Agricultural Commodities Authority v. Balkcom, 20423

• Citation: 215 Ga. 107,109 S.E.2d 276
• Decision Date: 13 April 1959
• Docket Number: No. 20423,20423
• Parties: AGRICULTURAL COMMODITIES AUTHORITY et al. v. Ralph BALKCOM.
• Court: Georgia Supreme Court

Page 276

109 S.E.2d 276

215 Ga. 107

AGRICULTURAL COMMODITIES AUTHORITY et al. v. Ralph BALKCOM.

No. 20423.

Supreme Court of Georgia.

April 13, 1959.

Rehearing Denied June 5, 1959.

Stone & Stone, Lowrey S. Stone, Blakely, for plaintiff in error.

Phillip Sheffield, Blakely, for defendant in error.

Syllabus Opinion by the Court.

CANDLER, Justice.

The Agricultural Commodities Authority was created by an act which the General Assembly passed in 1951 (Ga.L.1951, p. 717). The commodities affected thereby are tobacco, cotton, and peanuts, and by section 7 of the act its provisions do not become effective as to any one of those commodities until the producers thereof have an opportunity to vote at an election, which the act provides for, and then only when twothirds of those voting in the election vote in favor of its effectiveness as to that particular commodity. The act was amended in 1958 (Ga.L. 1958, p. 237), and as amended section 10 thereof provides: 'There is hereby levied and the authority is authorized to collect as an aid in effectuating the purposes of this act an assessment to be used by the authority for the purposes herein enumerated, the following assessment charges: * * * 3. Not less than twenty-five cents nor more than one dollar per ton on all peanuts grown or sold in the State of Georgia.' The act also provides that the purchaser of the commodity peanuts shall collect from the producer the levied amount for each ton so purchased and remit it to the Authority within a specified period of time. The plaintiff instituted this litigation against the Authority and its five members to recover $81.27, which the Blakely Peanut Company, as a dealer in peanuts, allegedly collected from him and remitted to the Authority during September, 1958, on the basis of $1 per ton for peanuts sold and delivered to it. The petition alleges that the defendant caused an election to be held on June 24, 1958, as provided for by section 7 of the act with respect to the commodity peanuts; that all of the provisions of the act governing such an election were fully complied with; that each ballot cast at the election showed the assessment to be levied on all peanuts grown or sold in the State, which was fixed at $1 per ton; and that more than twothirds of those voting in the election voted in favor of the proposal to put that particular agricultural commodity under the program authorized by the amended act. The petition alleges that section 10 of the act as amended is null and void because it offends several enumerated provisions of the Constitution of 1945. The prayers are for a money judgment and for an injunction to prevent the Authority from making further assessments and collections of the tax imposed by the amended act. General and special demurrers to the petition were overruled, and the exception is to that judgment. Held:

1. One of the attacks made on the constitutionality of section 10 of the act of 1951 as amended by the act of 1958 is that it offends article 7, section 2, paragraph 1 of the Constitution of 1945 (Code § 2-5501), which provides that 'The powers of taxation over the whole State shall be exercised by the General Assembly for the following purposes only: * * * 8. To advertise and promote the agricultural, industrial, historic, recreational and natural resources of the State of Georgia.' A tax is a rate or sum of money assessed on the person, property, etc., of the citizen. Bouv. Law Dict.; Mayor, etc. of Savannah v. Charlton, 36 Ga. 460. But a license is issued under the police power of the authority granting it, permitting the...