Santa Fe daily New Mexican. [volume] (Santa Fe, N.M.) 1885-1897, 1896-01-17
The PUBLIC SCHOOL MONEYS
Solicitor General Victory Advises
Supt. Herrera Respecting the
Distribution Thereof.
APPORTIONMENT OF SALOON LICENSES
One-Third Goes to the Sever al School
Districts Pro Rata - Rem aiming
TwoThirds Among Districts
Where Collected.

Wnere Collected.
TERRITORY OF NEW MEXICO.
| Office of Solicitor General,
Santa Fe, N. NJ, Jan. 10, 1896.
Hon. Cosme Herrera, Superintendent OF
County Schools, Santa Fe, n. M.
! Dear Sir:-In reply to your letter of
the 9Th instant requesting, in the absence
of District Attorney Crist, my official
opinion as to the proper apportionment
to be made by you of the funds in the
hands of the county treasurer, December
81, 1895, arising from saloon licenses in
precinct No. 7, Santa Fe county, desire
to say:
Subdivision fifth, of section 35, of
chapter %, of the laws of 1891, provides
that all moneys arising from licenses i'm
posed upon Wholesale and retail liquor
dealers, distilleries, breweries, wine
presses, gambling tables or games of
chance, shall be paid into the county
treasury to the account of the several
| school districts wherein such sums are
collected, and should there be more than
one school district in any precinct the
same shall be divided among the several
school districts pro rata, according to the
scholastic census of said district as fur
nished to the county school superintend-
eut for the current year. The supreme
court of this territory has already con.
strued this section with reference to the
disposition of the funds derived from the
sources above enumerated. Board of
Education of East Las Vegas vs.. Tafoya,
~ Pac. X, GIG. The unanimous opinion
of that court declares that the Legislature
intended that "the funds arising from
licenses, fines, and other sources referred
to in section 35, should inure to the bene.
fit of schools in the districts wherein or
by which the money is paid into the
county treasury; that such money shall
be placed to the account or'credit of such
district as soon as paid into the county
treasury, and thereby become available
only to the district from which the money
was received" The legislative assembly
of 1898, however, amended said section
IS of the public school law by providing,
among other things, that 3S155 per cent of
all the moneys arising from the sources
mentioned therein should be paid into the
general county school fund of each county,
aad the treasurer is directed to notify the
county superintendent of public schools
on the last day in every month of all funds
collected for school purposesi in that month
This section, as'amendea, leaves out the
word gambling tables or games of
chance" inserted, as above set forth, in
the earlier section, and further declares
that the funds arising from the sources
therein mentioned shall be temporary
funds for common school purposes and
to he applied by the county treasurer to
the general school fund Of each respective
county, laws of 1898, chapter So. The
amended section is absolutely silent as to
what disposition shall be made of the
other 66ss per cent of the moneys arising
from the collection of licenses, fines, ETC.,
therein mentioned. The provision of the
amended act that 33l5 per cent of the
moneys collected shall 20 into the gen.
eral county school fund is the latest ex-
preston of the legislative will as dis
tinguished from that portion of the same
act which says that said moneys shall she
applied by the county treasurer to the
general school fund of each respective
county, Now, to what extent does the
latter provision control the former, and
was the first simply intended in the sense
of accumulation and not of distribution.
Fortunately the supreme court, in
the Board of Education vs. Tafoya,
supra, il constituting section 3, of
what is known as the "high license law"
practically passes upon the same ques-
tion, when it says: "In adopting the
license system, large fund would neces-
sarily be derived from it, which fund
must be devoted to some proper pur-
poses, and must have custodian. The
legislature determines that this fund
shall be devoted to school purposes, and,
while the language used is that it is to be
covered into the general school fund of
the county, it still remains apparent that
this language is used in general sense,
and substantially says that the license
fund shall be devoted to school purposes.
But a single section is used for this pur-
pose, and that section is one of accumula-
tion and not of distribution" Have we
not right, also, to presume that the
legislature Of 1898, when it amended Sec
tion IS of the school law, had in mind the
fact that under the earlier section all the
moneys arising from licenses, fines, etc.,
under judicial determination of the su-
preme court, went to the credit of the
several school districts of the respective
counties in which the same had been col
lected, and not to the general school fund
of the county, and hence, no doubt, it
was the legislative intent to divert only
portion of said moneys to the general
county school fund, and not the whole
thereof. Clearly, it was not the intention
of the legislature to repeal that part of
the earlier section which provided for
the distribution OF the school moneys
collected from licenses, fines, ETC., among
the districts in which the same had been
collected, further than to divert 3315
per cent thereof to the general county
school fund. Repeal by implication is
not favored. The later or amended section
contains no express provision repeal
ing the earlier or original section or
any part thereof. Section /, of the
enactment amending section IS of the
school law simply reads that said section
So "be amended to read as follows" and
embodies no provision declaring that all
the acts or parts of acts Inconsistent with
the same be repealed. Where there is no
repeating clause in later statute, and
that and former one can stand together,
and both have effect, they will generally
both be held to be in force. Hickman
v. Pinkney, 81 N. Y. 2ll, and cases herein
cited. And such parts of prior statute
as may be incorporated into 4 subse-
quent one, as consistent with it, must be
considered in force. The two provisions
may well stand together, the latter as
cumulative to the former. Daviess '.
Fairbairn, 8 How. (U. S. 634. The Ian
guage of every enactment must be so
construed as to be consistent with every
other which it does not 10 express terms
modify or repeal. That part OF the SEQ.