COURT TO CONSIDER VENTURA DISPUTE ON PROPERTY TAXES.Byline: Associated Press Associated Press: see news agency. Associated Press (AP) Cooperative news agency, the oldest and largest in the U.S. and long the largest in the world. A federal appeals court asked the state Supreme Court on Monday to decide whether a California county or a port district can increase property taxes to pay legal damages. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said it needed the state's high court to interpret California's voter-approved tax restrictions in order to decide whether either Ventura County or the Ventura Port District could pay a debt to a developer by raising property taxes. The state Supreme Court recently authorized au·thor·ize tr.v. au·thor·ized, au·thor·iz·ing, au·thor·iz·es 1. To grant authority or power to. 2. To give permission for; sanction: the federal appellate court A court having jurisdiction to review decisions of a trial-level or other lower court. An unsuccessful party in a lawsuit must file an appeal with an appellate court in order to have the decision reviewed. to refer questions of California law California Law consists of 29 codes, covering various subject areas, the State Constitution and Statutes. See also
The port district, which mostly covers the city of Ventura, was sued by a developer, now called Ventura Group Ventures, for failing to disclose restrictions on development in a 1979 harbor-front property lease. A jury awarded damages that were reduced to $15.5 million by a state appeals court in 1993. With interest, the debt exceeded $20 million by 1998, when the port district paid $7.7 million in proceedings arising from its own period of insolvency insolvency Condition in which liabilities exceed assets so that creditors cannot be paid. It is a financial condition that often precedes bankruptcy. In the context of equity, insolvency is the inability to pay debts as they become due; insolvency under the balance-sheet . When a port district owes money not covered not covered Health care adjective Referring to a procedure, test or other health service to which a policy holder or insurance beneficiary is not entitled under the terms of the policy or payment system–eg, Medicare. Cf Covered. by its revenue, state law requires the county to tax property in the district to pay the debt. But U.S. District Judge Harry Hupp ruled that a property tax to pay the remaining debt to Ventura Group Ventures was barred by Proposition 13, the 1978 initiative that set strict limits on property tax rates and allowed certain other types of local taxes with two-thirds voter approval. The company appealed, noting that a California appellate court ruled in a different case last year that a local government could raise property taxes to pay a legal debt despite Proposition 13. |
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