Opinion ID: 1396313
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Existing Debts

Text: School District No. 25 (Bairoil) has a bonded indebtedness of some $97,000. The indebtedness in other areas of the proposed unified District No. 1 amounts to $2,622,000. Thus, the proposed unification would cause the mill levy on property in the Bairoil area to be increased to help pay off the indebtedness of the Rock Springs and Wamsutter areas. The residents of Bairoil complain this would cause an additional debt on them without their having voted for it. This, they say, is contrary to Art. 16, § 4, Wyoming Constitution, which specifies: No debt in excess of the taxes for the current year shall, in any manner, be created by any county or sub-division thereof    unless the proposition to create such debt shall have been submitted to a vote of the people thereof and by them approved. No doubt the constitutionality of debt spreading in connection with unification in Sweetwater County will in due time have to be settled. As far as the instant case is concerned, however, it does not need to be settled at this time. We say that because we are retaining jurisdiction of this case, and in the meantime debt spreading is not a problem since the districts are as they previously were. At the same time we heard oral argument for this case, we also heard oral argument for a similar case, Lund v. Robert G. Schrader, State Superintendent of Public Instruction, No. 3995 (Johnson County). In that case we will have to decide the constitutionality of those provisions in the school district organization law which provide for an equitable allocation of the assets and debts of districts affected by any plan of organization. Our decision in the Johnson County case will serve as a caveat for the question of debt spreading in this case, if and when a final unification is effected involving Bairoil. In view of this, nothing more needs to be said on the subject at this time. Jurisdiction retained for final decision after the next regular session of the legislature and for whatever further orders or disposition may be necessary in the meantime.