, 185 Cal.App.3d 996, 1000.) But SCRTD is not the governmental body implicated by the voting scheme at issue and the range of governmental powers exercised by it are irrelevant to our inquiry.
The political entities constitutionally relevant to the challenged voting scheme are the limited-purpose benefit districts, the organizing principle of which is the recoupment of some of the added economic value conferred on commercial property resulting from its proximity to the transit stations. The narrow purpose for which the districts are established is reflected in a voting scheme that limits the franchise to those who will directly and primarily enjoy the benefits of transit station siting and shoulder the reciprocal burden of assessments-owners of commercial property within the two proposed districts. In light of that congruence, we are satisfied that the governmental units at issue lack the indicia of “general governmental powers” and, on this leg of the equal protection inquiry, qualify as the sort of “special-purpose units of government” that are not subject to the strict requirements of Reynolds, supra, 377 U.S. 533.
C
We turn now to the cognate question whether the challenged voting classification is supported by a “genuine difference in the relevant interests” of those enfranchised and those excluded. (Lockport, supra, 430 U.S. 259, 268 [51 L.Ed.2d 313, 322-323].) The analysis is advanced by a recognition of the “single-shot” nature of referenda. “In a referendum, the expression of voter will is direct, and there is no need to assure that the voters’ views will be adequately represented through their representatives . . . . The policy impact of a referendum is also different in kind from the impact of choosing representatives . . . . [T]he referendum puts one discrete issue to the voters. That issue is capable . . . of being analyzed to determine whether its adoption or rejection will have a disproportionate impact on an identifiable group of voters.” (Id. at p. 266 [51 L.Ed.2d at p. 321].) At the outset, then,
Resolution of this part of the equal protection inquiry also requires us to make careful distinctions in identifying constitutionally relevant facts. While certain broad criteria are clear, the analysis ineluctably implicates a measure of constitutional line drawing. The touchstone of the high court‘s “primarily affected or interested” doctrine is the extent of the impact of the election on those within and those outside the challenged voting classification. As noted, two complementary estimates must be made: whether the class of eligible voters enfranchised is disproportionately affected by the election issue, and whether those excluded are in fact substantially less interested in its outcome. Importantly, the court has stressed that, in weighing the statutory classification against the factual record, absolute distinctions between affected classes are not constitutionally compelled. The inquiry is the relative one of identifying differences sufficiently substantial to sustain the classification; the fact that some of those excluded from voting in the election may be “affected” by its outcome is not in itself fatal: “[c]onstitutional adjudication cannot rest on any such ‘house that Jack built’ foundation . . . .” (Salyer, supra, 410 U.S. 719, 731 [35 L.Ed.2d at p. 668].)
From the undeniably correct premise that public transportation is an issue affecting all citizens, the Court of Appeal reasoned that, the development of an urban mass transit system being crucial to the orderly growth of a metropolitan area, its financing, construction and operation necessarily affected all segments of the population. Specifically noting the interests of commercial lessees within the assessment districts who are excluded from voting in referenda, but championing as well what it termed the “same” interests of “other residents, both within and without the [benefit districts] who will be impacted” by Metro Rail, the Court of Appeal concluded that, along an axial line, this case was factually closer to two municipal bond referendum cases decided by the high court, Cipriano v. City of Houma (1969) 395 U.S. 701 [23 L.Ed.2d 647, 89 S.Ct. 1897] (Cipriano), and Phoenix v. Kolodziejski (1970) 399 U.S. 204 [26 L.Ed.2d 523, 90 S.Ct. 1990] (Phoenix), than it was to Salyer or Ball. It was thus one in which the principle of one person, one vote applied, the court concluded. Our analysis of these cases and the facts surrounding the benefit districts impels us to disagree with the Court of Appeal.
