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It’s not limited to California. It’s most of the western states. The problem with trying to reform it is that the state courts have found that prior appropriat
by bradleyjg 3y ago
It’s not limited to California. It’s most of the western states.
The problem with trying to reform it is that the state courts have found that prior appropriation created a vested property right. Once declared by a state such a right is protected by the Fifth Amendment (as incorporated by the Fourteenth Amendment.) So it’s very difficult/expensive to unwind this mistake.
- dataflow 3y agoIs "just compensation" not a mechanism for doing this here?
- bradleyjg 3y agoYes. So states can’t just abolish prior appropriation and move to riparian rights. They’d also need to allocate money to buy out all the old rights.
- innagadadavida 3y agoHow about taxing them? Is that allowed by the constitution?
- CogitoCogito 3y agoYeah seems to me like taxing the water on its true value and thus forcing efficient usage of it would be the rational market oriented approach.
- bradleyjg 3y agoThe federal government can’t put in a property tax on these rights because of the direct tax clause. The state governments could tax the water rights, but not in a way that is “confiscatory” or “excessive.”
- CogitoCogito 3y ago> The state governments could tax the water rights, but not in a way that is “confiscatory” or “excessive.” What does confiscatory and excessive mean in this case? People do have to sell off properties to pay off tax debt (some properties are exempt I guess) so I would hope water rights could be taxable even if the result is that the owners would be forced to sell the rights. Am I incorrect?
- chii 3y agowhat is the value on which the tax is levied? I think if you follow this train of thought to its logical conclusion, the tax would be levied on a value that is "arbituary", since these water rights are granted, and not purchased at a market price. I think the gov't paying to buy out all existing rights, is better than allowing arbituary taxation like this.
- CogitoCogito 3y agoWe assess the value of real estate for taxation purposes. We can assess the value of water for taxation purposes.