L.A. Asks State Court to Deny Southwest’s $11 Million Tax Refund

A Southwest Airlines Co. affiliate should be denied an approximately $10.8 million sales and use tax refund on jet fuel because a ballot measure limiting local governments’ power doesn’t shrink the state legislature’s authority, Los Angeles and Sacramento counties told a California appeals court.

Proposition 62 bars local authorities from raising taxes without voter approval but it doesn’t interfere with the legislature’s authority to amend a state law to require counties to increase taxation of fuel sold to common carriers, the Thursday amicus brief said.

Southwest Jet Fuel Co. “wants this Court to assume that the voters wanted to curb ...