In the two cases relied upon by the Court of Appeal to support its result, the high court concluded that the differences “between the interests of
Similarly, in Phoenix, supra, 399 U.S. 204, the court invalidated a statutory voting scheme restricting the franchise to real property taxpayers in a referendum called by the city to approve general obligation bonds, the proceeds of which were to be used to finance multiple municipal improvements-“the city sewer system, parks and playgrounds, police and public safety buildings, and libraries.” (Id. at p. 206 [26 L.Ed.2d at p. 526].) In holding that the Reynolds (supra, 377 U.S. 533) principle of one person, one vote applied to the bond referendum, the court identified three reasons why the challenged voting classification was not supported by sufficiently substantial differences between those permitted to vote and those excluded.
First, it was plain that all the residents of the municipality had a substantial and indistinguishable interest in the public facilities and services to be financed by the bond issue and thus would be substantially affected by the election outcome. (Phoenix, supra, 399 U.S. at p. 209 [26 L.Ed.2d at pp. 527-528].) Second, although under state law the city theoretically had recourse to a real property tax levy to support its bond issue, historically it had financed more than half of its debt requirements by revenues from nonproperty taxes, taxes paid by property and nonproperty owners alike. (Id. at pp. 209-210 [26 L.Ed.2d at pp. 527-528].) Finally, the court recognized that a significant portion of those property taxes paid by owners to finance the bonds would ultimately be passed on to lessees in the form of higher rents, and to the general public as increases in the cost of goods and services,
D
Applying the teaching of these two cases to the circumstances presented by the record here, we reach a conclusion contrary to that of the Court of Appeal. First and foremost, unlike Cipriano, supra, 395 U.S. 701, and Phoenix, supra, 399 U.S. 204, in which it could be said that virtually all of the residents of the governmental unit had a beneficial interest in the outcome of the bond referendum-the prospect of improved utility service for resident consumers in the one case and an array of civic improvements and services in the other-nonvoting residents of the assessment districts have no specific beneficial interest in the proceeds of the assessments distinguishable from that of every other resident of the multicounty area comprising the transit district.
Although nonproperty owning residents of the assessment districts are “affected” by the outcome of the referendum, they are no more affected than any other resident of the greater Los Angeles metropolitan area served by Metro Rail. It is not contended by any party that the state or federal Constitution requires that assessment district referenda be open to all qualified electors in the entire geographical area served by Metro Rail. Since the beneficial impact of the assessment districts on nonvoting residents is indistinguishable from the impact on residents of the Metro Rail service area outside of the benefit districts, that impact is insufficient to require extension of the franchise to the excluded class.
Moreover, again unlike the circumstances in Cipriano, supra, 395 U.S. 701, and Phoenix, supra, 399 U.S. 204, the economic burden of the assessments does not fall indiscriminately on property- and non-property-owning residents of the benefit districts alike. If the benefit districts are approved, the levy will fall directly on precisely that limited class enfranchised by the statutory scheme-owners of commercial property within the district; non-voting residents of the districts will bear no discernably direct financial burden as a result of the assessments, nor will those residing outside the benefit districts.
And while one possible result of the failure to gain voter approval of the benefit districts may be to force SCRTD to look elsewhere to make up for lost funding, the possibility of a future search for alternative revenues that could conceivably result in some financial impact on the taxpayers of much of Southern California in the form of additional levies does not mean that all
Third, unlike both Cipriano, supra, 395 U.S. 701, and Phoenix, supra, 399 U.S. 204, this is not a case in which those residents of the governmental unit denied the franchise will in fact contribute to the burden of financing Metro Rail as directly as those enfranchised. The constitutionally decisive fact is that, under the assessment scheme, only commercial real property within the two districts will be assessed—an immediate and tangible economic burden that is confined to commercial property and does not implicate directly any economic interest of either non-property-owning residents or residential property owners within the assessment districts.
As in Salyer, supra, 410 U.S. 719, and Ball, supra, 451 U.S. 355, the “activities” of the assessment districts—the raising of revenue to defray in part the cost of Metro Rail—will affect disproportionately owners of commercial property within them; it is they who will most directly feel both the beneficial economic effects of the transit station locations and bear the financial burden of the annual assessments. Likewise, all district “costs” (the assessments themselves) “are assessed against land“; district “operations” (again, the raising of revenue to finance public improvements directly benefiting the enfranchised class) “primarily affect the land within [district] boundaries.” (410 U.S. at p. 729 [35 L.Ed.2d at p. 667].)
