Rule, 042331 PAAGO, AGO 10

• Case Date: April 23, 1931
• Court: Pennsylvania

Honorable James' N. Rule AGO 10 Opinion No. 10 Pennsylvania Attorney General Opinions Opinion of the Attorney General April 23, 1931          School Districts—Bond Issues—Levying of Tax for Payment of Principal and Interest—Sinking Fund.          Where a tax is raised for a particular purpose, the fund when collected cannot be applied, in the absence of statutory authorization, to any other purpose than that specified.          Honorable James' N. Rule, Acting Superintendent of Public Instruction, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.          Sir: Upon your request, we have examined the extracts from the minutes of the Board of Directors of the Hollidaysburg School District, pertaining to the bond issue of forty thousand dollars ($40,000.00), the levying and assessing of a tax for the payment of principal and interest thereon, and a sinking fund therefor.          We note that this school district now has in the sinking fund, created pursuant to the provisions of these resolutions, an amount slightly in excess of forty thousand dollars ($40,000.00) ; that the amount of said bond issue which now remains unpaid is thirty-nine thousand five hundred dollars ($39,500.00).          The school district proposes, if it be lawful, to transfer all moneys in excess of nineteen thousand five hundred dollars ($19,500.00), (being the amount which, based on flat tax fixed in resolutions authorizing the bond issue and levying the tax, should be in the sinking fund at this time), from the sinking fund to the general operating account of the district.          You desire to be advised whether, under the provisions of the Act of May 18, 1911, P. L. 309, (School Code), and its amendments, such transfer may be made.          An examination of the resolutions and form of bond discloses that the issue is for forty thousand dollars ($40,000.00), covering eighty (80) bonds in the sum of five hundred dollars ($500.00) each, payable to bearer, and redeemable at the option of the school district on and at any interest-paying period after May 28, 1935, and payable to bearer thereof in any event on May 28, 1945, with interest at four and one-half per centum (41/2 %) per annum, free of all taxes.          The bond recites that it is issued for the purpose of enlarging, equipping, and furnishing the central school building of the district, establishing therein a high school, and the improvements of grounds and the present site, under the authority, etc., of the Act of April...