106 Iowa 43 | Iowa | 1898
The material facts shown by the pleadings are substantially as follows: The defendant is the treasurer of Polk county, and the defendant owns several lines of
I. The authority to levy the tax is claimed by virtue of •section 1 of chapter 200 of the Acts of the Twentieth General Assembly, which provided “that the board of supervisors of •each county may at the time of levying taxes for other purposes, levy a tax of not more than one mill on the dollar of the assessed value of the taxable property in their county, ■which tax shall be collected at the same time and in the same manner as other taxes are collected and shall be known as the ■county road fund, and shall be paid out only on the order of the board of supervisors for work done on the highways of the county, in such places as the board shall determine. * * *” It is said in behalf of the appellee that a tax, to be valid, must inure to the benefit of the district or locality taxed, and there must be authority to expend the tax, or some portion thereof, within such district. It is further said that the board of ■supervisors of a county lacked the power, under the statute
II. It is insisted that the tax in question is not valid because no part of it can be expended in the city and towns within which the property sought to be taxed is situated. The law has been stated to be that: “The burden of a tax must be made to rest ujDon the state at large, or upon any particular-district of the state, according as the purpose for which it is levied is of general concern to the whole state, or, on the other hand, pertains only to the particular district. A state purpose must be accomplished by state taxation, a county-purpose by county taxation, or a public purpose for any inferior district by taxation of such district. This is not only just, but it is essential.” Cooley Taxation, 141. The same author also states that: “There are same cases in which the character of a proposed public expenditure is such that there may be a difference of opinion as to the propriety or justice of its being provided for by a small district, or a larger one. Cases of highways afford an illustration. In many of the states the cost of these is usually borne by the towns, and it is not surprising to find a general impression prevailing in some quarters that the towns must always, and ought always to, bear it. But there is probably no state that does not pro