This is not to deny that some within the benefit districts who are not permitted to vote will be more “affected” by the proposed assessments than those outside. Notably, we may assume, as did the court in Salyer, supra, 410 U.S. 719, that a subclass of those within the two benefit districts whose economic interests are analogous to those of commercial property owners—commercial lessees in this case—will be affected secondarily by the assessments because of “pass through” clauses in their lease agreements. But so, too, are consumers of goods and services retailed by this subclass “affected,” as the financial consequences of the assessments are presumably distributed throughout the region. In the specific factual context of this case, however, we do not find this prospect sufficiently substantial to invoke the demands of Reynolds, supra, 377 U.S. 533.
As in Salyer, supra, 410 U.S. 719, we think that recognition of the indirect and secondary affect on this limited class smacks too much of “house that
Finally, we cannot fail to note the apparent inconsistency of interveners on this issue. Although urging that the principle of Reynolds, supra, 377 U.S. 533, applies, they nevertheless acknowledge the superior fairness of a voting scheme that would offend the principle of one person, one vote, by contending that the proper voting classification would include commercial property owners and tenants as well as residents of the benefit districts. Were the Reynolds principle to prevail here, however, it is district residents, precisely that class least affected by the assessment scheme, who would be enfranchised, to the exclusion of nonresident corporate property owners and probably most commercial tenants of the two districts. As in Salyer, supra, 410 U.S. 719, 730 [35 L.Ed.2d 659, 667], to sustain interveners’ contention “would not result merely in the striking down of an exclusion from what was otherwise a delineated class, but would instead engraft onto the statutory scheme a wholly new class of voters in addition to those enfranchised by the statute.”
We conclude, therefore, that neither the “special-purpose unit of government” nor the “primarily affected or interested” analysis yields a requirement that the principle of one person, one vote must be applied to benefit assessment district referenda.
E
Of course, respondents are entitled to have their claims adjudicated under the equal protection requirement applicable in this case, namely, that the statutory voting scheme not be “‘wholly irrelevant‘” to the “‘achievement of the [statutory] objectives,’ [citation].” (Salyer, supra, 410 U.S. 719, 730 [35 L.Ed.2d 659, 668].) The question whether the voting classification meets that constitutional standard is one that we examine in the abstract; it is
The challenged scheme denies the vote to two identifiable subgroups within the benefit districts—residents, whether lessees or owners, of noncommercial real property, and lessees of commercial property. The Legislature reasonably could have permitted the exclusion of the former on the obvious ground that limiting voting to those who will directly bear the cost of the assessments is demonstrably fairer or more equitable than including those whose affirmative vote carries no personal financial consequences or risk. As did the court in Salyer, supra, 410 U.S. 719, 731 [35 L.Ed.2d 659, 668], we conclude that nothing in the equal protection clause precludes the total exclusion of “those who merely reside within the district.”
The case with respect to commercial lessees is only slightly less evident. As noted, interveners’ claim with respect to this class is that, by virtue of “pass through” clauses in commercial lease agreements, they (or some of them) will bear a financial impact as a result of the assessments that is so closely analogous to that affecting the class enfranchised as to be indistinguishable for equal protection purposes. Here again, however, it was for the Legislature to draw the line. And again, as in Salyer, supra, 410 U.S. 719, 732 [35 L.Ed.2d 659, 668-669], we think that it reasonably could have drawn the line that it did in light of the significant administrative difficulties that foreseeably would have arisen had the vote been extended to the “pass through” class of commercial tenants.
