Sublette Sch. Dist. Number Nine v. Mcbride

• Citation: 2008 WY 152,198 P.3d 1079
• Decision Date: 19 December 2008
• Docket Number: No. S-08-0073.,S-08-0073.
• Parties: SUBLETTE COUNTY SCHOOL DISTRICT NUMBER NINE, State of Wyoming and Sublette County School District Number One, State of Wyoming, Appellants (Plaintiffs), and Campbell County School District Number One, State of Wyoming; Fremont County School District No. 24, State of Wyoming; and Lincoln County School District Number One, State of Wyoming, Appellants (Intervening Plaintiffs), v. Jim McBRIDE, State Superintendent of Public Instruction, in his official capacity, Appellee (Defendant).
• Court: Wyoming Supreme Court

198 P.3d 1079

2008 WY 152

SUBLETTE COUNTY SCHOOL DISTRICT NUMBER NINE, State of Wyoming and Sublette County School District Number One, State of Wyoming, Appellants (Plaintiffs), and Campbell County School District Number One, State of Wyoming; Fremont County School District No. 24, State of Wyoming; and Lincoln County School District Number One, State of Wyoming, Appellants (Intervening Plaintiffs), v. Jim McBRIDE, State Superintendent of Public Instruction, in his official capacity, Appellee (Defendant).

No. S-08-0073.

Supreme Court of Wyoming.

December 19, 2008.

Representing Appellants: Mark W. Gifford and Kelley A. Anderson of Law Offices of Gifford & Brinkerhoff, Casper, Wyoming, for Appellant Sublette County School District Number One; Tracy J. Copenhaver of Copenhaver, Kath, Kitchen & Kolpitcke, LLC, Powell, Wyoming, for Appellant Sublette County School District Number Nine and Lincoln County School District Number One; Ford T. Bussart of Bussart, West & Tyler, P.C., Rock Springs, Wyoming, for Appellant Campbell County School District Number One; Joel M. Vincent of Vincent & Vincent, Riverton, Wyoming, for Appellant Fremont County School District No. 24. Argument by Messrs Bussart, Copenhaver and Gifford.

Representing Appellee: Bruce A. Salzburg, Wyoming Attorney General; Michael R. O'Donnell, State's School Finance Counsel, Special Assistant Attorney General. Argument by Mr. O'Donnell.

Before VOIGT, C.J., and GOLDEN, KITE, and BURKE JJ; DONNELL, D.J.

DONNELL, District Judge.

[¶ 1] Appellants, five Wyoming school districts, filed a declaratory judgment action questioning the continued constitutionality of Wyo. Stat. Ann. § 21-13-102(c) (LexisNexis Supp.2006), following an amendment to Wyoming Constitution, Article 15, Section 17 (the 2006 Amendment), passed during the 2006 General Election. More specifically, those districts seek a ruling that the 2006 Amendment authorized, but did not mandate, the Wyoming Legislature to repeal or amend § 21-13-102(c) (2006). The statute was not amended for a period of sixteen (16) months after the Amendment's effective date, and the districts argue that § 21-13-102(c) (2006) remained in effect during that time.

[¶ 2] Depending upon the conclusion as to the constitutionality of § 21-13-102(c) (2006), the school districts also ask for a declaration that any change in the law caused by the implied repeal of § 21-13-102(c) (2006) cannot be applied retroactively. They assert this retroactive application would be an unconstitutional ex post facto application of the law.

CERTIFIED QUESTIONS

[¶ 3] At the request of the parties, the district court presented the following certified questions to this Court for consideration:

1. Is Wyo. Stat. Ann. § 21-13-102(c) [(2006)] [constitutional] in light of the amendment to Article 15, Section 17 of the Wyoming Constitution?

2. Do ex post facto principles impact the Wyoming Department of Education's (Department) calculation of rebated revenue if the districts have encumbered, obligated, or spent any of the funds sought by the Department?

RELEVANT FACTS AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY

[¶ 4] In Washakie County School District Number One v. Herschler, 606 P.2d 310 (Wyo.1980), this Court declared Wyoming's local wealth-based scheme of educational financing unconstitutional. We determined that the financing system then in place failed to provide equal educational funding statewide in violation of the Wyoming Constitution, Article 1, Section 34, and Article 7, Section 1, requiring a "uniform system of public instruction." Id. at 340.

[¶ 5] In response, the electors of the State of Wyoming, at the General Election of 1982, then amended Wyoming Constitution, Article 15, Section 17 to provide:

There shall be levied each year in each county of the state a tax of not to exceed six mills on the dollar of the assessed valuation of the property in each county for the support and maintenance of the public schools. This tax shall be collected by the county treasurer and disbursed among the school districts within the county as the legislature shall provide. The legislature may authorize boards of trustees of school districts to levy a special tax on the property of the district. The legislature may also provide for the distribution among one or more school districts of not more than three-fourths of any revenue from the special school district property tax in excess of a state average yield, which shall be calculated each year, per average daily membership.

