Montana Attorney General Opinion 15-412

Opinion No. 412 Counties--Warrants--Registered War- l'3nts, Payment of-"Debt Reduction' Fund" HELD: Hegistered county warrants must be paid in the order of their regis- tration. The "Debt Heduction l!'und" provided for in Section 3, Chapter 160, La ws of 1933, does not relieve the gen- eral fund of the county from paying, in -the order of their registration, any OPI:-iIO:-iS OF THE ATTOH:-iEY GE:-iI,}RAL 287 warrants left outstanding after the ex- haustion of such "Debt Reduction 1<'lInd." December 20, 19:3:3. You submit the following question for an opinion from this office: "~Iay the county treasurer in such districts after collection of the special tax levy made in accordance with Chapter 160, Laws of 1933. in applying such money "0 collected upon the outstanding war- rant indebtedness prior to 19:3:3, pay upon such outstanding warrant indeht- edness any of the monies collected from any of the other sources. or must the county treasurer use such other monies to pay upon the current ex- penses of the school year, in which ':a>5e, if this is donc, in some of the di!;tricts there will be a gap left in the payment of the outstanding registercd warrants against the district·:" Chapter 160, Laws of 1933, Section 3, provides that school warrants issued and outstanding at the close of the school year enllin;.: ,June :30, 193:3, llla~' he paid either by a ·bond issue or hy special tax leYies running over a peri(}(l of years, and the proceeds of such spe- cial levies shall be deposited by the county treasurer in a speCial fund- "Debt Reduction 1<'lInd"-and shall be used for no other purpose, etc. 'Varrants, however, must be paid in the order of their registration. (Sec- tions 4752-4756 H. C. M. 1921.) In Vol- ume 14 of Attorney General's Opin- ions, page 221, Attorney General Foot rendered an extensh'e opinion on a question similar to yours relating to a .;pecial levy for county purposes. With the reasoning and conclusion of tha t opinion we agree. In view of the fact that ,the statutes require warrants to be paid in the or- der of their registration we see no way of filling the gap you refer to ex- cept to llll.\' outstanding warrants in the order of their registration out of the debt Reduction Fund, each year until that fund is exhausted and then pay any remaining warrants of those outstanding at the end of .June 30, 1!l33, out of the general fund of the district. The statutes do not pro\'ide for the payment of any warrants of subsequent registration o\'er those of prior registration under any circum- stllnces known to us, nor can we find any law to support such contention. True, Chapter 160 pro\'ides a special method for the payment of outstand- in;.: warrants hut if such special meth- od does not supply sufficient funds to pay all of such warrants the regular fund is not relie\'ed from paying any hahlllce outstanding in 'the order of registration.