The state Supreme Court has granted a petition for review of a case involving a city's utility user's tax. Six of seven justices voted to review Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association v. City of La Habra, 1999 Daily Journal D.A.R. 9003, in which the Fourth District Court of Appeal ruled that the statute of limitations had elapsed for challenging the tax. (See CP&DR Legal Digest, October 1999.) Lawyers on either side of the case had expected the state's high court would take the case because the decision conflicted with a 1997 ruling by the same appellate division. The case stems from the La Habra City Council's decision in December of 1992 to levy a tax based on utility use. Jarvis argued that Proposition 62 from 1986 required that such taxes have voter approval. The appellate court ruled that the three-year statute of limitations expired before Jarvis filed its lawsuit in March of 1996. Jarvis relied heavily on McBrearty v. City of Brawley, 59 Cal.App.4th, 1441, a similar local tax case. In McBrearty, the court said a three-year statute of limitations was not in effect because the state Supreme Court did not rule that local taxes levied without voter approval were illegal until after the three years had expired. In the La Habra case, the court said the McBrearty decision was "flawed." The court also rejected a Jarvis argument that the three-year statute of limitations began with the first implementation of the tax in May of 1993, not with the City Council's adoption of the tax in December 1992. And the court turned away Jarvis' contention that the three-year statute is renewed every time the city collects the tax. Dozens of cities and counties have similar taxes that have been levied without voter approval.