27 Pa. Super. 26 | Pa. Super. Ct. | 1904
Opinion by
The Act of May 8, 1854, P. L. 617 provides a mode by which the several boards of school directors are authorized to assess and collect school tax from year to year. The twenty-ninth section of the act directs “ that for the purpose of enabling the board of directors or controllers to assess and apportion the tax for the ensuing school year the county commissioners shall, when required, furnish the president or secretary of the board with a correct copy of the last adjusted valuation of property, subjects and things made taxable in the same, for state and county purposes; which said property, subjects and things are hereby made taxable for school purposes, according to the provisions of this act.” Among the subjects of taxation at that time were “ All offices and posts of profit, professions, trades, occupations, and all single freemen above the age of twenty-one years, who shall not follow any occupation or callings.”
By the 2d section of the Act of May 21, 1857, P. L. 681 it was provided that “ Hereafter the tax imposed by section 30 of the act approved May 8,1854, for the regulation and continuance of a system of education by common schools, on trades, professions and occupations, or on single freemen, shall in no case be less then one dollar.” An Act was passed April 11, 1862, P. L. 471, which provides in its fifth section that “ upon every resident male taxable, of the age of twenty-one years whose name is found entered upon the last adjusted valuation, furnished according to law to any board of directors or controllers; . . . . the proper board of directors or controllers shall assess the minimum occupation tax now allowed by law to be collected with the other school tax of the district, now payable by such person.”
The Act of July 22, 1897, P. L. 305 is entitled “an act to authorize and empower the school directors and controllers of the several school districts within this commonwealth to levy and collect a per capita tax annually for school purposes.” The first section of the act authorizes the several boards of school directors and controllers of the commonwealth “ to levy and collect annually a per capita tax of one dollar for school purposes, from each and every male inhabitant of the age of twenty-one years and upwards, within their respective districts.” The second section directs that the tax authorized by the first section of the act shall be levied and collected at the same time and in the same manner as school taxes are now levied and collected. The third section declares that the per capita tax authorized by the act “ shall be in lieu of the occupation tax for school purposes.” The defendant school board has levied and seeks to collect the tax authorized by the act last recited and also the tax authorized by the 5th section of the act of April 11, 1862, and in so doing contends that the 3d section of the act of 1897 is in violation of the 3d section of article 3 of the constitution. The act of April 15, 1834 •not only provided for the taxing of offices, professions, trades and occupations but also subjected single freemen, above the
It is to be kept steadily in mind that an act of the legislature is only to be declared unconstitutional where the prohibition is expressed or necessarily implied. To doubt is to be resolved in favor of the constitutionality of the act: Commonwealth v. Butler, 99 Pa. 535. It was said in Sugar Notch Borough, 192 Pa. 349 : “ It must not be lost sight of that the attitude of the courts is not one of hostility to acts whose constitutionality is attacked. On the contrary all the presumptions are in their favor and courts are not to be astute in finding or sustaining objections.” Tt was held in Commonwealth v. Hospital, 198 Pa. 270, that if a statute seeks to accomplish one general pur