As the transit district points out, including this class within those enfranchised would require those administering the referenda to determine a multitude of discrete voter qualification issues—identifying those commercial leases with “pass through” provisions and those without, the percentage of the assessment passed to particular tenants, whether partial “pass throughs” are permitted, the duration of commercial leases, and other electoral minutiae which have not occurred to us. Although imperfect, the “rough accommodation” to practicality and administrative convenience chosen passes constitutional muster. (Salyer, supra, 410 U.S. 719, 732 [35 L.Ed.2d 659, 668-669]; Dandridge v. Williams (1970) 397 U.S. 471, 485-487 [25 L.Ed.2d 491, 501-503, 90 S.Ct. 1153]; Wood v. Public Utilities Commission (1971) 4 Cal.3d 288, 295, fn. 2 [93 Cal.Rptr. 455, 481 P.2d 823]; United States Steel Corp. v. Public Utilities Com. (1981) 29 Cal.3d 603, 613-614
III
The conclusion that the distribution of the elective franchise in benefit district referenda is not subject to the strict demands of Reynolds, supra, 377 U.S. 533, also yields the answer to interveners’ ancillary claim that the manner in which the Legislature chose to apportion votes and levy assessments among those enfranchised is constitutionally defective. The specific contention is that principles of equal protection require that those who pay the most in assessments be alloted the most votes in the referenda. Absent this substantial “proportionality” between voting power and financial burden, interveners argue, the statutory voting scheme lacks a rational basis.
As authority for this argument, interveners rely entirely on a sentence in Ball, supra, 451 U.S. 355, and language in the opinion of the Court of Appeal in Whitlock, supra, 22 Cal.App.3d 863. Interveners seize on the statement in Ball that an acreage-based vote allotment scheme is rational because it “reasonably reflects the relative risks incurred [by] landowners and the distribution of the benefits and burdens of the District‘s water operations.” (451 U.S. at p. 371 [68 L.Ed.2d at p. 163], fn. omitted.) They also invoke language in Whitlock sustaining as rational a statutory provision for the termination of assessment proceedings on the protest of owners of more than one-half of the land affected.7
We cannot regard these brief remarks as definitive on the issue, however, impliedly condemning alternative vote allotment schemes. In Salyer, supra, 410 U.S. 719, 734 [35 L.Ed.2d 659, 669-670], the court upheld a statutory scheme that alloted votes according to the tax assessed value of real property and imposed assessments on a project-specific basis according to the benefit conferred, a divided arrangement not unlike the statutory scheme challenged in this case. The high court declined to declare such a scheme not rationally based, given the rough proportionality between voting strength and assessment burden. (Ibid.) As in Salyer, we think that the Legislature was entitled
Alternatively, the conclusion that the circumstances surrounding the benefit district referenda satisfy the constitutional criteria for an exception to the principle of one person, one vote, necessarily means that the proponent of the challenged statutory voting scheme must demonstrate only that it is not “wholly irrelevant” to the objectives of the statute. (Salyer, supra, 410 U.S. 719, 730 [35 L.Ed.2d 659, 668].) The equal protection issue raised by interveners’ proportionality claim, therefore, is simply whether the divided arrangement chosen by the Legislature bears some reasonable relation to the statutory scheme. That is, we perceive no constitutional basis independent of Reynolds, supra, 377 U.S. 533, for what is, in substance, simply an argument for a scheme of weighted voting different from that chosen by the Legislature, one that gives greater voting power to some property owners rather than others.9
That said, it is not difficult to imagine legitimate concerns that might have motivated the Legislature to adopt differing formulas for the allotment of votes and the calculation of assessments. It might, for example, have adopted
Likewise, the Legislature‘s direction that current ad valorem tax assessment rolls be used to identify qualified voters and allot votes has the merit of accuracy, simplicity and administrative convenience. At least where the countervailing interests are not fundamental in the constitutional sense or otherwise entitled to special solicitude, these are virtues that are not lightly abandoned. (Salyer, supra, 410 U.S. 719, 732-733 [35 L.Ed.2d at pp. 668-669].) It was hardly unreasonable for the Legislature to direct that votes be alloted by means of existing tax assessment rolls—an accurate, convenient, and verifiable basis for notice and one that permits benefit districts to be approved at referenda before undertaking the administratively detailed, prolonged, and costly task of calculating and verifying the square footage of each parcel subject to assessment.
