County of Tuolumne v. Rafferty

[695]

STONE, J.

This appeal is from a judgment granting a writ of mandate ordering Max Rafferty, Superintendent of Public Instruction, to certify to Alan Cranston, State Controller, that $24,833.88 is due respondent, County of Tuolumne, under section 20211 of the Education Code, and commanding Cranston to draw his warrant on the general fund of the State of California in that amount payable to the County Treasurer of Tuolumne County.

As there was no junior college district within the County of Tuolumne prior to 1965, resident junior college students had to attend schools outside the county. Tuition for such students was provided in accordance with the statutory provisions of sections 20201-20209 of the Education Code. This county expense is not budgeted in advance for tax purposes, but retrospectively, according to the cost '' during the next preceding fiscal year.” The board of supervisors (§ 20202), or the county auditor if the board does not act (§ 20203), is required, at the time of making the general tax levy for county purposes, to levy a special tax upon all taxable property in nonjunior college districts in the county sufficient to defray the costs of such education for the preceding year (§ 20202), the proceeds of the special tax to be paid into the county treasury and placed in the junior college tuition fund (§20204).

Until 1959, formation of a junior college district within a county where there had previously been none resulted in the levy of two junior college taxes for a single year. This, because the necessary revenue for the newly formed junior college district was derived from a tax levied in the traditional manner, that is, prospectively, according to the anticipated cost for the succeeding fiscal year, while the tax levy to cover the costs of junior college students attending school outside the county the preceding year was assessed retrospectively.

To afford the taxpayers in a newly formed junior college district some relief, the Legislature in 1959 provided, by Education Code section 20211, that: ‘ ‘ The special tax required by Section 20202 to be levied shall not be levied upon taxable property in any territory included in a newly formed junior college district, during the first fiscal year for which the district is effective for all purposes, ...” In lieu thereof, it provided that: ‘‘ The county auditor shall, on or before September 25th of such year, determine and report to the county superintendent of schools the amount which would be raised if the tax prescribed by Section 20202 were levied in such territory during such year. The county superintendent of