72 Neb. 482 | Neb. | 1904
The facts in this case are the same as those involved in Chicago, B. & Q. R. Co. v. Richardson County, 61 Neb. 519, except that assessments for different years are in question. A further point is made on behalf of the county, however, not raised in the former case, namely, that sections 39 and 40, article I, chapter 77, Compiled Statutes, 1901, are unconstitutional. This point has been argued with no little ability and ingenuity, on the part of appellants, and is of such importance as to require our careful consideration.
Four objections are made to the plan for assessment of railroad properties prescribed by said sections. The first is that “sections 39 and 40, in legal effect, exempt the franchises of the railroad corporations from taxation and thereby violate section 1, article 9 of the constitution.” This contention is disposed of sufficiently, in our opinion, by State v. Savage, 65 Neb. 714, in which this court held, construing the sections in question, that “the state board of equalization, in the assessment of railroad and telegraph properties, should include in its assessment the value of the franchise with the tangible property assessed.” Holcomb, J., delivering the opinion of the court, at page 750, says:
“It seems reasonably clear that in assessing railroad and telegraph property as contemplated by sections 39 and 40, the whole property belonging to any one corporation, and subject to assessment in this state, should be valued for tax purposes in its entirety, and that in such valuation should be included all elements going to make up the entire property, whether1 consisting of franchises or other intangible property, or physical property, be it real, personal or mixed.”
Next, it is asserted, to quote from the brief of counsel, that “the statute, sections 39 and 40 of the revenue law, for the assessment of railroad property provides a different mode of assessment for that property from that which
“The paramount object of the constitution, and the laws relative to taxation, as we conceive the rule to be, is to raise all needful revenues by valuation of the taxable property so that each owner of property taxed will contribute his or its just proportion of the public revenues.”
If properties are so essentially distinct in their nature that to assess each in one particular way would not result in requiring the respective owners to pay taxes in proportion to the value of their respective properties, it is evident that an attempt to provide a uniform method of assessment would involve contravention of the “paramount object” of the constitution. Hence, it is the result, not the method employed in reaching it, which must be considered; Counsel point out that section 52 of said chapter directs the assessor, when valuing real property generally, to fix “the value of each tract or lot improved, the value of each tract or lot not improved, and the total value,” while the state board of equalization, in valuing a railroad, is directed, as counsel put it, to “lump the whole thing, whether it be buildings, lots, tracts of land or personal property, and put a price upon the heap.” But the two species of property are in no wise comparable. What sort of result should we get if a local assessor, assessing 10 miles of road, was required to value the right of way unimproved, the right of way with ties and rails laid upon it, and the total value? What gives the 10 miles of track their real value is the franchise of the corporation operating them, the connections in and out of the state, and the
The third objection is that the system provided by the sections in question “exempts railroad property assessed by the state board of equalization from the payment of its proportion of the taxes levied for the support of the county, school district and city, appellants in this action, and thereby violates the rule of uniformity prescribed by section 1, article 9 of the constitution.” As the municipality in question is not a city of the metropolitan class nor of the first class, in which different standards of assessment prevail from those employed in the state at large, this case does not involve the question expressly left open by the opinion of Houcomb, J., in State v. Savage, supra. Here the same assessment serves for county and municipal purposes alike as to all property. Of course the presumption is that both the board of equalization and the local assessors act fairly and impartially, and fix a just and true valuation. State v. Savage, supra. Hence the question is whether, assuming that they do so, a proper proportion of the burdens of municipal taxation is thrown upon the railroad companies. This question depends upon
Finally, it is said that the statute makes a classification not authorized by the constitution. In our viexv the classi
Two further objections to the statute have been urged by counsel who appear as friends of the court. The first is that it operates unequally and unreasonably Avith respect to railroad companies AArhose tracts are situated AAdiolly Avithin one county, such, for example, as terminal and belt line companies. The arguments advanced on this ground, hoAvever, apply rather to the constitutionality of provisions in the several st itutes governing municipalities, AAiiereby the valuation of railroad properties for state and county purposes is required to be taken as a basis of assessment in such municipalities made on a different basis, than to the constitutionality of the general statutory” provisions with reference to state and county assessments. So far as they apply to the sections here in question, we think they are met sufficiently by Avhat has been said already. The other objection is that the statute contravenes the constitutional guaranties that no person shall be deprived of property Avithout due process of laAV, in that it does not provide for notice to the companies assessed of the meeting of the state board of equalization, and does not provide for notice to other taxpayers of the meeting of such board, in order that they may insist upon proper equalization of their assessments with those of the companies in question. The statute provides a date upon which railroad companies Avithin the purvieAV of the act shall make returns. It provides a place where the meeting
We therefore recommend that the decree be affirmed.
For the reasons stated in the foregoing opinion, the judgment of the district court is
Affirmed.