Court Opinion

ID: 9517563
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 00:21:05.728692+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T11:28:11.861083
License: Public Domain

DUNN, Justice
(dissenting).
I would first define the exact issue before this court. Section 1601 funds can be distributed “for any governmental purpose” by the local taxing authority (county) receiving the money. Financing school districts is a governmental purpose and the county could allot part or all of the section 1601 funds to the school district under the Act. The question presented here is: Can the county be mandated to pay over sixty percent of section 1601 funds to the school districts by a state statute?
Section 1601 provides that the money be paid over to the local taxing authority to be used “for any governmental purpose.” Unlike section 1603 of this Act,* section 1601 does not provide for the distribution of these funds for school districts. At the very least, the silence in section 1601 on this point, in contrast to section 1603 express provision, creates an ambiguity as to how section 1601 funds are to be distributed. When we turn to the legislative history of the Act, it becomes most apparent that section 1601 funds were not intended to be earmarked by the State or any other unit of government except the local taxing authority (county) receiving the money.
The Senate Report on the Act states: [T]he Committee believes that payments under [the Act] should go directly to units of local government since the local governments are the entities which assume the burden for the tax immunity of these funds. The Committee does not believe that these new payments should be restricted or earmarked for use for *27specific purposes and the bill allows these payments to be used for any governmental purpose. ' S.Rep. No. 1262, 94th Cong., 2d Sess. 15 (1976), U.S.Code Cong. & Admin.News 1976, p. 5968, 5978. (Emphasis supplied.)
Later in the report the Committee was even more explicit as to the State’s interference in distributing the funds:
Many of the revenue sharing provisions permit the States to make decisions on how the funds will be distributed. In far too many States, the result has been that the funds are either kept at the State level and not distributed to local governments at all or are parcelled out in a manner which provides shares to local governments other than those in which the Federal lands are situated and where the impacts of the revenue and fee generating activities are felt. S.Rep. No. 1262, 94th Cong., 2d Sess. 9 (1976), U.S.Code Cong. & Admin.News 1976, p. 5972.
This statement makes it abundantly clear that Congress was directing the states to keep their noses out of the manner in which a county would distribute these funds. I believe Congress intended the county be vested with total discretion in distributing section 1601 funds. While the county may choose to distribute part of the section 1601 funds to the school district, see Kendall v. Towns County, 146 Ga.App. 760, 247 S.E.2d 577 (1978), I do not believe the county can be forced to do so as contemplated by SDCL 5-11-6. By the passage of SDCL 5-11-6, South Dakota was undermining the very intent and purpose of the Act by earmarking sixty percent of the funds for school districts.
The United States Supreme Court noted in Chicago & N. W. Tr. Co. v. Kalo Brick and Tile Co., 450 U.S. 311, 317, 101 S.Ct. 1124, 1130, 67 L.Ed.2d 258, 265 (1981):
[W]hen Congress has chosen to legislate pursuant to its constitutional powers, then a court must find local law preempted by federal regulation whenever the “challenged state statute ‘stands as an obstacle to the accomplishment and execution of the full purposes and objectives of Congress.’ ”
Since SDCL 5-11-6 undermined the accomplishment and execution of the full purposes and objectives of Congress by earmarking funds for school districts, I would find SDCL 5-11-6 unconstitutional as far as section 1601 payments are concerned. I would affirm.
I am authorized to state that Justice HENDERSON joins in this dissent.

 Section 1603 discusses payments for certain lands and provides for proportional payments of the funds to local governments and affected school districts. Section 1603 of the Act provides, in pertinent part:
The counties, under guidelines established by the Secretary, shall distribute the payments on a proportional basis to those units of local government and affected school districts which have incurred losses of real property taxes due to the acquisition of lands or interests therein for addition to either such system.