School Dist. No. 1, Mult. Co. v. Bingham

• Decision Date: 27 June 1944
• Citation: 149 P.2d 963,174 Or. 540
• Parties: SCHOOL DISTRICT NO. 1, MULTNOMAH COUNTY <I>v.</I> BINGHAM ET AL. (OREGON BUSINESS & TAX RESEARCH, INC., INTERVENER)
• Court: Oregon Supreme Court

174 Or. 540

149 P.2d 963

SCHOOL DISTRICT NO. 1, MULTNOMAH COUNTY

v. BINGHAM ET AL. (OREGON BUSINESS & TAX RESEARCH, INC., INTERVENER)

Supreme Court of Oregon.

Argued June 6, 1944.

Affirmed June 27, 1944.

Constitutional law

1. The provisions of written law, both constitutional and statutory, should be construed in a manner reflecting the purpose of such legislation.

Schools and school districts

2. Under constitutional provision prohibiting specified taxing bodies unless authorized by voters from raising a greater amount of revenue for other than specified purposes than the "total amount levied" in any one of three preceding years, a school district was entitled to levy taxes on basis of amount certified by it to county authorities as its levy in any of the three preceding years plus 6 per cent without approval of the electorate and was not restricted to the amount actually extended upon the tax roll after deducting the amounts credited to the district from the state school support fund.

Taxation

3. The extension of taxes on tax roll is not part of levy of tax, but is merely a step in process of its collection.

                  Obligation as within debt limitation for taxation purposes
                note, 92 A.L.R. 1299. See, also, 51 Am. Jur. 189
                  16 C.J.S., Constitutional Law, § 16
                

Appeal from Circuit Court, Multnomah County.

JAMES W. CRAWFORD, Judge.

Frank S. Sever, of Portland (James R. Bain, District Attorney and John M. Colon, Deputy District Attorney, of Portland; Cordon & Sever, of Portland, on the brief), for intervener-appellant.

Robert S. Miller, of Portland (McCamant, King & Wood and Grant T. Anderson, of Portland, on the brief), for respondent.

Before BAILEY, Chief Justice, and BELT, ROSSMAN, KELLY, LUSK, BRAND and HAY, Associate Justices.

AFFIRMED.

KELLY, J.

This is a suit for a declaratory judgment to determine the meaning in which the word "levied" is used in Section 11 of Article XI of the Constitution of Oregon.

The pertinent provision of said section 11 is as follows:

"Unless specifically authorized by a majority of the legal voters voting upon the question neither the state nor 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 the total amount levied by it in any one of the three years immediately preceding for purposes other than the payment of bonded indebtedness or interest thereon plus 6 per centum thereof;" * * *

Plaintiff contends, and the trial court held, that the term "total amount levied", as used in Section 11, Article XI means the amount certified by plaintiff to the county authorities each year as its levy. From this holding, defendants and intervener appeal.

Defendants and intervener argue that such term is limited to the amount actually extended upon the tax roll after deducting the amounts credited to plaintiff from the state school support fund.

Defendants' answer admits the allegations of plaintiff's complaint. Intervener incorporates in its complaint in intervention, and by reference adopts said allegations of plaintiff's complaint as fully as if said allegations were set out at length. Thus it is obvious that no issue of fact is tendered in this proceeding. It appears from plaintiff's complaint that the total amount of plaintiff's general fund levy extended upon the assessment roll for the fiscal year 1942-1943 was the sum of $3,710,483.54.

It also appears from said complaint that —

"Prior to July 15, 1943, plaintiff prepared and adopted and submitted to defendants an annual budget of its estimated receipts from all sources, its estimated expenditures for all purposes and its estimated general fund tax for the fiscal year beginning July 1, 1943, and ending June 30, 1944, and thereafter and prior to said July 15, 1943 the defendants approved said budget and the estimated general fund tax levy therein contained and notified plaintiff of such approval. Thereafter and prior to said July 15, 1943, plaintiff levied a tax upon the assessable property within its district for the support of its general fund in the amount set forth in said budget as the amount of its estimated general fund tax levy, to-wit: $3,908,491.00, and thereafter and prior to said July 15, 1943, certified to the County Clerk, to the County Assessor, and to the County School Superintendent of Multnomah County, Oregon, the amount of such general fund tax levy. The aforesaid general fund tax levy was the total amount levied by the plaintiff for all purposes other than the payment of bonded indebtedness and interest thereon for said fiscal year."

It will be observed that the sum of $3,908,491.00 comprising plaintiff's estimated general fund tax levy for the fiscal year beginning July 1, 1943, and ending June 30, 1944, is less than the total general fund levy for the fiscal year 1942-1943 plus six per centum thereof.

An act proposed by initiative petition was approved at the regular general election, November 3, 1942, which act appears as Chapter 1, Oregon Laws, 1943, p. 7. This act was amended by the legislative assembly of 1943. We here quote the amendatory act:

"Section 1. That section 1, chapter 1, Oregon Laws, 1943, be and the same hereby is amended so as to read as follows:

Sec. 1. From the net revenue derived from taxes on or measured by net income, after application of the amounts required by the provisions of section 110-1523 and 110-1637, O.C.L.A., to be applied to reduce the state levies on property including the state elementary school tax, an amount, not in excess of five million dollars ($5,000,000), derived from taxes on or measured by net incomes shall be transferred by the state treasurer from the general fund to a fund in the state treasury to be known as the state school support fund, which said fund shall be apportioned and paid each year to the several counties in the proportion that the total number of days of actual school attendance of resident pupils in the public elementary and public high schools of each county bears to the total number of days of such attendance in the entire state. Each county shall in turn apportion the funds so received on a similar basis of actual pupil-days attendance to all public school districts therein maintaining public schools or paying tuition to any district maintaining a public school; provided, however, that no district shall receive from this fund in any year an amount greater than its special tax levy for such year. The nonhigh school district shall receive the apportionment for the pupils for whom it pays tuition to any standard public high school, and each union high school district shall receive apportionment for the actual school attendance of all its pupils residing therein. The amount received by each school district from this source in any year shall be fully applied to reduce the ad valorem property tax levied by the district for such year, as hereinafter provided, but shall not impair the tax base of the district under the limitation imposed by section 11, article XI, Oregon constitution.

Section 2. The clerk of each public school district shall certify to the county school superintendent, on or before June 30 of each year, the total number of pupil-days of actual school attendance of resident pupils of the district for the school year last ended. Similarly, each county school superintendent, on or before July 10 of each year, shall certify to the superintendent of public instruction the total number of pupil-days of actual school attendance of resident pupils of each public school district and, also, the aggregate number of pupil-days of such attendance in all districts of the county for the school year last ended. All such reports shall be made on forms prescribed and supplied by the superintendent of public instruction.

Section 3. From such reports and certifications of the...