Court Opinion

ID: 9580405
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 22:04:40.120615+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T13:36:15.647342
License: Public Domain

ROBERTS, Judge
(concurring specially).
I concur in the view that the judgment below should be reversed.
Section 15, Article VIII, of the Constitution of this state originally provided that the legislature make "such provision by general taxation and by authorizing the school corporations to levy such additional taxes as with the income from the permanent school fund shall secure a thorough and efficient system of common schools throughout the state." In this connection, section 1 of the same article provides: "The stability of a republican form of government depending on the morality and in*118telligence of the people, it shall be the duty of the legislature to establish and maintain a general and uniform system of public schools wherein tuition shall be without charge, and equally open to all; and to adopt all suitable means to secure to the people the advantages and opportunities of education." The provisions of these sections of the Constitution are not self-executing and related limitations of the Constitution apply to legislation enacted thereunder. Simmons v. Ericson, decided January 26, 1929, 54 S.D. 429, 223 N.W. 342.
The act invalidated by the Simmons case provided for the taxation of agricultural land as a separate class for school purposes. The legislature at the 1929 session (Chap. 85) submitted to the people a proposed amendment of Section 15, Article VIII, authorizing the taxation of agricultural land as a separate class for school purposes. The proposed amendment was adopted at the following general election. The amended section also requires uniformity of taxation with respect to property in the same class. The challenged statute does not contravene any provision of a restrictive nature contained in the amended section.
Plaintiff also argues that the statute in question lacks that equality and uniformity essential to validity. The act here Involved contemplates two tax levies in all school districts within a county which do not operate high schools. The one is the ordinary levy made by the school board of such a district to defray its operating costs. The other is a blanket levy on all the taxable properties situate in such districts within the county. The act provides for a division and apportionment of funds derived from the latter levy which results at least in a partial diversion of funds raised in certain school districts of the county for the use and benefit of other districts.
There is no showing that the act here involved is being applied to the disadvantage of a school district wherein plaintiff is a taxpayer. The question whether the taxpayers of a district or taxing unit maintaining an elementary school may be required to contribute to the local and corporate purposes of other common school districts is not before us for consideration.