Whatever the case, although both alloting votes and calculating assessments according to square footage might be more “equitable” in that it would tend to equalize the burden of assessments and voting power, we discern no constitutional basis for compelling the Legislature to adopt such an arrangement, on pain of having its voting scheme invalidated as lacking a rational basis.10
IV
A final matter requires our attention. As noted, in addition to holding that the referendum voting scheme violated principles of equal
Specifically,
Relying on the rule that exemptions from special assessments “should . . . be based on express statutory authority” (Hollywood Cemetery Assn. v. Powell (1930) 210 Cal. 121, 135 [291 P. 397, 71 A.L.R. 310]), and that a presumption, founded on distributive equity, extends assessment to all those who are beneficially affected by the improvement absent affirmative indications supporting an exemption (Cedars of Lebanon Hosp. v. County of L. A. (1950) 35 Cal.2d 729, 747-748 [221 P.2d 31, 15 A.L.R.2d 1045]), interveners claim that the text of the statute fails to demonstrate the requisite clarity of legislative intent. The Court of Appeal agreed that the statute did not grant SCRTD any exemption power. We disagree and, for the reasons that follow, conclude that the exemption of residential property from the assessment districts at issue here is “based on express statutory authority.” (Hollywood Cemetery Assn. v. Powell, supra, 210 Cal. 121, 135.)
Finally,
Conclusion
Early in our history, the high court observed that “the science of government is . . . the science of experiment.” (Anderson v. Dunn (1821) 19 U.S. [6 Wheat.] 204, 226 [5 L.Ed. 242, 247].) Not long ago, in upholding an innovation in the government of a county school system, the court reminded us that “[v]iable local governments may need many innovations, numerous combinations of old and new devices, great flexibility in municipal arrangements to meet changing urban conditions.” (Sailors v. Board of Education (1967) 387 U.S. 105, 110-111 [18 L.Ed.2d 650, 654-655, 87 S.Ct. 1549].) In the circumstances of this case, combining an old device with a new setting, we see “nothing in the Constitution to prevent experimentation.” (Id. at p. 111 [18 L.Ed.2d at p. 655].)
The judgment of the Court of Appeal is reversed.
Lucas, C. J., Panelli, J., Baxter, J., and George, J., concurred.
KENNARD, J.—I dissent.
The challenged electoral system, under which none but owners of commercial property may vote on the imposition of special benefit assessments to finance rail rapid transit stations, violates the equal protection guarantee of the
I
The Legislature established the Southern California Rapid Transit District (hereafter the SCRTD) to construct, operate, and maintain “a comprehensive mass rapid transit system in the southern California area, and particularly in Los Angeles County.” (
Recognizing that “rail rapid transit facilities and services provide special benefits to parcels of land, and improvements thereon, in the vicinity of rail rapid transit stations” (
The Board may establish the benefit districts and impose the assessments without an election (
Using its statutory authority, the Board established two benefit districts (one of which contains four zones) consisting of land surrounding proposed
II
Under the
To support its conclusion that the restrictions at issue here are constitutionally permissible, the majority relies heavily on Salyer Land Co. v. Tulare Water District (1973) 410 U.S. 719, 35 L. Ed. 2d 659, 93 S. Ct. 1224 (hereafter Salyer), and Ball v. James (1981) 451 U.S. 355 [68 L.Ed.2d 150, 101 S.Ct. 1811] (hereafter Ball). As I will explain, these cases are of limited relevance because they concern elections to select representatives rather than, as here, elections to decide discrete issues. To the extent these cases are relevant, they support the conclusion that voting restrictions in elections conducted by the SCRTD are not exempt from strict scrutiny.
