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Business Taxes Law Guide—Revision 2024
Hazardous Waste Fee Court Decisions
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The Morning Star Company v. Board of Equalization (2011)
Hazardous Waste Regulation of the Department of Toxic Substances Control Was Consistent with Statutory Definition in the Health and Safety Code.
Plaintiff argued that Regulation 66269.1, adopted by Department of Toxic Substances Control, that interpreted Health and Safety Code section 25205.6, conflicted with section 25205.6. In upholding the validity of the regulation, the court found that the regulation simply recognized that virtually all modern businesses were surrounded by modern business equipment containing hazardous material. Given this hazardous material ubiquity in the modern economy, the regulation was consistent and not in conflict with section 25205.6's standard of hazardous material significance because the statute applied only to relatively large businesses—those with at least 50 employees. The regulation was not arbitrary, capricious, or without reasonable or rational basis, and was reasonably necessary to effectuate the purpose of section 25205.6. Section 25205.6 imposed a tax rather than regulatory fee. The charge to plaintiff was not regulatory because it did not seek to regulate plaintiff's use, generation, or storage of hazardous material but to raise money for the control of hazardous material generally. The tax did not violate equal protection or substantive due process. The Morning Star Company v. Board of Equalization (2011) 201 Cal.App.4th 737.