Court Opinion

ID: 9598968
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 01:13:27.361985+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:01:43.709266
License: Public Domain

Judge Wynn
dissenting:
I agree with the Buncombe County Board of Education and the plaintiffs in this case that the residual sales tax should be distributed on a more equitable basis such as the ADM method under § 115C-430 rather under the ad valorem method under § 105-472.
*225It appears to me that § 105-472 contemplated the imposition of a county-wide ad valorem tax, and therefore a distribution of the residual sales tax under that method would allow for a proportionate division of the residual sales tax to everyone. However, Buncombe County’s school district has the nearly unique feature of having two school districts in which one self-imposes a supplemental tax and the other chooses not to. Thus, in this case, one district receives all of the residual tax that is generated from sources other than the self-imposed tax to the complete exclusion of the other. That’s not fair!
First, I would find that § 105-472 is in conflict with § 115C-430 and is therefore controlled by the repealer statute of § 115C-424. The repealer statute specifically repeals statutes like § 105-472 that conflict with provisions under Article 31 of Chapter 115C.
Second, I would find that this case is not controlled by our Supreme Court’s recent decision in Leandro v. State, 346 N.C. 336, 488 S.E.2d 249 (1997) because in this case, the city schools receive not only the self-imposed supplemental tax but also, to the exclusion of the county schools, the proceeds from a bonus tax. As a result of the County’s failure to distribute that bonus tax — the residual sales tax — on an ADM basis, the students in one part of Buncombe County have superior resources over students in another part of the county. Thus, unlike Leandro which addressed only supplemental funding, the additional advantage of this bonus tax in this case is evidence that the students in the county schools are being denied equal access to a sound basic education. I must therefore, dissent.