15 N.E.2d 179 | NY | 1938
The city of New Rochelle was formerly governed by a charter granted by the Legislature by chapter 559 of the Laws of 1910. In 1932, acting under the provisions of chapter 363, Laws of 1924, chapter 76 of the Consolidated Laws, known as the "City Home Rule Law," it purported to amend its charter but in general effect it adopted a new charter. (Local Law No. 1, 1932, p. 209.) The original charter and the charter as amended contained a complete plan for the assessment and collection of taxes. It provided for the collection of delinquent taxes by the sale of the land assessed. After the new charter went into effect, the city, by Local Law No. 5 (Local Laws 1932, p. 270), purported to amend its charter by providing that liens for unpaid taxes might be sold to the person making the best offer and foreclosed by the purchaser by action in the Supreme Court. Taxes assessed against appellant remaining unpaid, the city, acting under the provisions of Local Law No. 5, proceeded to sell the tax lien at auction. Respondent purchased the tax lien and started to foreclose it. Appellant by answer asserted that the sale of the tax lien was void as the Legislature had not conferred upon the city authority to change the method of collecting delinquent taxes. The question presented is whether the Legislature, by the "City Home Rule Law," conferred upon the city authority by local law to change the tax law as embodied in the city charter granted by the Legislature. If it had such jurisdiction it must be found in the amendment to the Constitution (N.Y. Const. art. 12, §§ 2-4) and the "City Home Rule Law" adopted pursuant to such constitutional amendment. Prior to the adoption of the constitutional amendment and the enactment of the "City Home Rule Law" the enactment *37
of tax laws was exclusively a State function. (6 McQuillin on The Law of Municipal Corporations, § 2523; People ex rel. Griffin
v. Mayor,
That did not mean, however, that the State might not delegate to a county or city power to assess and collect taxes in different ways. (Gautier v. Ditmar,
If the Legislature had, prior to the enactment of the "City Home Rule Law" or since its enactment, expressly granted to the city of New Rochelle authority to collect delinquent taxes by the sale of tax liens instead of by the sale of the property itself, such grant of power would clearly have been constitutional. (Gautier v. Ditmar, supra.)
Many statutes have been enacted by the Legislature conferring upon cities and counties special methods for the assessment and collection of taxes. (Cf. Town of Amherst v. County of Erie,
The power of taxation, being a State function, the delegation of any part of that power to a subdivision of the State must be made in express terms. It cannot be inferred. (6 McQuillin on The Law of Municipal Corporations, §§ 2531, 2523; City of Rochester
v. Bloss,
The "City Home Rule Law" conferred upon cities certain definite powers. The powers conferred have been stated in the case ofBrowne v. City of New York (
Nowhere in this or any other statute can be found an express grant of power to cities to enact local laws which have the effect of changing the method of collection of taxes provided for in the original charter and the general Tax Law (Cons. Laws, ch. 60).
It is urged that the general words of the constitutional amendment and the "City Home Rule Law" indicate an intent to confer power upon cities to enact local laws which change the method of collection of taxes. It is pointed out that the collection of delinquent taxes touches a city in its "property, affairs or government" and in the "transaction of its business." However, the words "property, affairs or government" have a narrow significance. (Adler v. Deegan,
The general Tax Law of the State provides for the sale of the property in the enforcement of tax liens. (Tax Law, art. 7.) That law applies in all cases except where the Legislature by express language has provided a different method to be employed in certain subdivisions of the State. (Tax Law, § 160.) The Local Law No. 5 cannot supersede the general Tax Law of the State, as it is in direct conflict with section 12, subdivision 2, of the "City Home Rule Law" above quoted, whether it be construed to be a local law which touches the city in its "property, affairs or government" or not.
We do not pass upon the other questions presented.
The judgments should be reversed and the complaint dismissed, with costs in all courts.
LEHMAN, O'BRIEN, LOUGHRAN, FINCH and RIPPEY, JJ., concur; CRANE, Ch. J., taking no part.
Judgments reversed, etc. *40