Board of Education of Alamance County v. Board of Com'rs of Alamance County

• Decision Date: 22 October 1919
• Docket Number: 326.
• Citation: 100 S.E. 698,178 N.C. 305
• Parties: BOARD OF EDUCATION OF ALAMANCE COUNTY v. BOARD OF COM'RS OF ALAMANCE COUNTY.
• Court: North Carolina Supreme Court

100 S.E. 698

178 N.C. 305

BOARD OF EDUCATION OF ALAMANCE COUNTY v. BOARD OF COM'RS OF ALAMANCE COUNTY.

No. 326.

Supreme Court of North Carolina

October 22, 1919

Appeal from Superior Court, Alamance County; Devin, Judge.

Mandamus by the Board of Education of Alamance County against the Board of Commissioners of Alamance County. Judgment for plaintiff, and defendant appeals. Affirmed.

Civil action heard by Devin, J., in Alamance superior court, the hearing, by consent, being adjourned to his chambers in the city of Durham, where he made the following findings of fact and rendered the following judgment:

"This was a mandamus proceeding instituted by the board of education of Alamance county against the board of commissioners of said county, and was heard before the undersigned judge at chambers at Oxford on the 24th day of July, 1919, and at chambers at Durham on the 15th day of August, 1919. No exception was taken by either side as to any matter of procedure; both plaintiff and defendant appearing with counsel. The cause was heard upon the pleadings and exhibits thereto, affidavits and oral testimony, and the court finds the following facts:

The court finds that the plaintiff board of education, in accordance with the provisions of chapter 102, Public Laws of 1919, filed with the defendant board of county commissioners, in due form properly verified, the school budget of Alamance county for the school year beginning July, 1919, and ending June 30, 1920. The summary of the items of the budget showed the rate of tax on each $100 assessed value of property necessary for salary fund to be 40 cents, and for the building and incidental fund 10 cents, making a total levy asked of 50 cents. At the May meeting of the board of county commissioners an order was made to levy this rate as asked, but at the meeting on the first Monday in June, 1919, this order was rescinded, and there was included in the levy of the regular county taxes made on this date a levy of 35 cents on the $100 worth of property for special tax for school. In making said levy the Board of County Commissioners made no distinction between salary fund and that for repairs and incidental expenses.

The court finds from the carefully prepared affidavit of M. C Terrell, and the other evidence adduced that the teachers' salary fund necessary to be raised to pay teachers' salaries for the year will be substantially the sum stated in the budget, to wit, $54,812. The court finds that the total assessed value of property taxable in Alamance county for the year 1919 will be $14,598,420. Therefore the tax levy of 35 cents would produce, without allowing any deduction for insolvents and expenses of collection, $51,094. This amount will not be sufficient to pay the teachers' salaries.

The court finds that the budget correctly sets forth the amount that will necessarily be required to provide repairs and additions to school buildings and incidental expenses, all of which the court finds are necessary to carry on and maintain the schools of said county for six months. The correctness of the items of the budget were not controverted by the defendant.

The court finds that the building fund requirement of $10,600 does not include anything for new school buildings, but is for repairs and additions only to existing school buildings which are rendered necessary to properly house and protect the school children during the ensuing school year.

The court finds, that the amount for 'administration expenses,' $2,182, and the amount for 'Expenses of operation and maintenance,' $3,049, are reasonable proper, and necessary.

The amounts asked for the purpose of refunding borrowed money and for salary of superintendent of public welfare and home demonstrator are not considered necessary to maintain six months' school term, and are omitted from the findings in this case, though they should in some way be provided for.

The court finds that the amount for 'city schools, building and expense fund,' $4,283, is for repairs and additions to school property and maintenance expenses, which are reasonable and proper expenditures for the housing and protection of school children and necessary to the carrying on and maintaining of a six months' school term in said county for the ensuing year.

There are other items of incidental expense necessary to correctly meet statutory requirements, but which are not included in the budget, and are therefore not considered in these findings. These necessary requirements total $20,114.

