Local voters screwed by state authority

Narrow Government Authority: Dillon's Rule

Dillon's Rule is derived from the two court decisions issued by Judge John F. Dillon of Iowa in 1868. It affirms the previously held, narrow interpretation of a local government's authority, in which a substate government may engage in an activity only if it is specifically sanctioned by the state government. Dillon's Rule was challenged by Judge Thomas Cooley of the Michigan Supreme Court in 1871, with the ruling that municipalities possess some inherent rights of local self-government. Cooley's Rule was followed for a short time by courts in Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky and Texas until the U.S. Supreme Court upheld Dillon's Rule in 1903 and again in 1923. Since then, the following tenets have become a cornerstone of American municipal law and have been applied to municipal powers in most states:

• A municipal corporation can exercise only the powers explicitly granted to them
• Those necessarily or fairly implied in or incident to the powers expressly granted
• Those essential to the declared objects and purposes of the corporation, not simply convenient, but indispensable

State constitutions vary in the level of power they grant to local governments. However, Dillon's Rule states that if there is a reasonable doubt whether a power has been conferred to a local government, then the power has not been conferred.     

Dillon's Rule In Practice

Dillon's Rule allows a state legislature to control local government structure, methods of financing its activities, its procedures and the authority to understake functions.  

The Federal Constitution allows Sacramento to overrule local government's democratic decisions.  San Diego is screwed, prepare for hefty property tax hikes.   San Diego cannot even protest future pension stuffing, they have absolutely no voter jurisdiction  on  employee salaries.  San Diego, welcome to Chicago, and then  Detroit.    Everywhere we look in 2016 you can bet on one thing, local government being forced to raise taxes ever higher, all taxes, all places.   California has just begun, and hey have already raised three or four taxes already.