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Business Taxes Law Guide—Revision 2024
Sales And Use Tax Law
Revenue and Taxation Code
Division 2. Other Taxes
Part 1. Sales and Use Taxes
Chapter 7. Overpayments and Refunds
Article 1. Claim for Refund
Section 6909
6909. Smog impact fee refund. (a) The Controller shall transfer the amount of six hundred sixty-five million two hundred sixty-one thousand dollars ($665,261,000) from the General Fund to the Smog Impact Fee Refund Account, which is hereby created in the Special Deposit Fund.
(b) Notwithstanding Section 13340 of the Government Code, the moneys in the Smog Impact Fee Refund Account in the Special Deposit Fund are hereby continuously appropriated, without regard to fiscal years, to the Department of Motor Vehicles for the purpose of making refunds to persons who paid the smog impact fee formerly required by Chapter 3.3 (commencing with Section 6261) upon registering a vehicle in California. Each refund shall also include the amount of any penalties incurred by the payer with respect to the fee, and shall also include interest as specified in Sections 1673.2 and 1673.4 of the Vehicle Code. In addition, the appropriate level of court costs, fees, and expenses in the settlement of the case of Jordan v. Department of Motor Vehicles (1999) 75 Cal.App.4th 449, shall be determined through binding arbitration, and all of those fees, costs, or expenses shall be paid with funds from the account.
History—Added by Stats. 2000, Ch. 32 (SB 215), in effect June 8, 2000.
Arbitration award limited to $18.194 million.—Section 6909 (b) implicitly contained a cap of $18.194 million in attorneys' fees and costs. At the time this section was enacted, the state had appealed a trial court judgment for this amount but the plaintiffs had not. Any arbitration award greater than this amount would be an unconstitutional gift of public funds. Jordan et al. v. Department of Motor Vehicles et al. (2002) 100 Cal. App.4th 431.