Alpine School District Board of Education v. State Tax Commission, Property Tax Division

2000 UT App 319, 14 P.3d 125, 408 Utah Adv. Rep. 17, 2000 Utah App. LEXIS 96, 2000 WL 1707778
CourtCourt of Appeals of Utah
DecidedNovember 16, 2000
DocketNo. 20000109-CA
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 2000 UT App 319 (Alpine School District Board of Education v. State Tax Commission, Property Tax Division) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Utah primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Alpine School District Board of Education v. State Tax Commission, Property Tax Division, 2000 UT App 319, 14 P.3d 125, 408 Utah Adv. Rep. 17, 2000 Utah App. LEXIS 96, 2000 WL 1707778 (Utah Ct. App. 2000).

Opinion

OPINION

BENCH, Judge:

T1 Petitioner Alpine School District (Alpine) appeals the decision of the Utah State Tax Commission (Commission), which upheld the lowering of Alpine's 1999 adopted tax rate by the Commission's Property Tax Division (Division). Alpine contends that the Division has no statutory authority to reduce Alpine's adopted tax rate. We reverse.

[127]*127BACKGROUND

T2 Alpine formulated a budget for the 1999 tax year. After this budget was approved, the Division notified Alpine of its certified tax rate for ad valorem property taz. Within this certified tax rate was an adjustment for the change in the motor vehicle fee-in-lieu revenue, effective that year.1 This adjustment was based on an estimate by the Division of what the motor vehicle fee-in-lieu revenue would be.

T 3 When Alpine received notification of its certified tax rate, it realized the rate would be inadequate to meet the needs of its budget. Therefore, Alpine proposed to the taxpayers an ad valorem tax rate higher than its certified tax rate. Alpine complied with the requirements commonly referred to as "truth in taxation" pursuant to Utah Code Ann. §§ 59-2-918 and 59-2-919 (1996 & Supp. 2000). The taxpayers approved Alpine's proposed tax rate and this rate was submitted to the Division.

T4 In the meantime, the Commission discovered an error in the Division's calculation of the motor vehicle fee-in-lieu adjustment to the certified tax rate. When recalculated, the resulting certified tax rates were lower than those originally reported to the taxing entities. After Alpine submitted its adopted tax rate, which had been approved by the taxpayers, the Division lowered the rate by the same amount it had determined Alpine's certified tax rate should be lowered.

15 The Division claimed it had statutory authority to unilaterally lower Alpine's rate pursuant to Utah Code Ann. §§ 59-2-914 and 59-2-924 (1996 & Supp.2000). Alpine appealed to the Commission the Division's adjustment of its adopted rate. The Commission recognized that the Division could not lower Alpine's adopted rate under section 59-2-914 alone, since Alpine had complied with the truth in taxation requirements. The Commission nonetheless upheld the Division's action based on its reading of sections 59-2-914 and 59-2-924 together.

ISSUE AND STANDARD OF REVIEW

16 The issue concerns whether the Division had authority under either section 59-2-914 or section 59-2-924 to lower Alpine's adopted tax rate. In reviewing the Commission's decision, we "grant the commission no deference concerning its conclusions of law, applying a correction of error standard, unless there is an explicit grant of discretion contained in a statute at issue before the appellate court." Utah Code Ann. § 59-1-610(1)(b) (1996). The issue presented for our review is one of statutory interpretation, which is a question of law, and the Commission has been given no specific grant of discretion to interpret the statutes at issue. See Airport Hilton Ventures v. Tax Comm'n, 1999 UT 26, 17, 976 P.2d 1197. Therefore, we give no deference to the Commission's interpretation.

ANALYSIS

T7 Preliminarily, we discuss the Commission's belatedly filed Motion Regarding Suggestion of Mootness. The Commission contends that recent legislative changes requiring the Commission to make adjustments to certified tax rates to equalize any errors in the 1999 fee-in-lieu revenue estimates, as well as the fact that Alpine adopted a tax rate higher than the certified tax rate in 2000, render moot the Commission's decision on the 1999 tax rate. Thus, any harm Alpine may have experienced 'in subsequent years, based on the lowering of its 1999 tax rate, was abrogated by its adoption of a 2000 tax rate that was higher than its 1999 tax rate. The Commission concedes, however, that the broader issue of whether the Division has authority to alter a taxing entity's adopted rate may well arise in the future.

T8 We have said that "'[al case is deemed moot when the requested judicial [128]*128relief cannot affect the rights of the litigants'" 49th St. Galleria v. Tax Comm'n, 860 P.2d 996, 998 n. 4 (Utah Ct.App.1993) (quoting Burkett v. Schwendiman, 773 P.2d 42, 44 (Utah 1989)). The rights of a taxing entity such as Alpine to adopt a tax rate pursuant to statute without the Division unilaterally changing it are surely not negated by the fact that the taxing year in question has come and gone and subsequent measures were taken to correct the monetary difference. When a case "presents an issue that affects the public interest, is likely to recur, and because of the brief time that any one litigant is affected, is capable of evading review," we will address the merits of the case. Burkett, 773 P.2d at 44.

T9 The Commission argues on appeal that section 59-2-914 gives the Division the authority to reduce Alpine's adopted tax rate. That section provides, in part: "[ilf the commission determines that a levy established for a taxing entity ... is in excess of the maximum levy permitted by law, the commission shall ... lower the levy so that it is set at the maximum level permitted by law." Utah Code Ann. § 59-2-914(1)(a) (1996). The Commission interprets this section to grant the Division broad discretion in determining whether a levy is in excess of the maximum, and then to reduce the levy to an appropriate level.

110 The Commission found that Alpine complied with the requirements of sections 59-2-918 and 59-2-919, which require a taxing entity to notify taxpayers of a proposed rate increase in excess of the certified rate, and to hold hearings regarding the increase. See id. §§ 59-2-918, -919 (1999). This finding notwithstanding, the Commission claims that because the erroneous information the Division had provided Alpine regarding the certified tax rate was then used in the notice to taxpayers during the truth in taxation process, the Division had authority to lower the adopted rate. This interpretation is not consistent with the plain language of the statute. The statute clearly states that the Division may only lower the tax rate if it exceeds the "maximum levy." See id. § 59-2-914(1)(a). The maximum levy is defined by statute as: "©0032 per dollar of taxable value in all counties with a total taxable value of more than $100,000,000. ..." Id. § 59-2-908(1)(a) (1996). The Commission acknowledged during oral argument that Alpine's adopted tax rate does not exceed this figure.

§11 The Commission also argues that section 59-2-924(2) gives the Division the authority to lower Alpine's adopted tax rate. That section reads:

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2000 UT App 319, 14 P.3d 125, 408 Utah Adv. Rep. 17, 2000 Utah App. LEXIS 96, 2000 WL 1707778, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/alpine-school-district-board-of-education-v-state-tax-commission-property-utahctapp-2000.