In Salyer, supra, 410 U.S. 719, and Ball, supra, 451 U.S. 355, the issue before the United States Supreme Court was the validity, under the
The United States Supreme Court also emphasized that the actions of water districts disproportionately affect landowners because district costs are assessed against landowners in proportion to the benefits received, with delinquencies becoming a lien on the land. (Salyer, supra, 410 U.S. 719, 729 [35 L.Ed.2d at p. 667].) Although the district at issue in Ball provided much of its water for nonagricultural uses, the court explained that the “constitutionally relevant fact” was that all of its water was distributed according to land ownership. (Ball, supra, 451 U.S. 355, 367 [68 L.Ed.2d at pp. 160-161].) The court concluded that the districts “remain essentially business enterprises, created by and chiefly benefiting a specific group of landowners.” (Id. at p. 368 [68 L.Ed.2d at p. 161].)
The SCRTD‘s primary purpose and manner of operation contrast sharply with those of the water districts discussed in Salyer, supra, 410 U.S. 719, and Ball, supra, 451 U.S. 355. The SCRTD‘s primary purpose is to establish and operate an urban rail mass transit system. Providing urban mass transportation is a task traditionally performed by local government, as the United States Supreme Court recognized when it included transportation among the “general public services” that local governments have historically provided to their citizens. (Salyer, supra, at pp. 728-729 [35 L.Ed.2d at pp. 666-667]; see also, Cunningham v. Municipality of Metropolitan Seattle (W.D.Wash. 1990) 751 F.Supp. 885, 890 [applying one-person, one-vote principle to special district providing mass transit and water pollution abatement].)
If a public entity‘s primary purpose is to provide even a single traditional governmental service, the federal Constitution may require strict scrutiny of voting restrictions in elections of its governing body. (See, e.g., Hadley v. Junior College District (1970) 397 U.S. 50 [25 L.Ed.2d 45, 90 S.Ct. 791] [applying one-person, one-vote principle to election for school board members]; Fumarolo v. Chicago Bd. of Educ. (1990) 142 Ill.2d 54 [566 N.E.2d 1283, 1295].) The transportation service that the SCRTD provides is not distributed according to land ownership but is available to all who choose to ride its trains. Although the building of a rail mass transit system provides special benefits to some landowners, these benefits are incidental to the rapid
The majority opinion does not analyze the issue in these terms. Instead of comparing the water districts at issue in Salyer, supra, 410 U.S. 719, and Ball, supra, 451 U.S. 355, with the SCRTD, the majority compares them with the benefit assessment districts. This is fundamentally erroneous, and indeed senseless, because the SCRTD itself, not the benefit districts, imposes and collects the special benefit assessments and conducts any election that may be required. (
The conclusion to be drawn from Salyer, supra, 410 U.S. 719, and Ball, supra, 451 U.S. 355, is that the SCRTD is a governmental entity of general powers. If the election at issue were for the purpose of selecting the SCRTD‘s governing body, it would be an election of general interest and restrictions on the franchise other than residence, age, or citizenship would therefore be subject to strict scrutiny. (Hill v. Stone, supra, 421 U.S. 289, 297 [44 L.Ed.2d 172, 178-179].) But the scope of the election is narrower. Its purpose is to determine whether special benefit assessments shall be imposed. To decide whether such an election, conducted by a governmental entity of general powers, is an election of general interest, it is appropriate to consider decisions of the United States Supreme Court concerning similar limited-purpose elections.
As the high court has emphasized, the equal protection principles applicable to “an election involving the choice of legislative representatives” have
Here, it cannot be questioned that the decision to impose a special benefit assessment will have a particular impact on an identifiable group of voters— owners of the property on which the assessment is imposed. But the existence of this special impact is not in itself sufficient to justify restriction of the franchise to the class specially affected in this manner. The relevant analysis is found in another United States Supreme Court decision, Phoenix v. Kolodziejski (1970) 399 U.S. 204 [26 L.Ed.2d 523, 90 S.Ct. 1990] (hereafter Phoenix).
