16 N.E.2d 897 | Ill. | 1938
Lead Opinion
The Cook county collector applied to the county court for judgment and order of sale for delinquent taxes for the year 1935 in two cases — one against Richard H. Schweitzer, the other against the W.S. and S.H. McCrea Estate. Objections filed in both cases to the taxes extended by the city of Chicago pursuant to supplemental appropriation and levy ordinances adopted in 1935 were overruled and judgment was then entered in each case in favor of the collector. In a third case against Florence E. Menefee, a similar objection was sustained by the court, along with an additional objection to the levy made by the city for the payment of refunding bonds. Appeals have been taken directly to this court by the objectors in the first two cases and by the county collector in the third, and we ordered the cases consolidated for hearing and decision because of the similarity of issues involved.
The city of Chicago passed its annual appropriation ordinance for the year 1935 on January 4 of that year. On January 22, it adopted its annual tax levy ordinance. The legislature, on July 12, 1935, adopted several statutes increasing the amounts which might be levied by the city of Chicago for various purposes and authorized the adoption of supplemental appropriation and levy ordinances. (Ill. *357 Rev. Stat. 1937, chap. 24, par. 123, (corporate purposes fund); chap. 24, par. 697a, (judgment fund); State Bar Stat. 1935, chap. 24, par. 586, (municipal tuberculosis sanitarium fund); chap. 81, par. 1, (library fund).) On July 22, 1935, the city adopted a supplemental appropriation ordinance and on August 2, adopted its supplemental levy ordinance. The pertinent provisions of the original and supplemental ordinances are summarized in the following table:
=========================================================================== | | | Rate multiplied | | Maximum rate | by assessed FUND | Original Levy | at date | valuation of | | original levy | $2,035,513.627 | | adopted | ---------------------|----------------|-----------------|------------------ 1. Corporate........ | $30,929,713.74 | $1.29 | $26,258,125 2. Judgments........ | 800,000.00 | .03 | 610,654 3. T.B. Sanitarium. | 1,678,356.56 | .07 | 1,424,859 4. Library ......... | 1,438,591.34 | .06 | 1,221,308 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
======================================================
| Alleged |
FUND | Excess of | Supplemental
| Original Levy | Levy
-------------------------------------|----------------
1. Corporate........ | $4,671,588.74 | $5,070,286.26
2. Judgments........ | 189,346.00 | 450,000.00
3. T.B. Sanitarium. | 253,497.56 | 821,643.44
4. Library ......... | 217,283.34 | 361,408.66
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Issue is raised concerning the power of the legislature to provide lump sum instead of maximum rate limitations for cities with a population over 150,000. Because these statutes change existing methods of taxation and apply only to cities with a population greater than 150,000, they are alleged to be local and special laws, violating section 22 of article 4 of the constitution. We have frequently held that under this section "it is within the power of the legislature to classify cities on the basis of population and enact laws applicable to each class, where there is a reasonable basis for the classification in view of the object and purposes to be accomplished by the legislation." (People v. DeKalb and Great Western Railroad Co.
It must be conceded, we believe, that the levy and collection of taxes in large urban centers present problems unlike those existing in other parts of the State. As we said in Mathews v.City of Chicago,
It is further asserted that the statutes authorizing the supplemental levies in question violate section 10 of article 9 of the constitution which prohibits the legislature from levying taxes upon municipalities for corporate purposes. Our decision inPeople v. Baum,
One further objection remains — that of Florence Menefee (cause No. 24662) to the 1935 taxes levied by the city of Chicago for refunding bonds. On July 14, 1932, the city levied $15,059,000 for payment of all bonds due January 1, 1934. Because of the delay in the collection of these taxes, refunding bonds in the amount of $15,000,000 were issued on December 6, 1933, and an annual tax was ordered levied during 1935, 1936, 1937 and 1938 to accumulate a sufficient amount to pay them. Subsequently, $7,500,000 of the receipts of the 1932 tax levy for the original bonds was used to pay a like amount of the refunding bonds. On May 22, 1935, an ordinance was passed authorizing the issuance of a second series of refunding bonds with a lower interest rate to refund the $7,500,000 in original refunding *360 bonds which remained unpaid. The second series of refunding bonds was to mature in 1951 and 1952, the city reserving the right to redeem them at an earlier date, and provision was made for an anual levy from 1935 to 1950 to accumulate a sinking fund sufficient to pay the second series of bonds. It was also provided that taxes levied to pay the first series of refunding bonds should abate and that money available from uncollected taxes levied in prior years to pay the original indebtedness represented by the second series of refunding bonds should be accumulated and used to purchase or to pay them at maturity.
The People admit that the 1935 tax levy to provide funds for the payment of the second series of refunding bonds, and the annual tax levy in 1932 for the payment of the original indebtedness represented by these bonds, are cumulative levies for the same debt. They contend, however, that this action was necessary under the provisions of the constitution and statutes applicable here. Section 12 of article 9 of the constitution provides that "any * * * municipal corporation incurring any indebtedness * * * shall before, or at the time of doing so, provide for the collection of a direct annual tax sufficient to pay the interest on such debt as it falls due, and also to pay and discharge the principal thereof within twenty years from the time of contracting the same." This section is authority for the tax levied in 1932. Section 2 of the Refunding Bond act (Ill. Rev. Stat. 1937, chap. 24, par. 662.2) provides that "The ordinance or resolution authorizing refunding bonds shall prescribe all details thereof and shall provide for the levy and collection of a direct annual tax upon all the taxable property within such municipality or taxing district sufficient to pay the principal thereof and interest thereon as it matures." This section is authority for the tax levied in 1935. The rule is that double taxation will never be presumed, and before that effect will be given a statute it must unmistakably appear that the legislature so intended it. *361 (New York Central Railroad Co. v. Stevenson,
The judgments of the county court in No. 24565 and No. 24620 are affirmed; its judgment in No. 24662 is reversed, and the cause is remanded, with directions to overrule the objections.
Judgments affirmed in No. 24565 and No. 24620; Judgment reversed in No. 24662 and cause remanded, withdirections.
Dissenting Opinion
I cannot agree with the conclusions reached in this case and inPeople v. Gaylord Building Corp. post, p. 371. In both cases the original levy was illegal. The fact that in the same taxing year the legislature passed the act in question, and that this was followed in that year by the adoption of the appropriation and levy ordinances, is not enough to distinguish the two cases fromPeople v. Baum,
There is nothing in our decision in Mathews v. City of Chicago,
Mr. JUSTICE STONE, also dissenting.