Court Opinion

ID: 9706598
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 01:47:11.794695+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:22:23.840995
License: Public Domain

Wright, J.,
dissenting.
The purpose of L.B. 839 is to reapportion state aid from one school district to another. Within the Class VI system, which is defined as a Class VI school district and each Class I school district or portion thereof which is a part of the Class VI district, a common levy is set sufficient to generate the aggregate property tax requirements for districts within the system. The tax revenues are then disbursed to each Class I district based on its budgeted tax requirement irrespective of the *481amount of tax dollars actually generated from property within that individual district.
State equalization aid to the Valentine Class VI school system decreases under L.B. 839. The reapportionment is accomplished with a Class VI system by using the same mill levy for all the Class I districts within the Class VI system. L.B. 839 therefore requires certain Class I districts to provide financial aid to other Class I districts within the Class VI system. By increasing property taxes to certain Class I districts within the Class VI system, the amount of state aid to the Valentine Class VI system is reduced. Thus, certain Class I districts compensate for such reduction by having an increase in property taxes.
Class I school districts are independent political subdivisions which operate under the direction of elected school boards which adopt the budget for the district. The boundaries are distinct and separate. A Class VI school system lacks these characteristics. When the supporting Class I district has determined its expenditures, it must also support expenditures of other Class I districts. The result is the imposition of an unequal burden of taxation upon one school district for the benefit of another under the disguise of “equal” mill levies. “Under the provisions of our Constitution relating to equality in taxation, any law imposing an unfair or unequal burden of taxation upon one school district for the benefit of another would be unconstitutional.” State, ex rel. Groves, v. School District, 101 Neb. 263, 264, 162 N.W. 640, 641 (1917). See, also, High School District v. Lancaster County, 60 Neb. 147, 82 N.W. 380 (1900). In my opinion, creating the Class VI system imposes an unequal burden of taxation upon one school district for the benefit of another. Under the disguise of an equal mill levy, the Legislature unconstitutionally attempts to do indirectly what it could not do in Peterson v. Hancock, 155 Neb. 801, 54 N.W.2d 85 (1952).
“[W]here the Legislature has authorized and required local governmental units to make a property tax levy for state purposes, it should not be treated as a local levy for local purposes merely because it is made by a local governmental unit.” State ex rel. Western Nebraska Technical Com. Col. Area *482v. Tallon, 192 Neb. 201, 212, 219 N.W.2d 454, 460 (1974). The creation of a local taxing district does not alter the state purpose of redistribution of state aid.
The use of local property taxes for state purposes is unconstitutional. Article VIII, § 1A, of the Nebraska Constitution provides: “The state shall be prohibited from levying a property tax for state purposes.” Where state and local purposes are commingled, the crucial issue turns upon a determination of whether the controlling purposes are state or local. See Kovarik v. County of Banner, 192 Neb. 816, 224 N.W.2d 761 (1975).
The obvious purpose of L.B. 839 is to reallocate state aid. This reallocation is possible because property taxes in certain Class I districts are increased to compensate for the redistribution of state aid. I fail to see this as anything but a levy of property tax for state purposes, which is unconstitutional.