158 Wis. 251 | Wis. | 1914
The question presented is, Do the provisions of sub. 3 of sec. 1317m — 4, Stats. 1913, delegate the legislative power to levy a tax to any group of freeholders of' a county who may desire “the improvement of a portion of' the system of prospective state highways,” and if so, is it in violation of the constitutional .provision vesting the legislative-power in a senate and assembly? By this section of the-statutes it is enacted:
“If any town shall fail to appropriate at its annual meeting a sum requiring a tax of three mills on the dollar of its assessed valuation for any of the purposes mentioned in subsection 2 of this section, any group of freeholders in the county desiring the improvement of a portion of the system of prospective state highways lying within that town may, at any time previous to the fifteenth day of August following such failure, present to the town board a petition stating that they desire the improvement of such a portion of the system*257 as they designate in the petition, in one of the manners provided in subsection 2 of this section, also to be set forth in .the petition. With such petition shall be filed a receipt from the town treasurer, showing that an amount not less than fifty per cent, of the town’s share of the estimated cost of the improvement petitioned for has been paid. The town board shall then levy a tax sufficient to cover the remainder of the cost to the town of the improvement. The total of such levy and all levies made under subsection 1 of this section shall in no case exceed three mills on the dollar of the assessed valuation of said town, except as provided in subsection 1 of this section.”
Under our constitutional form of government the legislature cannot delegate legislative powers to any officer or to any body of persons, individual or corporate, aside from the power to confer local legislative and administrative powers on county boards and municipal corporations. Incorporation of North Milwaukee, 93 Wis. 616, 67 N. W. 1033; State ex rel. Adams v. Burdge, 95 Wis. 390, 70 N. W. 347; Dowling v. Lancashire Ins. Co. 92 Wis. 63, 65 N. W. 738; State ex rel. Van Alstine v. Frear, 142 Wis. 320, 125 N. W. 961. This principle of constitutional government applies with peculiar force to questions involving the power to tax. It is a well recognized principle that county, town, city, and village organizations are a part of the general feature of our political system and form necessary parts of the state government for carrying into effect, through the power of making local laws, the matters pertaining to local governmental affairs, including the power to tax within their respective jurisdictions. In conferring the taxing power on these local governments the legislature must provide for its exercise by the proper legislative authority of the local governments. Chicago & N. W. R. Co. v. State, 128 Wis. 553, 108 N. W. 557. In Houghton v. Austin, 47 Cal. 646, on page 657 it is stated that the taxing power is “one of the most important intrusted to the legislative department, and one which, as
It is suggested that the power conferred by sub. 3 of sec. 1317m — 4 is in its nature and effect practically identical to that conferred by sec. 1319, Stats., whereby a county board is directed to levy a tax for one half the cost of the construction and repair of a bridge upon petition of a town board showing the town has voted to construct or 'repair a bridge wholly or partly within such town. An examination of sec. 1319 discloses that the legislative power to determine upon the levy of the tax for the cost of the bridge is delegated to the voters of the town, which has universally been considered an .appropriate political subdivision of the state to exercise this power for local purposes and who are responsible to the taxpayers of the town for its share of the cost of the bridge. The town as an integral part of the county can appropriately be selected as the representative of all the people of the county for the purpose of determining the desirability, necessity, and amount of the tax to be paid in the county for this public improvement. The power so to tax the people of the county, and to determine the necessity of the improvement and the cost thereof, is conferred on the town authorities
Tbe law, as it exists with this section omitted therefrom, in no way prevents tbe town boards from accepting any moneys that may have been heretofore, or will be hereafter, bequeathed, donated, or paid to a town for tbe purpose of securing tbe improvements contemplated by tbe law, and which were intended to be used in connection with any available highway improvement funds in tbe town treasury for tbis purpose, and applying such moneys in payment of tbe cost of such improvement.
Dropping tbis section from tbe statute leaves a complete scheme for tbe improvement of highways as contemplated by tbe legislature. Tbe provisions of this section are independent and separable from tbe other parts of tbe act, and there is no ground for bolding that tbe provisions of tbis section were tbe inducement of tbe enactment of tbe other parts of tbe law as it stands with this section omitted. Under tbe circumstances, tbe valid parts of tbe statute stand as tbe law regulating tbis subject.
By the Court.- — Tbe order appealed from is reversed, and the cause is remanded to tbe lower court with directions that tbe demurrer to tbe return be overruled and for further proceedings according to law.