28 Colo. 483 | Colo. | 1901
delivered the opinion of the court.
The questions in each of these cases being the same, they will bo considered together. The revenue law passed by the late general assembly provides that, for the purpose of state revenues, in addition to the fees now authorized by law, the clerk of the supreme- court shall collect from the appellant, plaintiff in error, or other persons commencing a proceeding in this court, the sum of five dollars; and from the appellee, the defendant in error, or respondent, a like sum. These fees áre not recoverable by the successful party.- The county, in the one casó] and'the'city, in the other, paid this fee under protest, and now move to have the
The purpose of a municipal corporation is to permit the inhabitants of a particular district, in their corporate capacity as such, to exercise subordinate specified powers of legislation with respect to their local and internal concerns. Such a municipality is not an agency of the state like a county, but it exercises the power of government by virtue of the authority of the sovereign state. Its legislation and local administration of law, in the ter-ritory embraced within its jurisdiction, are legislation and administration of governmental affairs within that limit. Stermer v. La Plata County, 5 Colo. App. 319; 1 Dillon Mun. Corp., 4th ed., sec. 20; City of Louisville v. Comm., 1 Duval (Ky.,) 295.
It is by virtue of political subdivisions, such as counties, and municipalities like cities, that the laws are executed and the wel • fare of the people subserved. Taxes are charges levied by the sovereign state upon the persons of its subjects or citizens, and not charges upon itself. Be venue is the object of taxation, and none would result from levying a tax upon the agencies of the state through which it exercises the functions of government, or by virtue of which it protects and enforces its rights or those of its
The statute in question is broad enough in terms to embrace all litigants in this court; but, in the absence of an express declaration that it was thereby intended' to include counties and cities, we are of the opinion that such governmental subdivisions are exempt from its operation.
The motions to refund are sustained.