The high court held in Phoenix, supra, 399 U.S. 204, that in an election to approve a municipality‘s issuance of general obligation bonds, a state could not restrict the franchise to real property taxpayers, even though the municipality substantially relied on property taxes to service the bonds. The court concluded that “[t]he differences between the interests of property owners and the interests of nonproperty owners are not sufficiently substantial to justify excluding the latter from the franchise.” (Id. at p. 209 [26 L.Ed.2d at p. 527].)
The court gave three reasons for this conclusion. First, all municipal residents had a substantial interest in the facilities and services financed by the bonds. “Presumptively, when all citizens are affected in important ways by a governmental decision subject to a referendum, the Constitution does not permit weighted voting or the exclusion of otherwise qualified citizens from the franchise.” (Phoenix, supra, 399 U.S. 204, 209 [26 L.Ed.2d at p. 527].) Second, the municipality would not rely entirely on property taxes to service the bond debt, but would also rely in significant part on other local taxes paid by nonproperty owners. (Id. at pp. 209-210 [26 L.Ed.2d at pp. 527-528].) Finally, the landowners could redistribute the property tax burden to others in the community in the form of higher rents and, in the case of commercial property, in the form of higher prices for goods and services produced or sold on the taxed property. (Id. at pp. 210-211 [26 L.Ed.2d at pp. 528-529].)
The effects will not be confined to commercial activity. In most instances, residential property located near proposed rapid transit stations will increase in value in recognition of the convenience of ready access to the transit system.1 This increase in value will translate into higher rents for rented dwellings and higher sales prices for owner-occupied dwellings. These increases in housing costs will significantly affect the residents of the area immediately surrounding the proposed stations.
Because the construction of the transit stations affects all community residents in important ways, the exclusion of residents who own no commercial land is presumptively a violation of equal protection. Although the assessments will be levied initially on the owners of commercial property, they can redistribute the burden to other community residents. Rents charged to commercial tenants will certainly increase. Indeed, it is undisputed that most commercial leases in the benefit assessment areas contain “pass through” provisions under which the tenant assumes liability for any tax or assessment levied on the property. The occupant of the premises who pays the assessment, whether landowner or tenant, can recover the cost from consumers, many of whom will be local residents, by increases in the prices of goods and services produced or sold on the taxed property.
Under the test articulated in Phoenix, supra, 399 U.S. 204, which this court is required to employ, the election on the SCRTD‘s special benefit
III
Like the other members of this court, I am reluctant to accept a conclusion that might impede the construction of needed public facilities, and the need for a modern and efficient rapid transit system in the greater Los Angeles area cannot be denied. Yet, as the United States Supreme Court has noted, restrictions on the franchise that violate equal protection cannot be justified “on exigencies of history or convenience.” (New York City Bd. of Estimate v. Morris (1989) 489 U.S. 688, 703, fn. 10 [103 L.Ed.2d 717, 733, 109 S.Ct. 1433].) Thus, like the Court of Appeal, I conclude that, under controlling federal precedent, the existing electoral system for the SCRTD‘s special benefit assessments is invalid on its face.
Because the electoral system is invalid for the reasons I have stated, I find it unnecessary to consider the other bases on which that system has been challenged in this litigation. Having concluded that the existing electoral system violates the federal Constitution, I would affirm the judgment of the Court of Appeal.
Mosk, J., concurred.
Interveners’ petition for a rehearing was denied March 26, 1992. Mosk, J., and Kennard, J., were of the opinion that the petition should be granted.
Notes
We have upheld substantial inequalities in the assessed value of comparable properties for ad valorem tax purposes against equal protection challenge and validated as reasonable the acquisition-value approach to property assessment embodied in Proposition 13. (Amador Valley Joint Union High Sch. Dist. v. State Bd. of Equalization (1978) 22 Cal.3d 208, 233-236 [149 Cal.Rptr. 239, 583 P.2d 1281].) The fact that such a constitutionally valid tax assessment system may have the marginal result of diluting voting power in an assessment referendum is an inequality that the Legislature can remedy by amending the voting scheme; it does not constitutionally invalidate the voting classification per se.