119 N.W. 1037 | N.D. | 1909
As stated by appellant’s counsel: “T-he ¡above-entitled action is a proceeding brought by the Attorney General -of the state of North Dakota against ¡the defendant, as county auditor of Cass county, asking for the issuance of a writ of mandamus directing said defendant to transmit to the superintendent of the Institution for the Feeble-Minded- of Grafton, N. D., three warrants in the sum of $50 each, payable to said superintendent, by virtue of the
By chapter 23, p. 18, Laws 1907, the legislative assembly appropriated the sum of $86,600’ for the purpose, as stated in the act, “of paying the current and contingent expenses and for permanent improvements of the Institution for the Feeble-Minded at Grafton, for the period beginning March 1, 1907, and ending March 1, 1-909.” The specific purposes for which such appropriation was made are enumerated in the act as follows:
For maintenance ............................. $11,500
For employes’ wages, including officers’ salaries... 24,000
For fuel and lights ........................ 9,000
For training school supplies and amusements. .. . 400
For incidental expenses ,...................... 1,000
For drugs medicines, etc ...................... 500
For repairs ................................. 500
For plumbing............................... 250
For beds and bedding........................ 600
*128 For furniture ............................... 600'
For electrical supplies and repairs............. 100
For supplies for engine room.................. 400
For laundry machinery and repairs............ 200
For paints and painting ....................... 750
For farm implements and vehicles............... 600
For new power house, including water tank amd tower................................... 15,000
For remodeling west wing................... 12,000
For fire apparatus and water connections........ 1,000
For farm house repairs ...................... 500
For granary and machine sheds................ 800
For stock ................................. 400
For improvement to grounds...........,....... 500
For additional land.......................... 6,000'
Total.................................. $86,600
It is appellant’s contention, among other things, that by such act the Legislature intended such appropriation to be sufficient, and that it in fact is sufficient, for all the needs of said institution, during the present fiscal term, for maintenance, including funds necessary to purchase clothing for the inmates. It will be seen that, by the provisions of the above act, the sum of but $11,500 was appropriated for maintenance. Just what the Legislature intended to include within the term “maintenance” is not clear, but it does appear that the same was not intended to cover employes’ wages and salaries, fuel and lights, school supplies, incidental expenses, drugs and medicines, repairs, beds, and bedding, furniture, and the other items for which specific sums were appropriated. There being no specific appropriation for food and clothing of the inmates, it follows that the same was intended to be covered by the $11,500 item appropriated “for maintenance,” and, without reviewing the testimony at length, suffice it to' say that we are entirely convinced from the record that such appropriation is not sufficient to cover these items during the fiscal term. In fact we do not understand appellant’s counsel to contend to the contrary, but they do contend that of the total amount appropriated for all funds there is a sufficient amount, and that the emergency board is empowered to increase the maintenance fund by transferring to such fund moneys belonging to other funds of said institution. This latter contention we will notice later.
