State v. State Board of Equalization
| Decision Date | 28 September 1896 |
| Citation | 46 P. 266,18 Mont. 473 |
| Parties | STATE ex rel. WALLACE et al. v. STATE BOARD OF EQUALIZATION. |
| Court | Montana Supreme Court |
Application on the relation of R. C. Wallace and others against the state board of equalization consisting of the governor, the secretary of state, the state treasurer, the state auditor and the attorney general, for a writ of certiorari.
The relators are resident taxpayers in the state of Montana. The respondent, the state board of equalization, is composed by law of the state officers above named. It is charged in the application of relators that the respondent, at its session held under the law at the state capital, in July last assumed to exercise, and did exercise, the power to adjust the taxable property of the several counties of the state as to the valuation thereof among the several counties of the state, and made certain changes and increases in the valuation and assessment of the real and personal property as returned and transmitted by the assessors and county boards of equalization of the several counties, which said changes and increases are specificially set forth in relators' application, and that by reason of such changes and increases the respondent increased the valuation and assessment of divers classes of property in the several counties of the state, and that by reason of such changes and increases said board increased the aggregate total of all the values of property in the several counties of the state from the sum of $111,084,350, which was the total value of property as disclosed by the abstracts and statements transmitted to and received by said board from the county boards of equalization and assessors, to the sum of $114,231,720.04, which was an aggregate increase of the total assessed valuation of all the property in the several counties of the state, as shown above, of $3,147,370.04. The facts as alleged in the application are not denied by respondent's return.
H. J Haskell, for respondent.
PEMBERTON C.J. (after stating the facts).
The principal question presented for adjudication is as to the power of the state board of equalization, under our constitution, to so increase the valuation of property returned to it by the assessors and county boards of equalization of the several counties as to increase or decrease the total valuation of property of the state as fixed by the county boards and assessors. The relators contend that under the constitution of the state the respondent board had no power to make such change and increase in the total valuation of the property of the state. Section 15, art. 12, of our constitution is as follows We have been unable to find a constitutional provision exactly like ours in any of the states. The constitution of the state of Colorado contains provisions upon this subject so nearly like ours that it may be fairly claimed that they are substantially the same. In fact, it seems from their substantial similarity that our state may be said to have adopted the Colorado constitution upon this subject. Section 15, art. 10, of the Colorado constitution is as follows: It will be observed that the only difference in the phraseology of the two constitutional provisions quoted is found in the use of these words: Where our constitution uses the words "taxable property," the Colorado constitution uses the words "real and personal property." The supreme court of Colorado, in People v. Lothrop, 3 Colo. 428,--an elaborate and well-considered case, involving the powers of the state board of equalization under the provision of the constitution just quoted,--said: ...
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