Wyo. Const. art. 15, § 17 (Michie Cumm. Supp.1983) (the 1982 Amendment) (emphasis added).

[¶ 6] Thereafter, in 1983, the Legislature enacted enabling legislation as follows:

The revenue to be rebated under subsection (b) of this section shall not exceed seventy-five percent (75%) of the difference between the revenue received by a school district from the mandatory levies per average daily membership provided by subsection (a) of this section and the statewide revenue per average daily membership from twenty-five (25) mills, multiplied by the average daily membership of the school district. Annually, on or before July 15, the department using average daily memberships and assessed valuations from the preceding fiscal year, shall compute maximum recapture under this subsection for each district and the final amount of recapture computed under subsection (b) of this section for the preceding fiscal year. If any district rebated more revenue to the state during the preceding fiscal year than the maximum computed, or than the amount to be rebated under subsection (b) of this section as computed using actual data from the preceding fiscal year, the department shall rebate the excess to the district. If any district rebated less revenue to the state during the preceding fiscal year than the amount to be rebated under subsection (b) of this section, as computed using actual date from the preceding fiscal year, the district shall rebate the difference to the state.

Wyo. Stat. Ann. § 21-13-102(c) (Michie Cumm. Supp.1984) (emphasis added). The purpose of this statute was to give effect to the 1982 Amendment. It is this statute that is at issue today.

[¶ 7] Essentially, the 1982 Amendment and § 21-13-102 (1983), as they existed in 1983, reduced the inequalities created by wide disparities in local property tax revenues. Instead, locally generated revenues were "rebated" to the State of Wyoming and deposited into the Wyoming Public School Foundation Program Account (foundation account), a state account, to be redistributed to all Wyoming school districts for the education of all of Wyoming's school children. Wyo. Stat. Ann. § 21-13-102(b). The Department then determined the amount of funding to which each school district was entitled. Wyo. Stat. Ann. § 21-13-102(e). If the local revenue generated in the district was insufficient (e.g., less than the district's entitlement), then the Department would remit the difference between the local funding and the entitlement to the district from the foundation account.

[¶ 8] The unique aspect of the 1982 Amendment and the 1983 enabling legislation was that it limited the rebate amount to seventy-five percent of the difference between the designated local revenue sources and the statewide average of those same sources. This allowed some school districts to retain a portion of their locally generated revenues (the portion in excess of their entitlement that exceeded seventy-five percent of the statewide average of those revenues) and not remit them to the foundation account for redistribution to all school districts, a concept that came to be known as "recaptured rebate."

[¶ 9] Since 1982, in a series of opinions, this Court continued to hold that educational funding for Wyoming schoolchildren must be a function of state, not local, wealth. Campbell County Sch. Dist. v. State, 2008 WY 2, 181 P.3d 43 (Wyo.2008) (Campbell IV); State v. Campbell County Sch. Dist., 2001 WY 90, 32 P.3d 325 (Wyo.2001) (Campbell III); State v. Campbell County Sch. Dist., 2001 WY 19, 19 P.3d 518 (Wyo.2001) (Campbell II); Campbell County Sch. Dist. v. State, 907 P.2d 1238 (Wyo.1995) (Campbell I).

[¶ 10] In a continued effort to address this Court's concerns about the ongoing unconstitutional nature of the then-existing school finance scheme, the Wyoming State Legislature passed Original Senate Joint Resolution No. 1 during the 2006 Budget Session. http://legisweb.state.wy.us/2006/ Enroll/SJ0001.pdf (last visited December 17, 2008). This Joint Resolution proposed that an amendment to Wyoming Constitution, Article 15, Section 17 be placed before Wyoming voters in the 2006 General Election. The proposal passed the Legislature and, in 2006, the voters of Wyoming amended the Wyoming Constitution by eliminating the "not more than three-fourths" language from Article 15, Section 17. The 2006 Amendment resulted in the following constitutional provision:

There shall be levied each year in each county of the state a tax of not to exceed six mills on the dollar of the assessed valuation of the property in each county for the support and maintenance of the public schools. This tax shall be collected by the county treasurer and disbursed among the school districts within the county as the legislature shall provide. The legislature may authorize boards of trustees of school districts to levy a special tax on the property of the district. The legislature may also provide for the distribution among one (1) or more school districts of any revenue from the special school district property tax in excess of a state average yield, which shall be calculated each year, per average daily membership.

Wyo. Const. art. 15, § 17 (2007) (emphasis added). This 2006 Amendment was effective November 15, 2006. Id. at annot. "2006 amendment."

[¶ 11] Despite some anticipation that the 2006 Amendment would generate new enabling legislation or, at the very least, a change in the existing enabling legislation, as...