School Dist. No. 1, Multnomah County v. Bingham, 1

• Decision Date: 08 June 1955
• Docket Number: M,No. 1,1
• Citation: 204 Or. 601,283 P.2d 670
• Parties: SCHOOL DISTRICT NO. 1, MULTNOMAH COUNTY, Oregon, and Wendell Gray, Jeffery Holbrook, Dorothy O. Johansen, R. M. Robson, Herbert M. Schwab, James C. Yeomans and Clifford E. Zollinger, as the Board of Directors of School Districtultnomah County, Oregon, Respondents, v. Mason L. BINGHAM, H. W. Bruck, Marian L. Copeland, K. R. Crookham and R. L. Fanning, as the Tax Supervising and Conservation Commission of Multnomah County, Oregon, and Robert Y. Thornton, Attorney General of the State of Oregon, Appellants.
• Court: Oregon Supreme Court

Page 670

283 P.2d 670

204 Or. 601

SCHOOL DISTRICT NO. 1, MULTNOMAH COUNTY, Oregon, and Wendell

Gray, Jeffery Holbrook, Dorothy O. Johansen, R. M. Robson,

Herbert M. Schwab, James C. Yeomans and Clifford E.

Zollinger, as the Board of Directors of School District No.

1, Multnomah County, Oregon, Respondents, v. Mason L. BINGHAM, H. W. Bruck, Marian L. Copeland, K. R.

Crookham and R. L. Fanning, as the Tax Supervising and

Conservation Commission of Multnomah County, Oregon, and

Robert Y. Thornton, Attorney General of the State of Oregon,

Appellants.

Supreme Court of Oregon.

Argued and Submitted April 28, 1955.

Decided May 11, 1955.

Modified on Rehearing June 8, 1955.

See 284 P.2d 779.

Robert Y. Thornton, Atty. Gen., and E. G. Foxley, Deputy Atty. Gen., for appellants. With them on the brief were William M. Langley, Dist. Atty. for Multnomah County, Willis West, Chief Deputy of Civil Dept. and Thomas B. Brand, Deputy Dist. Atty., Portland.

Grant T. Anderson, Portland, for respondents. On the brief were King, Miller, Anderson, Nash & Yerke, Portland.

Before WARNER, C. J., and ROSSMAN, LUSK, LATOURETTE, TOOZE and PERRY, JJ.

LATOURETTE, Justice.

This is a declaratory judgment proceeding brought by School District No. 1, Multnomah County, et al., against the members of the Tax Supervising and Conservation Commission of Multnomah County and the Attorney General, to obtain a judicial construction of Art. XI, § 11 of the constitution which was amended November 4, 1952, the applicable part being:

'(1) Unless specifically authorized by a majority of the legal voters voting upon the question, no taxing unit, whether it be the state, any county, municipality, district or body to which the power to levy a tax shall have been delegated, shall in any year so exercise that power as to raise a greater amount of revenue for purposes other than the payment of bonded indebtedness or interest thereon than its tax base, as hereinafter defined. The tax base of each said taxing unit for any given year shall be: (a) The total amount of tax lawfully levied by it in any one of the three years immediately preceding for purposes other than the payment of bonded indebtedness or the interest thereon and exclusive of any levy specifically authorized as aforesaid in excess of the tax base, plus six percentum of said total amount; or, (b) an amount approved by a majority of the legal voters voting upon the question of establishing a tax base.

'(2) The question of establishing a tax base shall be submitted at a regular general or primary election. Every such measure shall specify in dollars and cents the amount of the tax base in effect and the amount of the tax base sought to be established, and the new tax base, if adopted, shall first apply to the levy for the fiscal year next following its adoption.'

On March 4, 1954, the board of directors of plaintiff district adopted a resolution calling for an election to increase the tax base from $7,419,476 to $12,704,644. On May 21, 1954, an election was duly held whereby the voters of plaintiff school district increased the tax base of the district to $12,704,644. On June 24, 1954, the school directors levied a tax for the fiscal year, July 1, 1954 to June 30, 1955, of $11,190,000.

On November 8, 1954, the directors of the district adopted a resolution indicating a need for a levy of $12,704,644 for the fiscal year 1955-1956 and called on the Tax Supervising and Conservation Commission of Multnomah County to declare its position in the premises. Thereupon the said commission by resolution declared its position to be that the district could not legally levy a tax in excess of $11,190,000 plus six per cent of said amount.

The trial court held that the district was constitutionally authorized to levy a tax for the fiscal year 1955-1956 in the amount of $12,704,644, the newly established tax base. Defendants appeal.

Defendants argue that notwithstanding the establishment of a tax base of $12,704,644 by the voters on May 21, 1954, since plaintiffs levied a tax of $11,190,000 for the fiscal year 1954-1955, that establishes the tax base for the ensuing fiscal year and all that plaintiffs could levy would be that amount plus six per cent. They urge that subsection (2) of § 11, Art. XI of the constitution must be read in connection with subsection (1) of such section and article and is limited thereby. On the other hand, plaintiffs contend that subsection (1), § 11, Art. XI of the constitution is not a limitation on subsection (2) and that when the voters establish a tax base such base remains until removed by the electorate.

It is a fundamental rule that when the language in a constitutional provision or statute is clear and free from ambiguity, it is not...