Citation Numbers: 72 Op. Att'y Gen. 49
Judges: BRONSON C. La FOLLETTE, Attorney General
Filed Date: 4/15/1983
Status: Precedential
Modified Date: 4/15/2017
WILLIAM G. THIEL, Corporation Counsel Eau Claire County
Section
Any city, town, village or school district in a county levying a tax for a county library under sub. (1) shall, upon written application to the county board of the county, be exempted from the tax levy, if the city, town, village or school district making the application expends for a library fund during the year for which the tax levy is made a sum at least equal to the sum which it would have to pay toward the county tax levy.
You inquire whether the language "expends for a library fund during the year for which the tax levy is made . . ." refers to actual expenditures the municipal or school governmental unit has made or is committed to make during the calendar year in which the county board meets to establish a levy, or whether it refers to proposed expenditures from local tax levy or other funds for the forthcoming year.
In my opinion it refers to amounts which have been raised by local tax levy or otherwise and which have been appropriated and expended by the municipality or school district as and for its "library fund" for the calendar year in which the county board meets to establish a levy. This office has stated* that a town, city or village which does not maintain a public library, as a municipality or jointly with another municipality under contract, but which makes contributions to a nearby public library, cannot be exempted from the county library tax levy under section
A "library fund" therefore consists of the proceeds of a tax levied and moneys appropriated by a municipality to be used exclusively to maintain "the public library" established, equipped and maintained by the municipality. Expenditures therefrom can only be made by a library board. If a city, town or village does not have a library within its boundaries or is not obligated under contract with one or more other municipalities to operate a *Page 51 library located outside its boundaries, there is no need for the special library fund.
Section
An "expenditure" is the expending, a laying out of money, disbursement, and is not the same as an "appropriation," the setting apart or assignment to a particular person or use. Grout v. Gates,
97 Vt. 434 ,124 A. 76 ,80 ; Suppiger v. Eniking,60 Idaho 292 ,91 P.2d 362 ,364 ,365 .
The distinction is an important one since a municipality or school district could evade the intent of the statute by "appropriating" a sum sufficient with very high cap to fund library activities in a given year, yet expend only a very small amount in a given year.
Section
Support for my conclusion that measurement is based on expenditures during the current year rather than expenditures proposed for the ensuing year is found in the legislative history of the subsections involved.
Section
The county board of the county expending money for public library service to its inhabitants may provide in the following manner for the raising and collecting of the money necessary to reimburse the county for the amount so expended. The county clerk of any such county shall make a report to the county board at each annual November meeting, covering the year ending October first preceding, showing in detail the amount and proportion of the money expended by the county for such library service in each town, village, and city. The county board shall thereupon determine *Page 52 the proportionate amount to be raised and paid by each such town, village, and city to reimburse the county for the money so advanced, and thereupon within 10 days after such determination the county clerk shall certify to the clerk of and charge to each town, village, and city the amount so advanced. Each such town, city, and village shall levy a tax sufficient to reimburse the county for such advances which shall be collected as other taxes and paid into the county treasury.
The statutes required the county clerk to ascertain the amounts the county had expended to furnish library service in each respective town, village and city during the period from October 1 of the year preceding the November county board meeting to October 31 of the year in which such annual meeting was held. The county board would then determine the proportionate amount each such unit of government would have to raise by its own tax levy to reimburse the county for "advances" made. The levy by the town, village or city would take place during the year the services were furnished and to be exempt under section
The exemption was based on performance of both the county and each respective town, village or city during a past period and not on planned performance in the form of a library fund for an ensuing year. However, I conclude that by reason of the statutory revision, measurement of the exemption is on the basis of the performance of the respective town, village or city during the calendar year in which the county budget is adopted and county tax levy made as against the county's proposed expenditures for the ensuing calendar year. Section
Section
Under section
It is evident from this dissertation that section
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