114 Ark. 278 | Ark. | 1914
Lead Opinion
(after stating the facts). Provision was made in our present Constitution for the management of the internal affairs of the counties by the creation of county and quorum courts for that purpose. Section 28 of article 7, of the Constitution of 1874, provides: “The county courts shall have exclusive original jurisdiction in all matters relating to county taxes, roads, bridges, ferries, paupers, bastardy, vagrants, the apprenticeship of minors, the disbursement of money for county purposes, and in every other case that may be necessary to the internal improvement and local concerns of the respective counties. The county court shall be held by one judge, except in cases otherwise herein provided.”
Section 30 of article 7 of the Constitution provides for the levy of taxes and the making of appropriations for the expenses of the county.hy the quorum court.
In 1899, the Legislature of the State of Florida enacted a law in regard to -the militia of that State. It contained the following provision: “It shall be the duty of the board of county commissioners in each county in which there is a company, or battery of State troops, to provide each company or battery with an armory suitable for its meetings and drills and the safe storage of arms and equipments.” In a proceeding to compel the commissioners of a county in that State to erect an armory,it was contended this act was void because it violated the provisions of section 5 of article 9 of the Constitution of that State, which reads as follows: “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. But the cities and incorporated towns shall make their own assessments for municipal purposes upon the property within their limits.” * * * The Supreme. Court of that State, in the case of State ex rel. Milton v. Dickenson and others, 60 L. R. A. 539, 44 Fla. 623, held this act to be unconstitutional, and in so doing, said: “No body of the State militia, in other words, has any prescribed function or duty to perform exclusively in or for any particular county in the State, that it is not under equal obligation to perform in or for any other county of the State wherever the exigency may arise for its exercise. And whenever and wherever it is so called upon to act, it is there as the representative of the State’s supreme sovereignty, and not as that of the county in which it acts. The place of resi- ' dence of its individual members has nothing whatever to do with fixing its status, either as a State or county institution. The conclusion reached is that the militia of the State, and'every part thereof, is essentially and necessarily a State institution, or, rather, an arm of the State Government, resort to which can only be had upon the failure of all other governmental authority; and that it can be, and should be, in the very nature of things, wielded only by the supreme sovereign power of the State; that it is in no sense such a county institution or establishment as that any particular county can exclusively be either authorized, or required, to impose taxes for its, or any part of its, maintenance. It is essentially a State institution, taxation for the support and maintenance of which can be imposed only by the State, and, when so imposed, such taxation is required by paragraph 1, of article 9, of our Constitution, to be at a uniform and equal rate upon all the taxable property throughout the State, and can not for such purpose be confined to or burdened upon the property in any. one county, to the exclusion of any or all the other counties of the State.”
Among other cases cited in that opinion in support of the language which we have quoted is the case of Hutchinson v. Ozark Land Co., 57 Ark. 554. This Hutchinson case, supra, involved the validity of a tax sale where the county court of Clay County, which county is divided into two judicial districts, had levied a higher tax for county general purposes in une district than in the other. Because of this inequality, that sale was held void, and Justice Mansfield there said: “If the taxes levied in the two judicial districts of Clay County were not county taxes within the meaning of the Constitution, then the county court has no power to levy them, and they were for that reason illegal. But if they were levied for county purposes, that made them county taxes, and the nature of such taxes required them to be imposed by a levy applicable to the entire county.”
The validity of the appropriation of the quorum court of Craighead County depends upon the decision uf the question whether or not the location and maintenance of this school was a county purpose, and a majority of the court are of the opinion that it was not; but that the school is one of the institutions of the State, and as such, the burden hot only of its maintenance, but of its erection, must be borne by the State at large. Cotham v. Coffman, 111 Ark. 108; 163 S. W. 1183.
The judgment of the court below is therefore affirmed.
Dissenting Opinion
(dissenting). It should be borne in mind that the Constitution of the State is not a grant nor an enumeration of the powers, but is merely a limitation, in so far as it is expressed, upon the legislative power. The Legislature is sovereign except as to the limitations expressed in the Constitution or necessarily implied therefrom.
In the instance now under consideration, the Legislature has not attempted to make a direct appropriation of. county funds, but it has merely ratified or legalized what the county court had previously done, the appropriations made by the county court in regular session. And, conceding that there was no statute to authorize the appropriations at the time, the Legislature had power to ratify.
The majority hold that the agricultural school is a State institution, and that the Legislature had no power to localize it or to determine that any part of the benefits were local, so as to place the expenses or a portion of it on the county. With this conclusion, we are unable to agree. There is nothing in the Constitution which prevents the Legislature from classifying matters which may be the subject of local or county expenses. The numerous authorities cited in the brief of appellant abundantly sustain that proposition. The Legislature could, we think, extend authority to the county to use funds for the establishment of an agricultural school; and that being true, it could determine that a State institution was of sufficient local benefit to be treated as the subject-matter of appropriation of county funds for county purposes. The provision of the Constitution conferring jurisdiction upon the county court in matters “relating to county taxes, # * # yie disbursement of money for county purposes, and in every other case that may be necessary to the internal improvement and local concerns of the respective counties,” does not limit the power of the Legislature with respect to determining what shall constitute internal improvements. It does not take away the power of the Legislature to determine what shall constitute, in whole or in part, a matter of local concern. The county court is as much subject to the legislative will as any other functionary, except to the extent that the control may be limited by the express terms of the Constitution.
It seems clear to us that the Legislature has determined that the agricultural school is a matter of local concern in the county, to the extent of the- appropriations made by the county court, and that it was within the power of the Legislature to do this.