The San Francisco call., 1903-01-20

- ALL HEADQUARTERS, SACRA-
MENTO, Jan. lit has just been
discovered that owing to a defect
4 in the Political Code of the State
~ the Boards of Supervisors in the
counties of Los Angeles and Ala
media have been levying taxes for
school purposes for several years without
authority of law and had any taxpayer
discovered the faulty condition of the
statute it would have been within his
power TO have stopped all school taxes in
those counties until the defect was reme-
died by the Legislature. Fortunately the
mistake in the law will be corrected dur
ing the present session and neither of the
counties will want for school funds by
season Of il.
The discovery was made by State Su-
perintendent of Public instruction Kirk.
and at his instance a bill has been intro
duced to correct the error The faulty
condition of the statute can in no wise af-
feet former payments into the school
funds and before any further payments
are made the law will have been cor
rected.
BY a peculiar slip. probably caused by
a typographical error in the first instance
the law as II stands to-day makes no pro-
vision for the collection of school taxes in
counties containing a population of more
/
County passed that mark there has been
no authority in the law for levying such
taxes. Los Angeles has been collecting
school taxes even a longer time, for she
has had a population of more than 100000
fer a number of years.
The school law OF the State is portion
of the Political Code, and that portion of
the code which provides for taxation for
school purposes is contained in sections
1917, 1918 and several subsequent sections.
! The first of these reads as follows;
! Section 1917. The County Superinten-
| dent of each county having a population
of less than 100000 inhabitants must, be-
| fore the first regular meeting of the Board
| of Supervisors in September in each year,
furnish to the Supervisors and Auditor.
respectively, an estimate in writing of the
minimum amount of county school fund
needed for the ensuing year.
Then follows as a portion of the same
section a statement of the manner in
| which the amount Of this estimate must
be computed. The authority to levy a
! tax is given in the next section, a portion
Of which follows:
Section 1918. The Board of Supervisors
| IL each county having less than lOO, 900 in
nabitants must annually at the time of
! levying the other county taxes levy a
tax to be known as the county school
/ tax
IntU lOiiON the piONlSlOilS as TO WndI
! the minimum and maximum rates shall
/ be. 1t will be noted that one of the sec
items quoted provides for simply an esti-
mate of taxes needed in counties of less
than 100000 and in the other 1t gives
authority to levy such taxes only TO coun-
ties of less than 100000 population. At no
/ place in the law is there anything which
gives counties having a population Of be-
tween 00G00 and 200,0OO any authority TO
| levy a school tax. There are only two
counties in the State which come within
this limit, Los Angeles, with nearly $780,
0O0 and Alameda, with about 135 coo. The
! city and county of San Francisco is not
/ affected because there is a special provi-
sion for her taxes, and the counties OF
less than 10000 population are also amply
provided for.
The, bill which Superintendent Kirk has
prepared will provide for the substitution
of the figures $4,000 in both sections re-
| ferred to instead of 900 and 1O0,O0 re-
| spectively. This will still leave San Fran
cisco above the limit and will make tho
law applicable to all counties until som,
of them reach that limit, which will prob
ably not be until several sessions of the
Legislature have been held.