Judge: Trash fee withstands challenge due to ‘pay first, litigate later’ rule
Dante Ulanday - News Moderator 
A judge on Friday rejected a request from a group of local homeowners to block the city of San Diego from collecting monthly trash collection fees.
The residents had alleged the fee is unlawful because it exceeds the cost of providing trash services.
The homeowners sued the city earlier this year as officials moved to implement trash fees following the 2022 passage of Measure B.
The plaintiffs allege the fees violate Proposition 218, a California ballot measure that states utility fees cannot exceed the costs of providing those services.
Superior Court Judge James Mangione confirmed a tentative ruling he issued Thursday, in which he wrote that a rule in California law known as “pay first, litigate later” prevents courts from interfering with tax collection until the tax has been deemed unlawful either through a trial or a judge’s ruling.
As the homeowners were seeking a preliminary injunction this week, rather than a final judgment in the case, Mangione wrote that the “pay first, litigate later” rule “represents a limit on this court’s equitable power to issue the requested injunction.”
A trial date has not been set in the case.
Voters were told the monthly fee was expected to be between $23 and $29, but the San Diego City Council voted in June to impose a $43 charge.
Michael Aguirre, one of the attorneys representing the plaintiffs, called the fee “a financial fraud on the people of San Diego” in court on Friday and alleged the fees were intended to help the city make up for a budgetary shortfall after voters declined to approve a one-cent sales tax.
Gabriel McWhirter, an attorney for the city, said the fee avoids the “inequitable” previous system, in which “certain sets of residents within the city were having their (trash) service subsidized by people who had to also go out and pay for their own service.”
He also said the costs of providing trash services were not entirely being covered by ratepayers as the city was utilizing other sources of revenue to help cover those costs.
