82 Ga. 138 | Ga. | 1888
Verdery sought to enjoin the collection of a small tax ji. fa., issued against him by the municipality of Summerville for alleged taxes on his real estate situate in the village, for the year Í887. The injunction was denied. Annexed to the bill or petition for injunction is a copy of the ordinance imposing the tax. It levies a tax of one 'quarter of one per cent, upon the assessed value of all real estate in the village. No tax, by that
Another important difference between the two constitutions tends to show that property subject to be taxed is all to be taxed alike, when any of it is taxed. That difference is, that the older constitution did not limit or prohibit exemptions, but the younger does. It specifies certain property that may be exempted, and then declares that laws exempting any other shall be void. Thus, the only classification of property, relatively to taxation, that is made or authorized, is into exempt property and property subject to be taxed; and taxation on all property subject to be taxed is required to be ad valorem, — that is, according to value.
Once for all, the constitution has enumerated the two classes of property, which enumeration the legislature, the courts and the citizen must recognize as exhaustive; property, whatever its species, is simply exempt or subject to be taxed. If exempt, it pays nothing; if subject, the amount it shall pay is measured by multiplying the fixed rate into the actual value. The result will be, in every instance, that all persons who own taxable property of equal value will pay the same amount of taxes, and all who own more than others will pay more, and all who own less will pay léss.
In Gilman vs. The City of Sheboygan, 2 Black’s Rep. 510, the Supreme Court of the United States, besides holding that the levying of taxes by a city under the authority of a State law, is the exercise of the taxing power as much as the taxation of the citizens directly for the support of the State government, holds further, that a requirement in the constitution that the rule of
By leaving out personalty, not only is the principle of uniformity, as well as the express requirement for the inclusion of all property subject to be taxed, violated, but the omission narrows the ordinance into a particular or special law, whereas the constitution declares that all taxes shall be levied and collected under general laws. There is a relative sense in which a mere local law can, with intelligible meaning, be called a law of general obligation. If it acts upon the whole municipal area and upon all persons and property therein, with the same comprehensive generality as it would act throughout the State were it applicable to the State at large, it is a law of general though local operation. This generality as to territory, with full generality as to subject-matter, that is, that the tax shall be uniform upon the same class of subjects, and ad valorem on all property subject to be taxed within the given territory, is the generality which is needful.
Again, the ordinance is obnoxious to the provision of the constitution, which declares that laws exempting
Judgment affirmed.