23 Or. 339 | Or. | 1893
This is a suit by T. Edgerton Hogg, receiver of the Willamette Valley & Coast Railroad Company, to enjoin the sheriff of Benton County from collecting or attempting to collect the state and county taxes assessed and levied upon the property of the said railroad company for the year 1889, and involves the constitutionality of section 11 of “An act to provide for the construction of the Willamette Valley & Coast Railroad,” approved October 24, 1874 (Laws 1874, 51), as extended by the act approved February 5, 1885 (Laws 1885, 7), which reads as follows; “Section 11. That if said Willamette Valley & Coast Railroad Company shall, within ninety days after the approval hereof by the governor, file in the office of the secretary of state its agreement, duly executed under its corporate seal, obliging itself to carry all troops and munitions of war of this state required to
The contention is, that this section is in violation of the provisions of the constitution of this state that ‘ all taxation shall be equal and uniform, ” and that the legislature ‘ shall provide by law for uniform and equal rate of assessment and taxation; and shall prescribe such regulations as shall secure a just valuation for taxation of all property, both real and personal, excepting such only for municipal, educational, literary, scientific, religious, or charitable purposes as may be specially exempted by law”: Section 32, article I., and section 1. article IX.
The power of taxation, and the right to prescribe what property shall be taxed, is a sovereign right belonging to the state in its sovereign capacity, and in the absence of a constitutional restriction, necessarily implies the power to prescribe what property shall be exempt from taxation; hence it has been held that, when not prohibited by the state constitution, the legislature can bind the state by a contract with either an individual or corporation to surrender the right of taxation by the grant of either a perpetual or transient immunity from taxation, either in the form of a contract to pay a fixed sum in lieu of all taxes or by way of commutation, whatever the latter term may mean; and that as to the sufficiency of the consideration for such contract, the legislature is the sole and exclusive judge: Cooley Taxation, 53; Desty Taxation, 127; Home of the Friendless v. Rouse, 75 U. S. (8 Wall.) 430; Humphrey v. Pegues, 83 U. S. (16 Wall.) 244; Hund
However this may be in the absence of a constitutional limitation, it seems to us there is no room for argument that under our constitution no power exists in the legislature to exempt by contract, commutation, or otherwise, any property whatever, except certain classes specially enumerated therein, from bearing its just proportion of the burdens of government. The provisions of the constitution are mandatory, that all taxation shall be equal and uniform, and the legislature shall prescribe regulations for a just valuation of all property for taxation, excepting only the enumerated classes. The language of the constitution is plain, simple, and easily understood, and manifestly operates as an absolute inhibition against the exemption, either directly or indirectly, of any property from taxation, except that specially enumerated. In Crawford v. Linn County, 11 Or. 494 (5 Pac. Rep. 738), Waldo, O. J., in speaking of the effect of the latter clause of section 1, article IX., of the constitution, says it ‘ ‘ actually forbids the exemption from taxation of any property whatever, except that specially enumerated in the clause. ” See also Chesapeake & O. R. R. Co. v. Miller, 19 W. Va. 408; Huntington v. Worthen, 120 U. S. 97 (7 Sup. Ct. Rep. 469); Zanesville v. Richards, 5 Ohio St. 589; People v. McCreary, 34 Cal. 432; People v. Eddy, 34 Cal. 331 (13 Am. Rep. 143); Fletcher v. Oliver, 25 Ark. 289; Nashville R. R. Co. v. Wilson Co. 89 Tenn. 597 (15 S. W. Rep. 446).
While counsel for plaintiff frankly admit that the legislature had no power under the constitution to exempt the property of their client from taxation, they urge
The provisions of our constitution were manifestly intended to require and insure equality in the manner and mode of the assessment, and the levy and collection of taxes for the support of the government, and to impose an equal proportion of these burdens upon all persons within the limits of the taxing district; and to that end prohibited special or class legislation of the character sought to be upheld in this case. If the legislature can,
So obviously unconstitutional is the provision of che act of 1874, which attempts to relieve the plaintiff from the payment of any state or county taxes on its property for a designated period, in consideration of its agreement to convey the troops and munitions of war of the state over its road, that it seems almost unnecessary to cite authorities in support of that position; but, as showing the construction put upon similar constitutional provisions by the courts of other states, reference will be made to some of the adjudged cases. In Memphis & Charleston R. R. Co. v. Gaines, 3 Tenn. Chan. 604, and Ellis v. L. & N. R. R. Co. 8 Baxter, 530, under a constitution providing that “all property shall be taxed according to its value,” to be “ascertained in such manner as the legislature
The case of Hundsaker v. Wright, 30 Ill. 146, cited and
In declaring unconstitutional section 11 of the act of 1874, which attempts to relieve the plaintiff from the payment of any taxes on its property in consideration of its agreement to carry the troops and munitions of war of the state, we are not unmindful of the respect due a co-ordinate branch of the government, or the hesitancy with which a court always approaches the question of holding a legislative act void. But, as said by Chancellor Kent, “the courts of justice have a right and are in duty bound to bring every law to the test of the constitution, and to regard the constitution as the paramount law, to which every inferior or derivitive power and regulation
The decree of the court below is therefore reversed and the complaint dismissed.