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SACRAMENTO — A state tax board member filed suit Thursday to reduce an arbitration panel’s decision to give $88.5 million to five law firms that fought the state over smog impact fees. 

Dean Andal of the Board of Equalization filed the complaint in Sacramento Superior Court one day after Attorney General Bill Lockyer also sued on behalf of Gov. Gray Davis to reduce the lawyers’ payment. 

Andal’s lawsuit argues the arbitration was unconstitutional because it is the Legislature’s duty to appropriate tax dollars. 

Thousands of motorists who registered out-of-state vehicles in California in the 1990s had to pay the fees, but they were found unconstitutional in October 1999. The Legislature and Gov. Gray Davis agreed last year to set aside $665 million to refund the fees, including interest. 

The amount paid to the lawyers was decided in binding arbitration, but Davis and state Controller Kathleen Connell say that award – which amounts to about $8,800 per hour – is excessive. 

In its filing Wednesday in Sacramento Superior Court, the state and its Department of Motor Vehicles argue that the arbitration panel exceeded the law by granting an award that “plaintiffs’ counsel could not have obtained had they prevailed through all appeals” and that the lawyers couldn’t have obtained through the Legislature.