Opinion ID: 1723051
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Love v. City of Dallas

Text: A closely-related argument involves the limitations on the Legislature's authority over school districts established in Love v. City of Dallas, 120 Tex. 351, 40 S.W.2d 20 (1931). In Love, this Court held that the Legislature could not compel a school district to use its resources for the education of students who resided outside the district because both article VII, section 3 of the Texas Constitution and the statutes governing the levying of taxes for the district contemplated that districts would be organized and taxes levied for the education of students who resided within the districts. Id. 40 S.W.2d at 27. The property-rich districts assert that Love established a constitutional requirement that local tax dollars be spent solely on local students. Insofar as Senate Bill 7 infringes on this requirement, the districts argue, it violates article VII, section 3, and amounts to the imposition of a state property tax. In Love, this Court upheld the constitutionality of the High School Tuition Law by construing it in a manner that left discretion with local school boards. If a school board determined, in its sound discretion, that admission of nonresident students would not be prejudicial to resident students, the act would allow their admission at the statutory rate of compensation. 40 S.W.2d at 30-31. Because the act did not compel local school districts to accept nonresident students without reasonable compensation, we held that it was not necessarily unconstitutional. Senate Bill 7 does not violate the principles set forth in Love. The Bill does not compel any district to pay for the education of nonresident students. A district with wealth in excess of $280,000 per student may choose any of three options to avoid paying for the education of nonresidents: it may consolidate with another district (option 1); detach a portion of its territory (option 2); or consolidate its tax base with that of another district (option 5). Even if it fails to choose such an option, it still will not be compelled to pay for the education of nonresidents; the Commissioner of Education will either detach a portion of its property or consolidate it with another district. In any of these circumstances, no school property or funds leave the district; rather, the district is simply reconfigured by authority of the Legislature's free hand in establishing independent school districts, discussed in Part IV. Love itself recognized the Legislature's discretion to abolish school districts or enlarge or diminish their boundaries, or increase or modify or abrogate their powers. Love, 40 S.W.2d at 26. Like the High School Tuition Law, Senate Bill 7 allows taxpayers to choose, at their discretion, to pay for the education of nonresident students. Option 3 allows a district to reduce its property wealth by purchasing average daily attendance credit, while option 4 allows it to contract for the education of nonresident students. Both options require approval by the voters of the district. The property-rich districts argue that the selection of a wealth-reducing option is not a free choice at all, because the various alternatives are all undesirable. Thus, invoking the doctrine of unconstitutional conditions, the property-wealthy districts assert that Senate Bill 7 represents an unlawful attempt to force voters to surrender their constitutional rights under Love. This argument suffers from two defects. First, it finds a constitutional right where none exists. Article VII, section 3 does not create any rights. It only authorizes the Legislature to establish school districts and to empower the districts to levy taxes for specific purposes. The school districts' rights, to the extent they exist, are derived solely from the statutes that the Legislature may enact under the authority granted in section 3. Second, assuming such rights did exist, the school districts do not have the right to spend tax revenue derived from property in excess of the $280,000 cap. Under Senate Bill 7, the Legislature has effectively withdrawn the school districts' right to tax property values in excess of the cap. If the Legislature gives districts the right to tax in the first place, it is certainly within the Legislature's power to limit such authority. There is clearly some tension between school districts' interest in retaining locally-generated funds and the Legislature's interest in fulfilling its constitutional duty to establish an efficient system of public schools through local taxation. That tension must be resolved, though, in a manner that allows the Legislature to fulfill its obligation: The Constitution, having made it the mandatory duty of the Legislature to make suitable provision for the support and maintenance of an efficient system of public free schools, necessarily conferred the power to make it effective. Mumme v. Marrs, 120 Tex. 383, 40 S.W.2d 31, 36 (1931). For the reasons discussed in our prior opinions, the Texas finance system under Senate Bill 7 could not be efficient as long as it denied access to the pools of wealth concentrated in the wealthiest districts. With that fact in view, we decline to hold that the access Senate Bill 7 allows to such wealth violates Love.