Oak Ridge City Schools v. Anderson County

677 S.W.2d 468, 20 Educ. L. Rep. 1027, 1984 Tenn. App. LEXIS 2837
CourtCourt of Criminal Appeals of Tennessee
DecidedApril 27, 1984
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 677 S.W.2d 468 (Oak Ridge City Schools v. Anderson County) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Criminal Appeals of Tennessee primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Oak Ridge City Schools v. Anderson County, 677 S.W.2d 468, 20 Educ. L. Rep. 1027, 1984 Tenn. App. LEXIS 2837 (Tenn. Ct. App. 1984).

Opinion

OPINION

SANDERS, Judge.

The threshold question on this appeal is whether or not a county is required under T.C.A. § 49-3-315 to apportion to a city school system located within its boundaries funds in its school budget received from the Tennessee Valley Authority in lieu of taxes.

[469]*469Plaintiff-Appellant, Oak Ridge City Schools, filed suit in the circuit court against the Defendant-Appellee, Anderson County. The complaint alleged the Plaintiff is a school system located in the Defendant County. For a number of years the Defendant has allocated to its general school fund budget funds received by it from the Tennessee Valley Authority in lieu of taxes. It alleged the Defendant has failed to distribute the funds pursuant to T.C.A. § 49-3-315 and Plaintiff has failed to receive its share of the funds from the Defendant. It asked the court to declare that the Defendant owed to the Plaintiff its pro rata portion of the funds.

The Defendant, for answer, admitted the Plaintiff is a school system located within its boundaries. It admitted it has allocated funds received from TVA in lieu of taxes to its general school fund, but it denied the Plaintiff is entitled to share in those funds because such funds were not “received from the state, county (or) political subdivision,” as provided for in T.C.A. § 49-3-315.

The parties entered into a stipulation of facts and the case was submitted to the court for determination. As pertinent here, the stipulation is as follows:

“That the stipulated and agreed facts are as follows:
“That Anderson County is a political subdivision of the State of Tennessee.
“That the City of Oak Ridge is an incorporated municipality located within the confines of the County of Anderson and that the City of Oak Ridge operates a school system known as the Oak Ridge Schools.
“That Oak Ridge Schools is a special school district as defined by state law.
“Pursuant to the provisions of 16 U.S.C. § 831Z and the provisions of TCA Sec. 67-24-101 et seq., Anderson County receives in lieu of tax payments from the Tennessee Valley Authority as allocated and determined by the Code sections referred to above.
“That the City of Oak Ridge also receives in lieu of tax payments from the Tennessee Valley Authority.
“Anderson County has allocated in lieu of tax money to the general school fund of Anderson County, Tennessee. Anderson County has failed to apportion to the City of Oak Ridge those funds placed in the general school budget representing in lieu of tax payments from the Tennessee Valley Authority.”

The court found the issues in favor of the Defendant and dismissed the complaint. In his determination of the case the court said:

“The ultimate issue is whether the T.V.A. in-lieu-of-tax payment is received from a State, County, or other political subdivision.
“In the Court’s opinion the T.V.A. in-lieu-of-tax payment comes from a Federal entity which is an arm of the Federal Government, but is not the Federal Government. However, by a Federal creation it assumes the characteristics which separate the ‘authority’ from a ‘political subdivision’, as defined in T.C.A. 49-614.” (Now 49-3-315)
“Even though it is the intent of Congress in the legislation creating the in-lieu-of-tax payments by T.V.A., to render financial assistance to local governments in-lieu-of-taxation, the payments made to the State of Tennessee and distributed in accordance with T.C.A. 67-24-101 are not the same as those generated by our local taxing authorities.”
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“The Court is guided by the language of Conger v. Madison County, 581 S.W.2d 632.”

The first issue raised on appeal by Oak Ridge City Schools is whether or not Anderson County acted properly and legally in allocating monies received from the T.V.A. to its general school fund. Since the Appellant, in its brief, admits that Anderson County has acted properly and legally in allocating the funds to its general school fund, we need not discuss this issue further.

The second issue raised by the Appellant is whether or not Anderson County is required, pursuant to T.C.A. § 49-3-315, to [470]*470apportion between its schools and the Appellant the T.V.A. in-lieu-of-tax payments.

As pertinent here, T.C.A. § 49-3-315 provides:

“Each LEA1 shall place in one (1) separate school fund all school revenues for current school operation purposes received from the state, county, and other political subdivisions, if any .... All school funds for current operation and maintenance purposes collected by any county ... shall be apportioned by the county trustee among the LEA’s therein on the basis of the WFTEADA2 maintained by each, during the current school year.”

The Appellant asserts that, as an LEA within the language of the statute, it is entitled, on the basis of the WFTEADA maintained by it, to a portion of all of the school revenues placed by the Defendant into its general school budget, including those funds representing the T.V.A. in-lieu-of-tax payments.

The Appellant relies upon City of Harriman v. Roane County, 553 S.W.2d 904 (Tenn.1977), to support its claim that it is entitled to a portion of the in-lieu-of-tax payments. In City of Harriman, the county was sued, in part, for its failure to divide certain county sales tax receipts with the separate city school system. The governing body of the county, authorized by T.C.A. § 67-6-712(2)(A) to allocate certain of the sales tax receipts “to such fund or funds of the county” as it shall direct, placed the funds in the county’s school fund. It then failed to divide these funds with the city school system. Our Supreme Court, in holding that the funds had to be shared with the city schools, stated:

“The provisions of T.C.A. § 49-605 [now, § 49-3-315] are mandatory.

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Bluebook (online)
677 S.W.2d 468, 20 Educ. L. Rep. 1027, 1984 Tenn. App. LEXIS 2837, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/oak-ridge-city-schools-v-anderson-county-tenncrimapp-1984.