Court Opinion

ID: 9552041
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 19:03:48.781221+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T15:25:27.832616
License: Public Domain

WILLIAMS, Chief Justice
(dissenting).
I must respectfully dissent in this case. In my view, the Court’s holding herein ignores the plain and unambiguous language of the first sentence of Article X, Sec. 23a. Under that sentence, “Any surplus which has accrued or may hereafter accrue to the General Revenue Fund of the State of Oklahoma during any fiscal year shall be placed monthly in a sinking fund in the State Treasury to be used solely for the purpose of paying the principal and interest of the outstanding and unpaid bonded indebtedness of the State of Oklahoma” (emphasis added).
In that sentence, the people of Oklahoma stated a fiscal policy which continues in full force and effect. It is not limited, either directly or by implication, to the retirement of the 1935, 1939 and 1941 Funding Bonds.
The provisions of Sec. 23a regarding those particular bonds are obviously in addition to the requirements of the first sentence. This is shown by the plain language of the second sentence, which provides that the Surplus Accounts of the bonds for those years “also shall be placed *760in said Sinking Fund” (emphasis added). Without the second sentence, there might have been some question as to whether the existing statutory Surplus Accounts (which were not in the General Revenue Fund) should be transferred to the new sinking fund created by Sec. 23a.
I can find no room for doubt as to the meaning of this language. By its own terms, Section 23a in toto is self-executing. In the case now before us, the people of Oklahoma have written into our fundamental law, in language too clear to permit misunderstanding, the answer to the question of whether a legislative appropriation, or any other kind of legislative act, is necessary to carry into effect the provisions of Sec. 23a.
To my mind, no reasonable basis exists for asserting there has been either an administrative, legislative or judicial construction of Section 23a.
Under the doctrine of pari materia, I believe the treatment of the problem presented in Draper v. State Board of Equalization cited by the majority, related to any surplus remaining after payment of bonds or accumulation in sinking fund of sufficient funds as determined by the Governor and Treasurer and Attorney General, to pay them. That case is not applicable here.
The Legislature or the people could have achieved the result obtained by the enactment of Section 23a under the present interpretation thereof, by enacting a mere statute or initiated or referred measure as opposed to changing our fundamental law by constitutional amendment.
This Court has in effect added at the end of the first sentence the words “for the years 1935, 1939 and 1941.” By its holding herein, this Court has in effect changed that sentence to read “The provi-, sions of this section as to the 1935, 1939 and 1941 State Funding Bond Funds shall be self-executing.”
I respectfully dissent.