That's right: our own local county here in the Sierra Nevada(aka the Snowy Mountains) is a defendant in a case that has made its way all the way up to the Supreme Court of the United States(SCOTUS in media parlance). As mentioned in an earlier post, this case revolves around a mitigation "fee" imposed on a property owner in El Dorado County who, in the course of his building permit application was assessed a "fee" of $124,000. for traffic mitigation. One owner, one house, a fee to compensate the county for traffic mitigation, ie. road maintenance, road improvements, road travels, road.... everything.
So, if one wants to build a house in El Dorado County, a property owner has to spring for a battery of fees: schools(all), water, sewer, runoff, paramedic fees, police, fire protection, ambulance, power, etc. All of this in addition to architects, contractors, water hook ups, sewer hook up, materials, roads/ encroachment; sprinklers/fire, and on and on. The legal question is: are you kidding me? (Not really). The question is: is the money/fee a taking from the owner or not? Defendant El Dorado County has finally met an owner who has considered himself abused and a victim of a "taking" by the government.
The 9 Justices will here arguments Tuesday. The ruling will probably arrive sometime next summer-June or July. This court is conservative and while no one can predict with accuracy on the outcome, a betting man would give the nod in favor of the plaintiffs.
The Mayor of Tahoma is more than familiar with El Dorado County and its fees. Having paid 5 figures to get his building permit 15 years ago, the payment of mitigation fees in 6 figures still stings to this day. And what did it accomplish, then and now? Nobody can tell me or any other property owner who was victimized by the county of El Dorado. It would be a great day for America if the Court rules against this obvious taking, which is really a tax by another name. Yes, we must wait for the decision, but on Tuesday, we will hear in real time what type of defense the county lawyers will put up in front of the court. No doubt they hired outside attorneys in hopes of turning this decision in the favor of El Dorado. It has potential to be a landmark case that will "settle" law in these cases across America. I hope so. It's past time to correct these egregious fees that only fatten the salaries and pensions of bureaucrats in Placerville, the county seat, and other bastions of paper shufflers in the State of California, home to single party governance.
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