But it is strenuously and ingeniously contended by them that, with the exception of a small deficit, there are sufficient moneys in the various funds appropriated as aforesaid to maintain and operate said institution for the -remainder of the fiscal year without taking into consideration any moneys which have been received or are due from inmates or counties under the provisions of chapter
A somewhat similar question to the one here involved arose in the state of Nebraska in the case of State ex rel. Attorney General v. Commissioners of Douglas County, 18 Neb. 601, 26 N. W. 378. The majority opinion in that case goes much farther than‘we are required to go in the case at bar in upholding respondent’s -contention. In the Nebraska case it was an agreed and stipulated fact that the amount of tax levied by the state was sufficient to maintain the hospital, includirfg the payment of all the expense of board, etc., of all the patients, and 'hence it was -wholly unnecessary for the maintenance of such institution that any further burdens should be imposed upon counties -having patients in such institution under the provisions of the statute there in question. But, in the-face -of -these conceded and stipulated facts, the majority of the court upheld the right to exact from the counties the payments required by the statute. IWe quote from the majority opinion as follows: “It must be borne in mind that the question is simply one of the power of the Legislature to impose the tax. All suggestions as to its expediency must be banished from the case. The
Counsel for appellant attempts to differentiate the case at bar from the Nebraska and South Dakota cases upon the ground of a difference in the statutes relative to the method required of the counties in raising funds with which to reimburse the state. The statutes in South Dakota and Nebraska respectively, require the counties to levy and collect a tax sufficient tx> raise a designated sum with which to reimburse the state for the approximated expense of maintaining such patients, while the North Dakota statute (chapter 237, Laws 1907) merely provides for the payment of 'an arbitrary sum, without prescribing the method of raising the same, for the purpose'of clothing each inmate, any surplus remaining to be covered into the state treasury and credited to the maintenance fund of such institution. We are unable to discover any vital distinction on principle between these statutes. If, as held by the South Dakota and Nebraska courts, it is within the power of the Legislature to require the counties to pay the entire expense of maintaining their insane, it is certainly within the power of the Legislature-to require them to defray a portion of such expense, and this is all our statute does. The manner of raising such fund must necessarily be by taxation.
It is next contended by appellant’s counsel that the institution for the feeble-minded is a state institution, and hence funds for its maintenance must be provided for as prescribed in section 174 of our Constitution. While it is true that such institution belongs to the state, it in no manner follows that the Legislature has not the power to provide for its partial or entire maintenance by the respective counties, as was expressly 'held in the foregoing authorities. The contention that chapter 237 aforesaid is unconstitutional because the payments exacted thereunder constitute a tax in excess
It is next asserted that said act violates the provisions of section 172 of our Constitution, which provides that the fiscal affairs of a county shall be transacted by a board of county commissioners. This contention, to our minds, is as devoid of merit as those we have just noticed. It could not have been the intention’ of the framers of the Constitution by the adoption of section 172 to prohibit the Legislature from enacting laws similar to chapter 237 aforesaid, but it was their intention merely to vest in the board of county commissioners “the business transactions of the county— the performance of such duties as the law has defined and placed upon county commissioners, or such as uniformly pertain to that office.” Martin v. Tyler, 4 N. D. 278, 60 N. W. 392, 25 L. R. A. 838. It was held by this court in said case that the words “fiscal affiairs,” as used in the Constitution (section 172), “are not limited to matters pertaining solely to public revenue, as they doubtless are in some connections.” And, again, in the later case of State v. Heinrich, 11 N. D. 31, 88 N. W. 734, this court used language recognizing the power of the Legislature to require the payment of claims and demands against counties without first being audited by the board of county commissioners. We quote: “The board of
Counsel for appellant also argue that the act in question contravenes the provisions of section 186 of the Constitution of this state which provides: “No bills, claims, accounts or demands against the state, or any county or other political subdivision, shall be audited, allowed or paid until a full itemized statement -in writing shall be filed with the officer or officers, whose duty it may be to audit the same.” A sufficient answer to such contention has, we think, been made by what we have just said regarding appellant’s last contention. Furthermore, section 186 by its language clearly applies only to those accounts or demands, the audit of which is made the duty, by law, of some officer, and under the act in question there is no duty devolving upon the county auditor to audit the claims therein mentioned.
It is next urged that the act in question fixes a specific, arbitrary sum to foe paid for each inmate, and that the sum fixed is excessive. The record does not support counsel’s last contention: but be that as it may, it is entirely clear and the Supreme Court of Nebraska in State v. County of Douglas, supra, so held, that “this must in the first instance at least be left to the wisdom of the proper department of the government.” Unless the amount fixed by the Legislature is clearly unreasonable, its payment will be enforced.
Having disposed of each of appellant’s points adversely to his contention, it follows that the judgment appealed from must be, and the same is accordingly, affirmed.