Court Opinion

ID: 9758635
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-28 23:38:47.220477+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:28:53.676427
License: Public Domain

DUFFY, Justice
(dissenting):
I regret that I cannot agree with the conclusion or the rationale adopted by a majority of the Court. The result of both, I think, is to place the entire area of exemption from property taxation in all Counties of the State in a limbo of legal and fiscal uncertainty. And in so doing, I think that the ruling almost neutralizes that part of Article VIII, § 1 which is in issue here.
Article VIII, § 1, as amended in 1971, provides in part:1
“Section 1. All taxes shall be uniform upon the same class of subjects within the territorial limits of the authority levying the tax, and shall be levied and collected under general laws passed by the General Assembly. County Council of New Castle County and the Levy Courts of Kent and Sussex Counties are hereby authorized to exempt from county taxation such property in their respective counties as in their opinion will best promote the public welfare. The county property tax exemption power created by this section shall be exclusive as to such property as is located within the respective counties. . . .”
The Constitutional language plainly and clearly, gives New Castle County (and the *623other Counties as well), authority “to exempt . . . such property ... as in [its] . . . opinion will best promote the public welfare.” And that power “shall be exclusive.” The words could not be more precise. Nothing whatever is said about the preservation of prior exemptions nor about the General Assembly’s on-going, power to continue them.
While we do not have the benefit of findings, debates or hearings with respect to this Amendment one need only look to its language and the complex of existing statutory exemptions to perceive its purpose, Before the 1971 Amendment, property tax exemption could be had only by statute and the result was a hodge-podge of selective acts dating back to at least 1852.2 The *624purpose of the Amendment, I suggest, was this: to bring order out of the exemption chaos and to remove the General Assembly from interfering with the County tax structure on an ad hoc basis. In short, the exemption power was placed “exclusively” within the County whose revenues are affected by an exemption.
The problem put to the Court, as I see it, is not one of repeal of a statute by implication; it is, rather, which law governs when there is a conflict between the Constitution and a statute. No citation is required to show that the former is controlling. But the Court’s decision gives continuing viability and effect to the exemption statute, (§ 8104) which is clearly in conflict with the “exclusive” power vested in the County by the Constitution. It is difficult to understand the basis for the ruling because the General Assembly’s power to enact any law is grounded on the Constitution and, in the matter of property tax exemptions, that power is denied to the Assembly. Given the Constitutional basis for the County’s power, there is not, as I see it, any delegation of power by a senior to a junior legislative body.
I would reverse the judgment of the Superior Court.

. The 1971 Amendment is not the present Article but it may again be enacted as shown by the recent history of Article VIII, § 1. Thus, on May 18, 1976 a proposed amendment was given final approval; it reads in part:
“The county property tax exemption power created by this section shall be exclusive as to such property as is located within the respective counties with respect to real property located within the boundaries of any incorporated municipality; the authority to exempt such property from municipal property tax shall be exercised by the respective incorporated municipality; then in the opinion of the said municipality it will best promote the public welfare.”
See 60 Del.L. chs. 437-38 (and 59 Del.L. ch. 446 for the initial approval). A proposed amendment to return to the same language of the 1971 Amendment was given first approval on June 30, 1976. 60 Del.L. ch. 521.

. The accumulations of the years are listed in 9 Del.C. § 8104 which provides:
“No real property owned and used by the organizations listed below or for the purposes stated below, except that which is held by way of investment, shall be liable to taxation and assessment for public purposes by any county or other political subdivision of this State.
“Historical Society of Delaware.
New Castle Historical Society.
All incorporated relief associations for volunteer firemen (limit, $25,000 per association).
Nonsectarian Young Women’s Christian Associations.
Nonsectarian Young Men’s Christian Associations.
Salvation Army.
Burial lots and cemeteries.
Children’s Home, Inc.
Layton Home for Aged Colored Persons, Incorporated.
Sunday Breakfast Mission.
The Family Society.
Woods Haven School for Girls.
Ferris Industrial School.
Florence Crittenton Home.
All incorporated homes of refuge for reformed women (limit, $25,000 per home).
Charitable homes for incurables (limit $15,-000 per home).
Day nurseries or homes for babies owned by any corporation or association maintained by charity (limit $50,000 per nursery or home).
Charitable incorporated homes or associations for deaconesses (limit, $10,000 per home).
Delaware Commission for the Blind.
Charitable incorporated settlement houses.
Soldiers’ rest rooms.
Incorporated college fraternities (limit, $10,-000 per fraternity).
Wilmington Institute Free Library.
Public parks in and near Wilmington.
American Legion Posts.
Veterans of Foreign Wars Posts.
Delaware Anti-Tuberculosis Society.
Delmar Lions Club.
Polish Army Veterans of Delaware, Post 48 Inc.
Lions Club of Smyrna.
Pencader 4-H Club Center, Inc.
Wilmington Drama League, Inc.
Council of Churches of Wilmington and New Castle County, Inc.
New Temple Corporation.
Edgemoor Terrace Civic Association, Incorporated.
Hyde Park Civic Association, Inc.
Brookland Terrace Civic Club.
Manor Community Center, Inc.
Collins Park Community and Civic Association, Inc.
Veteran Employees Association, Delaware Division, Pennsylvania Railroad.
Pencader Grange # 60 P. of H. Inc.
Taylor’s Bridge Community Center, Incorporated.
Blackbird Community Center, Inc.
Oakhill Community Center, Inc.
The Brookside Community, Inc.
Women’s Civic Club of Richardson Park.
Hillside Civic Association.
The Klair Estates Civic Association, Inc.
The Castle Hills Civic Association.
Westview Maintenance Corporation.
Suburban Century Club.
Sussex Chapter of Delaware Humane Association.
Imperial Drive Civic Association.
Fruitland Grange, No. 16, Camden, Delaware.
Windy Hill Civic Association.
Perth Community and Civic Association, Inc.
Women’s Club of Claymont.
Swanwyck Estates Civic Association.
The Eastern Shore Fox Hunters’ Association.
Delaware Society for Crippled Children and Adults, Inc.
Yorklyn Parent-Teacher Association, Inc.
Wycliffe Civic Association, Inc.
Blue Rock Community Club.
Civic Association of Belvedere and Vicinity.
Lambom Library Association.
Lutheran Senior Services, Inc.
University Drama Group, Inc.
Central Grange #61.
Penn Acres Swim Club, Inc.
Viola-Canterbury-Felton Ruritan Club.
Lewes Senior Citizens Center, Incorporated.
Cannon Grange No. 65 P. of H.
Broadcreek Grange No. 59 P. of H.
Midland Grange No. 27 P. of H.
B’nai B’rith Lodge 470.
Jefferson Farms Swim Club, Inc.”