In re Internal Improvement Fund

• Decision Date: 27 April 1897
• Citation: 24 Colo. 247,48 P. 807
• Parties: In re INTERNAL IMPROVEMENT FUND.
• Court: Colorado Supreme Court

48 P. 807

24 Colo. 247

In re INTERNAL IMPROVEMENT FUND.

Supreme Court of Colorado

April 27, 1897

Advisory opinion in response to communication and interrogatories by the governor.

The opinion is in response to the following communication and interrogatories from the governor, to which was attached senate bill No. 30, section 3 of which reads as follows 'Sec. 3. That for the purpose of constructing a cottage for the female patients of said asylum, there is hereby appropriated out of the internal improvement fund the sum of twenty-five thousand dollars ($25,000) which shall be the total amount to be expended in the construction of a cottage for the female patients by the commissioners of the insane asylum.'

'To the Honorable the Supreme Court of the State of Colorado:

'Whereas section 3 of article 6 of the constitution of the state of Colorado, as amended, provides that the supreme court shall give its opinion upon important questions upon solemn occasions, when required by the governor; and whereas, a certain senate bill No. 30 has been passed by both houses of the Eleventh general assembly, a copy of which is hereto attached, and has been presented to me in due course for my approval or disapproval as governor; and whereas, upon reading and examining said bill, it appears to me that a certain item sought to be appropriated by section three thereof out of the 'internal improvement fund' may be in violation of the terms and conditions of the grant of the United States government, as set forth in that portion of the enabling act creating said fund, the same being section 193 on page 93 of Mills' Annotated Statutes; and whereas, it is considered by me that the foregoing question is important and the occasion solemn: Now therefore, I, Alva Adams, governor of Colorado, do hereby respectfully require you, the supreme court of the state of Colorado, to give your opinion upon the following questions: (1) Is section 3 of said act obnoxious to the terms of the granting act aforesaid? (2) Is it lawful for the general assembly of the state of Colorado to appropriate any portion of the said 'internal improvement fund' for the erection of public buildings, such as asylums, statehouses, universities, and colleges, or any other public institution of a like character?

'Very respectfully, Alva Adams,

'Governor of Colorado.

'Done at Denver, Colorado, this 10th day of April, A. D. 1897.'

James W. McCreery, T. M. Robinson, Byron L. Carr, Atty. Gen., and Calvin E. Reed, Asst. Atty. Gen., amici curiae.

PER CURIAM.

The questions submitted call for a definition of the words 'internal improvements,' as used in section 12 of the enabling act, being section 193, 1 Mills' Ann. St., and which reads: 'That five per centum of the proceeds of the sales of agricultural public lands lying within said state, which shall be sold by the United States subsequent to the admission of said state into the Union after deducting all the expenses incident to the same, shall be paid to the said state for the purpose of making such internal improvements within said state as the legislature thereof may direct,'--and also the meaning to be given to the same term as used in section 2378, Rev. St. U.S. 1878. In other words, does the phrase as therein used include 'public buildings, such as asylums, statehouses universities, and colleges, or any other public institution of a like character,' so that the proceeds derived from the sources mentioned in these acts may be applied to...