In re Unified School District No. 437

757 P.2d 314, 243 Kan. 555, 1988 Kan. LEXIS 177
CourtSupreme Court of Kansas
DecidedJuly 8, 1988
DocketNo. 61,708
StatusPublished
Cited by8 cases

This text of 757 P.2d 314 (In re Unified School District No. 437) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Kansas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
In re Unified School District No. 437, 757 P.2d 314, 243 Kan. 555, 1988 Kan. LEXIS 177 (kan 1988).

Opinion

The opinion of the court was delivered by

Herd, J.:

This is a tax grievance case wherein U.S.D. No. 501 appeals from an order of the district court affirming a Board of Tax Appeals (BOTA) order correcting erroneous assignments of personal property of taxpayer Frito Lay for tax years 1982 through 1985.

In 1985 Gary Smith, Shawnee County appraiser, discovered personal property of Frito Lay had been assigned to taxing district 001, containing U.S.D. No. 501, rather than to the proper taxing district 014, which contained U.S.D. No. 437. Investigation disclosed the error had existed and been perpetuated by computer from 1977.

Frito Lay had been listing its personal property on a single [556]*556rendition sheet even though the property was located in three different taxing districts. Mr. Smith requested Gary Welch, the tax representative for Frito Lay, to assist in making certain the situs of Frito Lay’s personal property was divided properly among the three districts.

Smith then reported the error to the county clerk, who, pursuant to K.S.A. 1987 Supp. 79-1701a, requested the county commission to issue a correction order. The county commission approved change orders for tax years 1983, 1984, and 1985, which removed property misassigned to U.S.D. No. 501’s district and reassigned it to U.S.D. No. 437’s district. Under the correction orders, the taxes paid to U.S.D. No. 501 were to be reduced by $631,053.08 and the taxes paid to U.S.D. No. 437 were to be increased by $568,941.08. This resulted in a net refund to Frito Lay of $62,112.00, due to a lower mill levy in U.S.D. No. 437’s district for two of the three years in question. It was estimated this amount would be a little over 1% of U.S.D. No. 501’s 1985 budget. U.S.D. No. 437 had refunded a similar percentage of its budget in a previous year in compliance with a refund order from the county because of a taxing error.

The county treasurer, pursuant to the procedures outlined in Cities Serv. Oil Co. v. Board of County Comm’rs, 224 Kan. 183, 578 P.2d 718 (1978), ordered the refund to be made from the current collections in back tax funds of U.S.D. No. 501 held by Shawnee County. The county clerk testified hundreds of clerical errors were corrected in this way by the county each year and the procedure followed in this case was the procedure followed in every instance.

U.S.D. No. 437 filed a grievance with BOTA, requesting that the personal property taxes from Frito Lay which should have been assigned to its district be corrected under the provisions of K.S.A. 1987 Supp. 79-1702 for all years in which the error occurred rather than only from 1983 through 1985. K.S.A. 1987 Supp. 79-1702 allows for only one additional year of relief, which year was granted by BOTA. A grievance filed by U.S.D. No. 501 was consolidated with U.S.D. No. 437’s grievance. U.S.D. No. 501’s grievance was denied, as was its motion for a rehearing. The district court affirmed.

U.S.D. No. 501 argues the past errors in assignment of personal property did not harm U.S.D. No. 437 because of the nature of ad [557]*557valorem taxes. Under the ad valorem taxation scheme, taxing units submit their budgets to the county. The levy is then spread against the valuation in the taxing district at the mill rate to raise the budgeted amount. Thus, we see that mistakes made in assigning property to taxing units affect total assessed valuation, which in turn impacts the levy needed to fund the adopted budgets. When valuations go down, levies • go up. Absent a limitation of levy, total revenues received by the taxing units are not affected by valuation. Pursuant to K.S.A. 79-304 and K.S.A. 1987 Supp. 79-1412a, the county appraiser lists and assesses all personal property subject to ad valorem taxation in the taxing district in which the property is located on January 1 of the tax year. Assessment rolls are then submitted to the county clerk. On or before August 25 of each year, unified school districts certify to the county clerk their budgeted amounts of expenditures for determination of the ad valorem tax levy. K.S.A. 72-8204a; K.S.A. 79-2930; K.S.A. 79-1801. The county clerk then computes the tax levy rate required to fund such expenditures upon the basis of the final equalized assessed valuation of each district. The county clerk, on or before November 1, places the ad valorem taxes on the county tax rolls for collection by the treasurer. K.S.A. 79-1801; K.S.A. 79-1803. The treasurer then collects the taxes and makes distribution to the taxing units. K.S.A. 79-1801; K.S.A. 79-2934.

A lower or higher valuation will call for a lower or higher levy to raise the budgeted amount, but the school district receives the revenues to fund its adopted budget. Each school district received approximately its budgeted amount through current year tax revenues despite the misassignment of the Frito Lay property. The only effect of the misassignment was to slightly decrease the levy rate of U.S.D. No. 501 and slightly increase the levy rate of U.S.D. No. 437, which U.S.D. No. 501 claims is irrelevant to the issue here.

U.S.D. No. 501 points out that state funding of Kansas unified school districts is pursuant to the school district equalization act, K.S.A. 72-7030 et seq. Under the act, state aid to school districts is based in part upon the total assessed valuation in each district. The circumstances presented resulted in a decrease of state funding to U.S.D. No. 501 and an increase of state funding to U.S.D. No. 437. For school years 1978-79 through 1984-85, [558]*558U.S.D. No. 501 estimates it received approximately $74,000 less in state aid as a result of the assignments of Frito Lay property to its taxing unit. U.S.D. No. 437 received approximately $71,000 more in state aid.

U.S.D. No. 501 contends it will be harmed by the correction order because it will receive less than the revenues needed to fund its budget for the tax year 1985, and U.S.D. No. 437 will receive current year tax revenues in excess of its adopted budget.

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Bluebook (online)
757 P.2d 314, 243 Kan. 555, 1988 Kan. LEXIS 177, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/in-re-unified-school-district-no-437-kan-1988.