275 Mo. 534 | Mo. | 1918
Said special election, after due notice, was held on April 5, 1918, and the question whether said tax of one-half mill on the dollar should be levied on the taxable property of said county for the erection of said public hospital, was duly submitted and carried by a two-thirds vote of the qualified voters. Following said election, the county court ordered' and directed that .certain negotiable coupon bonds of said county, to be known as “public hospital bonds,” be prepared, executed, and registered in the office of the State Auditor; that said bonds should bear the date of May 1, 1918, be seventy-five in number, $1000 each in denomination, and to mature serially $15,000 each year from 1923 to 1927, both inclusive, with interest at five per cent per annum, payable semi-annually.
The petition further states that afterwards, in compliance with said court order, “Public Hospital Bond No. One” of said Audrian County, maturing May 1, 1923, was duly executed and presented to respondent, George Hackmann, State Auditor, together with the proper registration fee, who refused and still refuses to register said bond.
It is the established law in this State, that the clause above quoted relating to a provision for the payment of the interest and principal of such indebtedness is a self-enforcing edict of the Constitution not requiring for its effectiveness any - legislative action whatever. [Evans v. McFarland, 186 Mo. 1. c. 727; Black v. Early, 208 Mo. 281; State ex rel. v. Allen, 183 Mo. 1. c. 292; Dillon On Municipal Corporations (5 Ed.), sec. 191, 342; East St. Louis v. Amy, 120 U. S. 600.] In the latter case, the doctrine governing such a constitutional provision, is thus expressed:
“This provision'for the tax was written'by the Constitution into every law passed thereafter by the Legislature allowing a debt to be incurred; and, in our opinion, it took the place in existing laws of all provisions for taxation to pay debts thereafter incurred
That the constitutional provision (Sec.' 12, Art. 10) under which the act under review was framed, is the one which specifically provides for the creation of county indebtedness beyond its annual income and revenue for any year, was directly adjudged in a case where its scope and purpose were distinguished from that of Section 11 of Article 10 of the Constitution. [Lamar v. City of Lamar, 128 Mo. 1. c. 216.] It necessarily follows, that so much of the act under review, as undertook to fix a maximum rate of two mills for the taxation therein prescribed was a work of supererogation, since the constitutional requirement that the county should provide an “annual tax sufficient” to pay the interest and principal of indebtedness was as‘much a part of the act under review as if it had been set out therein in so many words. If the specfic limitation of two mills on the dollar, contained in the act, is “sufficient,” then it would be a valid rate to be fixed by the county. If not, it was a harmless provision since the Constitution proprio vigore was substituted therefor.
We therefore overrule the contention of respondent that the insertion of a fixed rate in the legislative act, violated any provision of the Constitution of this State.
The test of the right to uphold a law, some portions of which may be invalid, is whether or not in so doing, after separating that which is invalid, a law in all respects complete and susceptible of constitutional enforcement is left, which the Legislature would have enacted if it had known that the exscinded portions were invalid. [State ex inf. v. Duncan, 265 Mo. 1. c. 45.] There is no room for doubt in the present case, that the Legislature, in the exercise of the power devolved upon it under Section. 12 of Article 10 of the Constitution, would have enacted a law for incurring an indebtedness to carry out its design of enabling counties of the State to build and maintain public-hospitals, irrespective as to the sufficiency of two mills on the dollar to furnish sufficient revenue for the indebtedness thereby incurred. And it would necessarily thwart this purpose on the part of the law-making body to hold, as insisted by respondent, that the act in question would not have been framed except for the purpose of limiting the rate of taxation to the amount therein prescribed.
Our conclusion is that, disregarding any and all provisions in the act in review relating to the limit of taxation, an independent enactment, valid and complete, remains, the means of enforcing which was completed by the Legislature itself.
IY. Prom what has been said, we are unable to concur in the view that the act in question is in contravention of Section 11 of Article 10 of the Constitution of the State. It was not enacted by the Legislature in pursuance of the powers or with reference to the objects specified in that section, as has been shown. Our con
It is so ordered.