State ex rel. Trent v. Sims

West Virginia Supreme Court

State ex rel. Trent v. Sims

77 S.E.2d 122, 138 W. Va. 244, 1953 W. Va. LEXIS 26

CourtWest Virginia Supreme Court

DecidedMay 18, 1953

DocketNo. 10575

StatusPublished

Cited by71 cases

This text of 77 S.E.2d 122 (State ex rel. Trent v. Sims) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering West Virginia Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

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State ex rel. Trent v. Sims, 77 S.E.2d 122, 138 W. Va. 244, 1953 W. Va. LEXIS 26 (W. Va. 1953).

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Opinions

Riley, Judge:

In this original proceeding in mandamus of State of West Virginia at the relation of W. W. Trent, State Superintendent of Free Schools; Milton J. Ferguson, State Tax Commissioner; and Denzil Lee Gainer, Director of the Budget, ex officio members of and constituting The State Board of School Finance, against Edgar B. Sims, Auditor of The State of West Virginia, the petitioners request a writ of mandamus directed against the respondent, who heretofore has refused to honor a [251]*251requisition submitted to him by the petitioners as The State Board of School Finance in the amount of $24,-017.48, representing state aid to schools; and this Court heretofore having issued a rule against respondent, returnable April 14, 1953, directing him to show cause, if any he can, why a writ of mandamus should not be awarded against him as prayed for, the case was submitted to the Court for decision on the return day upon the petition, respondent’s answer, in which respondent admits all of the facts well pleaded, and denies all conclusions of law stated therein, and upon petitioners’ demurrer to respondent’s answer, petitioners’ replication and respondent’s rejoinder to the replication.

Prior to the convening of the 1953 session of the Legislature, the Board of Public Works, in accordance with the provisions of Section 51 of Article VI of the Constitution of West Virginia, prepared two budgets, one for the fiscal year 1953-54 and the other for the fiscal yeár 1954-55, and an accompanying financial statement which included an estimate of the unappropriated surplus as of June 30, 1953, and an estimate of the revenues of the State available for the 1953-55 biennium. These budgets, with the accompanying statement, were embodied in a paper back book, which the board designates “Budget Document”. This, together with a budget bill for all proposed appropriations of the two budgets, also prepared by the board, as provided by Section 51, Article VI, West Virginia Constitution, was delivered to the presiding officer of each house of the Legislature. This bill, hereinafter designated as the “budget bill”, having been amended by the incorporation therein of Section 1, embracing a statement of the finding and general policy of the Legislature and containing many amendments, hereafter to be detailed, was passed on March 14, 1953, effective from passage, and entitled “AN ACT making an appropriation of public money out of the treasury in accordance with section, fifty-one, article six of the Constitution”. Hereinafter this Act will be designated as the “budget act”, or as Committee Substitute for Senate Bill No. 1.

[252]*252On March 14, 1953, the day upon which both houses of the 1953 Legislature adjourned sine die, and before the budget act was enacted, the Honorable Glenn Jackson, Chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, and the Honorable W. P. C. Perry, Chairman of the House Finance Committee, addressed a letter on behalf of the Conference Committee of the House and Senate to the Board of Public Works, requesting amendments of the appropriations contained in the budgets for the biennium 1953-55, made by the Board of Public Works, and provided for in the budget bill in the additional amounts of $5,758,620.00, $2,494,560.00 for the year 1953-54, and $3,264,060.00 for the year 1954-55. In this letter the two chairmen invited the attention of the members of the Board of Public Works to the fact that the budget act made reductions in the amounts set forth in the budget bill of $3,758,620.00, and the two chairmen in this letter of March 14, 1953, stated that the difference of approximately two million dollars is based upon the finding of the Finance Committees of the House and Senate that anticipated revenues will, in all probability, be a million dollars more each year than the Board of Public Works finally estimated; and, specifically, this letter stated that the Senate and House Finance Committees anticipated: (1) a five hundred thousand dollar annual increase in the revenues of the West Virginia Racing Commission, based upon the large increase in the number of racing days recently approved by the commission, and upon the anticipated substantial improvement in the business of a new track at Waterford; and (2) a five hundred thousand dollar increase in the profits of the West Virginia Liquor Control Commission, based upon the recent executive action of the Governor of this State in abolishing the enforcement bureau of that commission, and upon a further anticipated reduction in the number of employees by the action of the Governor and by reason of budgetary limitations to be imposed by the Legislature. Accompanying this letter there was a detailed statement of various items contained in the budget bill and the amendments to the bill [253]*253suggested by the Chairmen of the Finance Committees of the House and Senate.

In reply to this letter the Board of Public Works declined the request of the Chairmen of the Finance Committees of the House and Senate to raise the estimated revenues for the 1953-1955 biennium, and stated that its declination was based upon the fact that two principal sources of State revenue indicate diminishing revenue for the ensuing biennium, namely, (1) the reduction in the receipts of the West Virginia Liquor Control Commission, and (2) .the poor economic condition of the coal industry, the State’s major industry, as shown by an expression of the President of the State Senate in the morning newspaper of Charleston of March 14, 1953. In this letter the Board of Public Works stated that: “The substantial portion of the cuts made to effect the increases you ask came from the Department of Public Assistance in the amount of a million dollars or more annually. This will seriously cripple the Department. The Board of Public Works feels that it has a duty toward the more unfortunate citizens of our State to protect them as best it can when the budget is under consideration.”

These letters between the Chairmen of the Senate and House Finance Committees, and the suggestions as to proposed increases attached to and made a part of the letter of the two chairmen, and the Board of Public Works on March 14, 1953, are set forth in the Journal' of the Senate, Regular Session, 1953, March 14, 1953, at pages 82 to 100, inclusive.

At this point it may be well to note that Item No. 39, contained in the detailed statement attached to the letter of the Chairmen of the Senate and House Finance Committees, provides for a suggested appropriation for the Department of Education for temporary supplemental aid to counties to be distributed by The State Board of School Finance for the biennium 1953-55 “in accordance with a new formula for the distribution of state aid to schools”, approved by the Governor, in the amount of $2,500,000.00.

[254]*254Upon receipt of the letter from the Board of Public Works both the Senate and the House of Delegates voted on and passed Committee Substitute for Senate Bill No. 1, which enacted into law the budget act under appraisal, entitled: “AN ACT making an appropriation of public money out of the treasury in accordance with section fifty-one, article six of the constitution.”

This Act, in Section 1, amended the budget bill submitted by the Board of Public Works to the effect that the estimates of funds in the treasury at the time this Act was enacted and expected revenue to accrue prior to July 1, 1953, and during the ensuing biennium of 1953-55 will furnish funds sufficient to pay:

“(1) Expense of the legislature;

(2) Expense of the executive department;

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