The court finds that the only 'available funds' to meet these expenditures required for 'building and incidental expense fund' will amount to $11,194 for the year 1919 in Alamance county, this being the total amount that will be derived from poll tax, dog tax, fines, and all other sources.

It therefore appears to the court that the available funds are insufficient to provide for the incidental expenses and for necessary repairs and additions to school buildings, and that there will be a deficiency of $8,520. Considering that a reduction of $1,250 of this amount may be effected by strict economy and a reduction of estimates, it follows that a certain deficiency of $7,270 will arise, and that there is no other source from which it can be met but by an additional tax levy of 5 cents on the $100 worth of taxable property and the court finds that an additional levy of special tax of this amount is necessary in order to maintain a six months' school term in said county.

The court finds that the rate of special tax for school levied in said county, to wit, 35 cents, will be insufficient to maintain schools for six months in every school district in said county as required by the Constitution, and that an additional levy of 5 cents, making the total rate 40 cents on the $100 assessed value of all taxable property in said county, will be necessary for the performance of the duty imposed by article 9, § 3, of the Constitution of North Carolina.

Therefore in accordance with provisions of chapter 102, Public Laws of 1919,§ 8, upon motion of J. Elmer Long, attorney for plaintiff, it is adjudged that defendant board be required to levy an additional special tax for schools in said county of 5 cents on the $100 worth assessed value of all taxable property in said county."

As the decision of the case depends upon a construction of the following sections of the School Law of the year 1919 (Public Laws of 1919, c. 102), we set them out here for convenience, instead of in the opinion of the court:

"Sec. 6. On or before the first Monday in May of each year the county board of education shall submit an itemized county school budget to the county commissioners, setting forth the amount of money needed to maintain the public schools of the county six months for the succeeding school year. * * * It shall then be the duty of the board of county commissioners, after deducting the amount to be received from the state public school fund, to levy annually a special tax on all property, real and personal, and on all taxable polls, subject to the constitutional limitation of the poll tax, in said county, sufficient to supply the deficiency shown by said budget to be needed for the support and maintenance of the public schools of said county for six months in each school district. The said tax shall be annually levied and collected at the same time and in the same manner as other county taxes are levied and collected, and the funds derived therefrom, together with other school funds in their hands, shall be apportioned and expended by the county board of education for maintaining one or more public schools in each school district for a term of six months in each year: Provided, that no county shall be compelled to levy a special county tax of more than thirty-five cents on every one hundred dollars valuation of property, real and personal, and a corresponding tax on every taxable poll for said purpose, except as provided in section seven of the act; and after every county shall have levied and collected the special county tax to the limit stated above, if the funds derived therefrom may be insufficient therefor, said county shall receive from the state public school fund an apportionment sufficient to bring the school term in every school district to six months.

Sec. 7. All poll tax, fines, forfeitures, penalties, and all public school revenues, other than that derived from the state public school fund and the special county tax, shall be placed to the credit of the incidental expense fund and the building fund, as provided in the budget, and if this amount is insufficient for these funds, the county board of education may provide in the county school budget for an additional amount not to exceed twenty-five per cent. of the teachers' salary fund, and the county tax may be increased sufficiently beyond the maximum levy of thirty-five cents to provide this amount if it shall appear necessary to the county board of education and the county commissioners.

Sec. 8. In the event of a disagreement between the county board of education and the board of county commissioners as to the amount to be provided by the county for the maintenance of a six months' school term, and as to the rate of tax to be levied therefor, or in the event of the refusal of any board of county commissioners to levy said tax, the county board of education shall bring action in the nature of a mandamus against the board of county commissioners to compel the levying of such special tax in the manner and form as provided in sections eight hundred twenty-two and eight hundred twenty-four of the Revisal of one thousand nine hundred and five of North Carolina. And it shall be the duty of the judge hearing the same to find the facts...