OAG 40-2.

• Case Date: July 01, 1940
• Court: Oregon

Oregon Attorney General Opinions 1940. OAG 40-2. 5OPINION NO. 40-2[20 Or. Op. Atty. Gen. 5]Condition in section 35-987, Oregon Code 1930, that tax of $10 per capita be collected for each school child between ages of 4 and 20, is mandatory, but may be reduced if income from other sources available for the same purpose permits.July 1, 1940.Hon. Rex Putnam,Superintendent of Public Instruction. Dear Sir: Under date of June 18, 1940, you state:

"In the year 1919 Crook county, a county school district county, levied $13.85 per census child for the county school fund. The levy has remained at that figure since that date in conformity with the provisions of section 35-927, Oregon Code 1930. The county school superintendent writes us as follows:

" 'Last summer the county court attempted to reduce the levy to ten dollars. The school board objected and the levy was not reduced. Notice was served on the board, however, that this year it would be reduced to ten dollars. The argument was put forward that this '1919 clause' was put in only for an emergency, because of so much tax delinquency, and wasn't intended to continue'."

You request my opinion as to whether or not the levy in Crook county can legally be reduced from $13.85 to $10 in6view of the provisions of section 35-927, Oregon Code 1930. Section 35-927, Oregon Code 1930, provides:

"For the purpose of creating a county school fund the county courts of the several counties of this state are hereby required to levy, at the same time other taxes are levied, a tax for school purposes upon all the taxable property of the county which aggregate an amount which shall produce at least ten dollars ($10) per capita for each and all of the children within the county between the ages of four and twenty years, as shown by preceding school census, which said taxes shall be collected at the same time, in the same manner, and by the same officers as other taxes are collected; provided, that the per capita amount so levied in any county shall not be less than the per capita amount of the school tax levied in the county for the year 1919."

In School District No. 24 v. Smith, 97 Or. 1, the court in referring to said statute said:

"This statute is direct and positive, and by its terms it was the legal duty of the county court to make a sufficient levy to raise ten dollars ($10.00) per

...