68 Fla. 48 | Fla. | 1914
Chapter 6580, Acts of 1918, is a local and special law authorizing the county of Duval if duly approved by the qualified voters of the county to issue bonds and to levy a tax to pay the principal and interest thereof, “for the purpose of providing and procuring a site for the erection of an armory and for the construction and equipment of an armory to be placed in whole or in part under the jurisdiction and at the disposal of
The Circuit Judge denied the application of a taxpayer to have the issuance of the bonds enjoined, and sustained demurrers to the bill, of complaint. The taxpayer appealed. It is contended that the statute authorizing the issue of the .bonds violates sections 1 and 5 of Article 9 of the State Constitution, which are as follows:
“Section 1. The Legislature shall provide for a uniform and equal rate of taxation, and shall prescribe such regulations as shall secure a just valuation of all property, both real and personal, excepting such property as may be exempted by law for municipal, educational, literary, scientific, religious or charitable purposes.”
“Section 5. The Legislature shall authorize the several counties and incorporated cities or towns in the State to assess and impose taxes for county and municipal purposes, and for no other purposes, and all property shall be taxed upon the' principles established for State taxation * * * .”
No question under the Federal Law is presented in this case.
The courts will not decline to give effect to the legislative intent as expressed in a duly enacted statute on the ground that it is unconstitutional, unless it clearly appears beyond all reasonable doubt, that the statute in its .essential features is in positive conflict with some identi
While the Constitution provides that “the Legislature shall authorize the several counties * * * in the State to assess and impose taxes for county * * ® purposes, and for no other purposes,” the term “county purposes” is not defined or amplified in the organic law. This being so the legislative power, in exercising its appropriate lawmaking functions, may determine what is a “county purpose,” and the courts are not authorized to render such determination ineffectual, unless some provision of the Constitution is violated, or unless the particular enactment can have no legal or practical relation whatever to any “county purpose.” Where the courts may as in this case enquire into the existence of legislative power to enact a statute, the absence of power must clearly appear before the statute will be declared to be ineffectual for the purpose designed. The courts are authorized to determine the legality of'a statute in appropriate proceedings; but considerations of policy including the necessity and wisdom of a regulation are determined by the Legislature in enacting the statute. As applied to the taxing power that may be conferred upon counties, the organic mandate that “the Legislature shall provide for a uniform and equal rate of taxation,” does not require that the rate of taxation shall be the same in each and every county, but that all property which is legally taxable for a given purpose, shall be subjected to “a uniform and equal rate of taxation.” Any authority conferred by law upon a county to impose a property tax must be for a county purpose, and the quoted organic provision merely requires that all property lawfully burdened therewith shall be taxed at “a uniform and equal rate.”
The quoted provision of the Act of 1899, apparently had no necessary connection with the subject expressed in the title of the act or with the other very general provisions of the Statute, which refer to and affect the State as an entirety; and the section peremptorily requiring the counties to provide armories made no provision for a fund to meet the expense, leaving it to be borne apparently by the funds derived from taxation for general county purposes. Such general statute therefore did not indicate that the Legislature had lawfully enacted after due determination that providing armories for the State troops as commanded by that act, was a county purpose.
The special and local statute here considered clearly indicates that the lawmaking power definitely determined that the erection of an armory in Duval County as therein
The order appealed from is affirmed.