74 Mo. 163 | Mo. | 1881
On the 21st day of April, 1876, the relator levied a tax of 100 cents on the hundred dollars valuation on alL property, including that of defendant, within said district. Prior to the first Monday in May, 1876, the hoard caused to he certified to the clerk of the county court of Randolph county, the estimates, with a report showing the rates of taxes levied, which were by said clerk duly extended upon the school tax-books. The total amount of taxes levied upon defendant’s property amounted to $4,-151.25, $1,383.75 of which defendant paid, but refused to pay the balance, which was levied for the purpose of building a school house, and for the recovery of this balance this suit was instituted. The proposition to increase the rate for said building purposes was submitted to a vote of the qualified voters on the lT¿h of April, 1876, and two-thirds of the qualified voters of said district voted in favor of the proposition. A demurrer to the petition was sustained, and plaintiff has appealed.
It was decided in the St. Joseph Board of Public Schools v. Patton, 62 Mo. 449, that: “ The restriction in the constitution, in regard to taxation for school purposes, to forty cents on the $100, unquestionably requires no legislation to enforce it;” but “ that the proviso which points out a mode of increasing the tax and removing the restriction,” did require legislation to enforce it. By section 1 of the schedule of the constitution, it is provided : “ That all laws in force at the adoption of this constitution, not inconsistent therewith, shall remain in full force until altered or repealed by the general assembly. * * The provisions of all laws, which are inconsistent with this constitution, shall cease upon its adoption, except that all laws which are consistent with such provisions of this constitution as require legislation to enforce them, shall remain in force until the 1st day of July, 1877, unless sooner amended or repealed by the general assembly.” There was no provision of the school law in force when the constitution was adopted, requiring or providing for a vote of the tax-payers of the school district, upon a proposition to levy a tax for the purpose of erecting a school ‘building. By the law then in force, the school board, without submitting the proposition to a vote of the tax-payers, could levy a tax for that purpose, and it was, therefore, inconsistent with the proviso, which, in the St. Joseph Board of Pub. Schools v. Patton, was held to require legislation to en