39 Ga. App. 75 | Ga. Ct. App. | 1928
In 1926 the proper authorities of Liberty county made the usual tax levy, which included, among others, the following items; “9. For payment of interest installment due December 1, 1926, and June 1, 1927, on $40,000 issue of court-house bonds for Liberty county; 10. For payment of interest installment due by Liberty county on Coastal Highway bonds due November 1, 1926, and May 1, 1927.” The railway company, by an affidavit of illegality interposed to a fi. fa. issued against it in behalf of the county, challenged the validity of these items, and, its contention having been overruled in the court below, it brought the case to this court. The judgment of the trial court is assigned as error
As to the facts to be referred to in this opinion, the agreed statement upon which the case was tried in the court below is not clearer or more definite than the assignments of error in the bill of exceptions.
It is our opinion that the judgment complained of is .not erroneous for any reason assigned. Passing over for the moment any question as to what is required by the constitution as to the levying of taxes for bond issues, it is true as a general proposition that taxes are levied to meet the needs of the county arising during the year in which the levy is made. City Council of Dawson v. Dawson Waterworks Co., 106 Ca. 696, 711 (32 S. E. 907); McMillan v. Tucker, 154 Ga. 154 (113 S. E. 391); Carroll v. Wright, 131 Ga. 728 (5) (63 S. E. 260); Civil Code (1910), §§ 5, 509. The interest upon the bonds appears to have been a'legal liability against-the county, and the county could have been compelled to pay it. The fact that this indebtedness was paid by the county from other funds between the date of the tax levy and the date when the tax was due and payable by the taxpayer would afford no defense to the latter, where he has not borne his share of the burden necessary to its payment. He can not step into
What we have just said as to presumptions would seem to apply with equal force to the duty imposed by the constitution upon the county authorities to provide for the assessment and collection of an annual tax sufficient in amount to pay the principal and interest of a bonded indebtedness within the period therein prescribed. Civil Code (1910), § 6564. The general language of the second assignment of error can not be construed to mean that the county had previously made a specific levy for the purpose of raising funds with which to pay the indebtedness for interest on the bonds as it matured on November 1 and December 1, 1926. This assignment of error is construed merely as containing a statement that the county authorities, at or before issuing the bonds, did-what was required by the constitutional provision referred to above, and not as showing that a definite and specific levy was made in any particular year under the terms of section 513 of the Civil Code. •
The constitution requires only the adoption of a general order or resolution providing for the assessment and collection of an annual tax sufficient in amount to pay the principal and interest of the' debt at maturity. In case of an issue of bonds covering a long period of years, it would obviously be impossible, at the time of issuing the same, to determine the exact rate of taxation which would be requisite in any year to pay the maturing principal or interest, since
We conclude that the contested items of the tax levy were not illegal, either because the indebtedness which the county had in view when levying the tax may have been paid before the maturity of the tax as a claim against the taxpayer, or because the assessment was or appeared to be a duplication.
Judgment affirmed.