Opinion ID: 2384574
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The Surplus

Text: As provided by Code (1964 Supp.), Article 77, Section 68, the Board has annually submitted its proposed budget to the Council requesting funds for the coming year. Based upon this budget and under the authority of the same statute, a levy known as the school tax levy was made on the assessable property in the county for the purpose of meeting the budget. On many occasions, the county collector of taxes received more monies from a given school tax levy than had been requested by the Board or approved by the Council. These surpluses have accrued because of the impossibility of predicting at the time of the levy the exact amount of money a given tax rate will produce during the fiscal year. The surplus amounts have not been segregated but have been placed in the general treasury account of Montgomery County. These amounts have at all times been under the control and in the custody of the Council. The Board received from the school tax levy only such sums as were requested in its annual budget and approved by the Council. Testimony adduced at the hearing showed that on June 30, 1963, the close of the year during which the petition was filed, there was in the treasury of Montgomery County over one million dollars, representing the accumulated surplus from school tax levies. It has been the practice of the Council to advance to the Board portions of its approved budget before collection of the entire school levy for the current year, but these advances were made from the Council's general funds and did not constitute an appropriation or payment of the accumulated surplus. The Council did not appropriate that surplus to the Board in order to maintain a reserve. The Board contends that it is entitled to the surplus under the clear language of Section 68, which provides that Taxes so levied shall be collected as other taxes and shall be paid monthly to the treasurer of the county board of education   . (Emphasis supplied.) The Council contends that because this language in the Section is preceded by the requirement that the Board's annual budget must be approved by the Council before the date for levying taxes, the Council's obligation to pay the funds raised by the school levy is limited to the funds actually requested in the Board's budget, even though the levy raises more money than that requested. Section 68 is not an ad hoc enactment; it is part of a carefully conceived legislative structure in which the respective powers and limitations of local school boards, the State Board of Education and county governments are delineated and balanced. The board of education is not a part of the executive branch of the county government nor an agency under its control. It is an agency financed wholly or in part by county funds, but, like bi-county commissions such as the Maryland-National Capitol Park and Planning Commission and the Washington Suburban Sanitary Commission, it is not subject to the charter budgetary requirements. Montgomery County v. Yost, 223 Md. 150, 162 A.2d 462 (1960). The State Board of Education has important supervisory powers over the local boards. Wilson v. Board of Education, 234 Md. 561, 200 A.2d 67 (1964); Zantzinger v. Manning, 123 Md. 169, 90 Atl. 839 (1914); see also School Com. of Car. Co. v. Breeding, 126 Md. 83, 94 Atl. 328 (1915). While the county government has power to reduce amounts requested in the local school board's budget, that power does not run to the minimum tax, now forty cents on each one hundred dollars of assessable property; as to the minimum, the county government is under the imperative duty to levy the amount requested. School Commissioners v. Gantt, 73 Md. 521, 21 Atl. 548 (1891). Viewed within this framework, the clarity of the statutory mandate that all the amounts collected on taxes for the school levy shall be paid to the Board is emphasized. In Gantt, the question was whether the County Commissioners could deduct from the school levy the treasurer's commissions for collecting and the amounts allowed to the taxpayers for prompt payment. The order of the lower court refusing a mandamus to pay over the full amount without the deductions was reversed. Judge McSherry, for the Court, said: From these several provisions of the general and local laws it is quite apparent that when the Board of School Commissioners make demand upon the County Commissioners for an appropriation it becomes the duty of the latter to levy, under Art. 77, sec. 22, the amount required by the School Board up to ten cents on the hundred dollars of taxable property. This duty is an imperative one. It is equally clear that when more than ten cents on the hundred dollars is required, the County Commissioners have, under the Local Code, Art. 2, sec. 123, a discretion to levy not exceeding ten cents additional. But when the levy is actually made, and unconditionally made, the statutes are explicit in declaring that no part of the sum levied for the use of the public schools shall be used for any other purpose, and that the amount so levied in each year shall be paid by the treasurer to the School Board in equal quarterly instalments. These clear and minute provisions plainly mean that the gross amount levied for the schools shall be paid to the School Board; and, of course, therefore, they necessarily exclude the right of the county commissioners, after they have made the levy, to diminish that amount by subsequently applying any part of it to any other use or purpose. 73 Md. at 524-25. What was said in Gantt applies equally to the surplus here considered. All the tax collected is to be paid; withholding of the surplus, under the statute, is as impermissible as was the withholding of the commissions and discount. As in Gantt, mandamus is the appropriate remedy. See also Thomas v. Field, 143 Md. 128, 122 Atl. 25 (1923). The Council's argument as to the construction of Section 68 comes to no more than that the mandatory language as to payment to the Board does not mean what it says. We disagree. The Council's argument that the language of Section 68 is not applicable because Montgomery County has never been divided into districts is equally unsubstantial. Section 56 provides that the County Board of Education shall divide the county into appropriate school districts. If, as in Montgomery County, the Board decides that the county as a whole is the most appropriate unit for administration, that administrative decision can not affect the mandatory provision for payment contained in Section 68. The Council would have us apply the rule that where a statute is susceptible of two interpretations, a long and unvarying construction by administrative officers has a persuasive influence. That principle of statutory construction, however, is only applicable when there is an ambiguity. Where, as here, the language is plain, no custom, however venerable, can nullify the act's clear meaning and purpose. County Treas. v. State Tax Comm., 219 Md. 652, 657, 150 A.2d 452 (1959), and authorities therein cited. Cf. Smith v. Higinbothom, 187 Md. 115, 125, 48 A.2d 754 (1946). The difficulties which the Board would encounter if the relief here prayed were not granted are patent. It can not spend money which is unappropriated, or determine what funds it has to apply against its current needs. The State Board of Education, in its helpful amicus curiae brief, suggests that if the Council keeps the surplus separate and apart from other county monies and sees to it that the money is not used for other purposes, the fund could be conveniently and expertly invested. The right of the Board to constitute the Council its fiscal agent for such a purpose is not before us. In the posture of this phase of the case, the mandamus which the Board asks for the payment of the surplus to it must be granted. Any interest which has been earned is to be paid thereon.