City of Jackson v. Nims
| Decision Date | 08 April 1947 |
| Citation | 316 Mich. 694,26 N.W.2d 569 |
| Parties | CITY OF JACKSON v. NIMS, Com'r of Revenue, et al. BOARD OF EDUCATION OF SCHOOL DIST. NO. 2, WARREN TP., MACOMB COUNTY, v. SAME. BOARD OF EDUCATION OF CITY OF DETROIT v. SAME. CITY OF DETROIT v. SAME. |
| Court | Michigan Supreme Court |
OPINION TEXT STARTS HERE
Consolidated proceedings by City of Jackson, Board of Education of School District No. 2, Warren Township, Macomb County, the Board of Education of the City of Detroit, and the City of Detroit, against Louis M. Nims, Commissioner of Revenue, and others, for a writ of mandamus to compel the defendants, as state sales tax collecting authority, to proceed to a distribution of one cent of the sales tax collected on each dollar of sales of tangible personal property in accordance with constitutional amendment approved by the voters at the general election held November 5, 1946, Const. Art. 10, § 23, as amended in 1946, wherein the Union School District of Jackson intervened as a petitioner.
Writ of mandamus granted in accordance with opinion.Before the Entire Bench.
Alvin G. Dahlem, City Atty., of Jackson, for City of Jackson.
Roscoe O. Bonisteel, of Ann Arbor (Foss O. Eldred, of Ionia, of counsel), for Board of Education of School District No. 2.
Kleinstiver & Anderson, of Jackson, for intervenor Union School Dist. of Jackson.
Clarence E. Page, of Detroit, for Board of Education of City of Detroit.
William E. Dowling, Corp. Counsel, and John H. Witherspoon and Helen W. Miller, Asst. Corp. Counsel, all of Detroit, for City of Detroit.
Eugene F. Black, Atty. Gen., Edmund E. Shepherd, Sol. Gen., of Lansing, John A. Bradshaw, Deputy Atty. Gen., and Peter E. Bradt, Daniel J. O'Hara, and Elbern Parsons, Asst. Atty. Gen., for defendants.
These cases involve the question whether the amendment to the State Constitution, designated as section 23 of article 10, was legally submitted to and adopted by the voters at the general election held November5, 1946; if so, whether, or at least to what extent, the same is self-executing; and also involves certain other questions regarding construction of the amendment.
It is conceded that the following amendment to the State Constitution was submitted to the voters at said election and adopted by affirmative vote:
The said amendment, if legally submitted and adopted, became a part of the fundamental law of the State December 5, 1946. Mich.Constitution 1908, art. 17, § 2, as amended in 1941. The direct financial interest, if any, of plaintiffs herein and other local governmental units and school districts, in sales tax collections, begins as of that date. Thereafter differences of opinion developed as to whether the amendment had been legally submitted and adopted, as to whether it is self-executing, or whether it must be implemented by legislation in order to function. Several municipalities and school districts, claiming that the amendment was self-executing without the necessity for legislative action, demanded of the commissioner of revenue, the auditor general and the State treasurer as the sales tax collecting authority that they proceed to a distribution of one cent of the sales tax collected on each dollar of sales of tangible personal property in accordance with the amendment. These officials, expressing doubts as to their duties in the matter, refused to comply, until there had been judicial interpretation of the amendment.
Thereupon the city of Jackson and the city of Detroit filed separate petitions in this court for mandamus to compel said officials, as the State sales tax collecting authority, to proceed to distribute to the county treasurers of the respective counties the 50 per cent. of the one cent of the sales tax levy collected on each dollar of sales of tangible personal property, which the amendment required to be returned to the counties, for payment to said plaintiff cities and other local governmental units on a per capita basis. The boards of education of the city of Detroit and of school district No. 2, Warran township, Macomb county, also filed separate petitions in this court seeking to compel the defendants herein to return to them their proportionate shares of one-half of one cent of all such sales tax collected on each dollar of sales of tangible personal property, beginning December 5, 1946, to December 31, 1946; and also to remit to them their proportionate shares thereafter, following the close of each quarter of the State's fiscal year. The petitions of these school districts further asked that the defendants herein be required to pay from the general funds of the State their proportionate shares of the moneys to be paid to school districts according to the ratio set forth in the concluding sentence of the amendment.
On receiving and filing the foregoing petitions the court issued orders directing the defendnats to show cause why the petitions should not be granted. Separate returnshave been made, briefs filed, and these matters consolidated for the purpose of hearing arguments and for decision. The attorney general, on behalf of the defendants, has filed a brief in answer to the claims of the four petitioners, wherein it is insisted that the amendment is a nullity because of fatal defects in the petitions for its submission and in the manner in which the proposal was published and submitted; and that the amendment is not self-executing but requires implementation by legislative action.
Obviously the claim of the defendants that there were fatal defects in the petitions and manner of submission of the amendment to the voters goes to the merits of the entire matter and applies equally to the demands both of the cities and those of the school districts. This provides a proper occasion for consolidation of these matters and for that purpose the attorney general has filed a consolidated brief in support of the claims thus made by the defendants.
Defendants claim that the petitions for submission of the proposed amendment to the voters were defective in that they did not include the full text thereof, as required by article 17, § 2, of the State Constitution, as amended in 1941. Such claim is not supported by the facts, which are to the contrary. The requirement of article 17, § 2, is that:
‘Every such petition shall include the full text of the amendment so proposed.’
The proposed amendment (art. 10, § 23) was printed in full on the petitions. However, the defendants claim that this does not fully satisfy the constitutional requirement. The attorney general argues that the sales tax act should have been put into the amendment as a part of the ‘full text,’ and should have been included in the petitions and published as a part of the proposed amendment, and relies on Scott v. Secretary of State, 202 Mich. 629, 168 N. W. 709, 710. In that case petitions were filed with the secretary of State to amend the Constitution so as to permit the manufacture and sale of wines, cider, beer, et cetera, contrary to the prohibition thereof then in effect. The amendments there proposed, as set up in the petitions, provided, among other things, that:
‘Act 313, Public Acts of 1887, as amended and in force May 1, 1916, shall be in force and effect except as herein (article XVI) modified.’
Act No. 313 thus referred to had been repealed in toto. Thus it was sought to reinstate the act, through the medium of the amendments and as a part of the Constitution, without setting out in the petitions the full text thus to be reinstated. Before the proposition was submitted to the voters a petition was filed in this Court to compel the secretary of State to refrain from publishing the proposed amendments or submitting them to the voters. There was no dispute as to the fact that the petitions and the amendments as set up therein sought to reinstate the former Act No. 313 by reference only, and that it was to be thus included as a part of the amendments. The court held that the constitutional requirement that the petitions contain the full text of the amendments had not been met, and directed the secretary of State to reject the petitions. The distinction between the Scott Case and the instant situation is plain. We do not here have an attempt to reenact the provisions of the sales tax law and thus to include it in the amendment here under consideration, and the claim of insufficiency of the petitions on this ground is without merit.
Companion to the above objection raised by the defendants, it is argued by the attorney general that the proposal was not published in full ‘with any existing...
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