State ex rel. Douglas County v. Cornell
Decision Date | 02 February 1898 |
Docket Number | 9812 |
Citation | 74 N.W. 59,53 Neb. 556 |
Parties | STATE OF NEBRASKA, EX REL. DOUGLAS COUNTY, v. JOHN F. CORNELL, AUDITOR OF PUBLIC ACCOUNTS |
Court | Nebraska Supreme Court |
ORIGINAL application for a writ of mandamus to compel the auditor of public accounts to register bonds issued by relator for the purpose of raising funds for an exhibit at the Trans-Mississippi and International Exposition. Writ allowed.
WRIT ALLOWED.
Howard H. Baldrige, H. L. Day, and Montgomery & Hall, for relator.
C. J Smyth, Attorney General, and Ed P. Smith, Deputy Attorney General, contra.
This was an original application to this court for a peremptory writ of mandamus, on the relation of Douglas county, to compel the respondent, as auditor of public accounts, to register in his office 100 certain coupon bonds of said county, aggregating $ 100,000, voted for the purpose of raising money to enable it to participate in the Trans-Mississippi and International Exposition to be held in the city of Omaha during the year 1898. In 1897 the legislature of this state passed an act entitled "An act to authorize counties to participate in interstate expositions, to issue bonds for such purpose, and to provide for a tax for the payment of such bonds." (Session Laws 1897, p. 192, ch. 24.) The first three sections of said law are here reproduced:
Section 4 of said act provides for the levying of a sufficient tax by the proper county officers upon all of the taxable property of the county to pay the principal and interest upon said bonds as the same become due and payable.
The relation shows that the proposition to issue the bonds in question was submitted to the electors of the county, and the same was adopted by them in strict conformity to the provisions of the said legislative enactment. The respondent has declined to register the bonds for the reason their legality is questioned; but he has not, by answer or otherwise, advised the court of the particular grounds upon which their validity is assailed, nor has he submitted any authorities in opposition to the issuance of the writ. Counsel for relator, in the briefs and at the bar, have argued two propositions, to which attention will be given, namely: First--Whether the bonds were voted for a lawful object or purpose. Second--Did the proposition to issue them receive the requisite affirmative vote of the electors of the county?
The following principles are too well established by the authorities to require discussion at this time:
First--The legislature may authorize taxation for a public purpose, but a tax imposed for an object in its nature essentially private is void.
Second--It is for the legislature in the first instance to decide whether the object for which a tax is to be used or raised is a public purpose, but its determination of the question is not conclusive. (Supra.)
Third--To justify a court in declaring a tax invalid on the ground that it was not imposed for the benefit of the public, the absence of a public interest in the purpose for which the money is raised by taxation must be so clear and palpable as to be immediately perceptible to every mind. .)
In the last case it was said:
The language of Folger, J., in his opinion in Weismer v. Village of Douglas, 64 N.Y. 91, deserves to be reproduced here:
In Board of Directors of Alfalfa Irrigation District v. Collins, 46 Neb. 411, 64 N.W. 1086, occurs this language:
In the light of the principles already stated, is the legislation, under which the bonds in question were voted, illegal on the ground that it authorized the imposing of burdens upon the public, by way of taxation, in aid of a private enterprise, and not in furtherance of an object which is public in its character? The answer must be in the negative. The statute under review does not attempt, or purport, to authorize the issuance, or donation, of the bonds to private individuals, or the corporation under whose auspices the exposition is to be held. Nor does the act contemplate that the money derived from the sale of the bonds shall be devoted to promote the interest of a few; but the intention of the law was to enable any county availing itself of its provisions to raise the means with which to meet the expenses of erecting a suitable building or buildings, and maintaining the same, and an exhibit of the resources of the county at the Trans-Mississippi and International Exposition to be held in the city of Omaha in 1898. The proceeds of the bonds are to be disbursed, for the purpose mentioned in the law, by Douglas county, through its officers and agents. We cannot determine judicially that such an object is purely private, and not public in its character, especially in view of the legislation and adjudication in this state now to be mentioned. The legislature in 1891 appropriated $ 50,000 "to provide for a presentation of the products, resources, and...
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