Baker v. Hill

21 S.W.2d 867, 180 Ark. 387, 1929 Ark. LEXIS 303
CourtSupreme Court of Arkansas
DecidedNovember 18, 1929
StatusPublished
Cited by11 cases

This text of 21 S.W.2d 867 (Baker v. Hill) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Arkansas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Baker v. Hill, 21 S.W.2d 867, 180 Ark. 387, 1929 Ark. LEXIS 303 (Ark. 1929).

Opinion

Hart, C. J.

This is an appeal by a taxpayer from a decree of the chancery court sustaining a demurrer to and dismissing for want of equity a complaint filed by him seeking to restrain the members of the Arkansas Construction Commission from carrying out the provisions of an act of the Legislature of 1929 to provide adequate buildings for the Hospital for Nervous Diseases and for the Tuberculosis Sanatorium and the issuance of State bonds therefor.

The Legislature of 1929 first passed an act to provide for the levying and collecting of a tax on incomes, which was to be known as the Income Tax Act of 1929. The same Legislature subsequently created the Arkansas Construction Commission for the purpose of constructing and equipping adequate buildings for the Hospital for Nervous Diseases, and buildings for the Tuberculosis Sanatorium. The first act referred to is No. 118, and was approved March 9, 1929. The later act is No. .180, and was approved March 22, 1929. The Income Tax Act of 1929 contains 44 sections, and its constitutionality was sustained in Stanley v. Gates, 179 Ark. 886, 19 S. W. (2d) 1000.

The constitutionality of act 180 is assailed in the case at bar. Section 9 of the act provides that, for carrying out the purposes of the act, the State shall borrow not exceeding the aggregate sum of $3,250,000, and shall issue the bonds of the State for the amount so borrowed, provided not more than $750,000 shall be issued in 1929. Section 10 provides that the bonds shall be known as State Construction Bonds, and contains regulations for their issue. Section 11 provides for the annual payment of the bonds from the revenue from act 118, Income Tax Act of 1929, and that the remainder shall go to reduce the State property tax under the regulations contained in the section. Section 12 defines the nature and terms of the construction bonds. It also provides that the bonds shall be negotiable paper, notwithstanding they are payable out of a special fund. Section 13 provides for the sale of the bonds, and the prices thereof. Section 14 provides for the registration of the bonds in the office of the State Treasurer. Section 15 provides for an appropriation for two years of a designated sum for construction and equipment for the State Hospital for Nervous Diseases. Section 16 contains a similar provision for the State Tuberculosis Sanatorium. Section 20 contains an emergency clause which provides that: “It is found as a fact that the State Hospital for Nervous Diseases is not adequate to take care of the patients now in the institution; the buildings at the Tuberculosis Sanatorium are insufficient to properly house and otherwise take care of those who are entitled to be admitted to that institution; the foregoing needs are so pressing- that delay in responding to them may result in loss of life, prolonged sickness, and impairment of the efficiency of these institutions; and that the immediate operation of this act is essential for the protection of the wards of the State. ’ ’ Acts of 1929, vol. 2, p. 884.

In Stanley v. Gates, 179 Art. 886, 19 (2d) S. W. 1000, the emergency clause was held valid as to- the Income Tax Act of 1929, and the court said that the act took effect from and after its approval by the Governor, which was March 9,1929. The court held that the action of the Legislature in declaring when an emergency exists, under Constitutional Amendment 13, is supreme, and that, if it states facts constituting an emergency so that its action cannot be said to be arbitrary, courts cannot say that it has not performed its constitutional duty, even though they might disagree with the Legislature as to the sufficiency of declared facts to constitute a sufficient reason for immediate action. That decision controls here, and it may 'be said the emergency in the act under consideration is stated in a plain and concise as well as comprehensive manner; therefore we hold that the act took effect March 22, 1929, the date of its approval.

The principal ground relied upon for a reversal of the decree is that the act violates § 8, art. 16, of our Constitution, which reads as follows:

“The General Assembly shall not have power to levy State taxes for any one year to exceed in the aggregate one per cent, of the assessed valuation of the property of the State for that year. ’ ’

The basis o-f the contention is that, -under the allegations of the complaint, which are admitted to be true by the demurrer, our severance tax, cigar and cigarette stamp tax, the inheritance tax, and the income tax of 1929, when added to the general property tax for State purposes of 8.7 mills on the dollar for each dollar of the assessed value of property in the State for taxation, exceeds in the aggregate one per cent, of all the assessed valuation of the property of the State for one year. We do not agree with counsel for appellant in the construction they have placed on this section of our Constitution. The provisions of § 8, art. 16, containing a restriction or limitation as to the amount or rate of taxation, refer exclusively to a property tax, but there is nothing in the section which prevents the Legislature from selecting other subjects of taxation and prescribing the amount or rate of tax that it may see fit to levy thereon. According to our construction of our Constitution, other sources of revenue for State purposes than property tax may be resorted to. If the Legislature has power to raise revenue for State purposes by a property tax, it may also levy a tax for that purpose upon any other legitimate subject of taxation. There is a marked distinction in our Constitution as recognized in our adjudicated cases, between property and other subjects of taxation. The phrase, “subjects of taxation,” embraces all property as such, and all other items on which a tax rate may be laid as a source of revenue for the support of the State Government. Since the Constitution contains no restriction on the power of the Legislature to- levy taxes except as to property as such, the Legislature has full and complete power in the levy of taxes for State purposes as to-other recognized subjects of taxation. The -section under consideration is a part of article 16 of the Constitution on the subject of “Finance and Taxation.” Section 5 of the same article is commonly called the equality and uniformity clause of the 'Constitution, and has been uniformly construed by this court as relating to property only.

In Fort Smith v. Scruggs, 70 Ark. 549, 69 S. W. 679, 58 L. R. A. 921, 91 A. S. R. 100, the court held that the Legislature had the power to authorize -cities to impose a tax upon the privilege of driving vehicles upon the public streets of the city, and that, -because the ordinance does not attempt to tax property but to tax a privilege, the provisions of § 5, art. 16, of the Constitution, requiring that all property “shall be taxed according to its value,” and in such manner as to make the same equal and uniform throughout the -State, do not apply, since they refer to taxes upon property only.

In State v. Handlin, 100 Ark. 175, 139 S. W. 1112, an inheritance tax law was upheld on the ground that inheritance taxes are not laid upon property, but upon the privilege or right of succession thereto, and are not subject to the same tests with respect to equality and uniformity under § 5, art. 16, of the Constitution as taxes levied upon property. The same rule was laid down as to a tax on corporate franchises. St. Louis S. W. Ry. Co. v. State, 106 Ark. 321, 152 S. W.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

People v. Camba
50 Cal. App. 4th 857 (California Court of Appeal, 1996)
Artcarved Class Rings, Inc. v. City of Austin
551 S.W.2d 788 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1977)
Behneman v. Alameda-Contra Costa Transit District
182 Cal. App. 2d 687 (California Court of Appeal, 1960)
Greenberg v. LEE
248 P.2d 324 (Oregon Supreme Court, 1952)
Davis v. County of Los Angeles
84 P.2d 1034 (California Supreme Court, 1938)
Carraway v. Phipps
86 S.W.2d 12 (Supreme Court of Arkansas, 1935)
Thompson v. Wiseman
75 S.W.2d 393 (Supreme Court of Arkansas, 1934)
State Ex Rel. Botkin v. Welsh
251 N.W. 189 (South Dakota Supreme Court, 1933)
State Ex Rel. Hamilton v. Martin
23 P.2d 1 (Washington Supreme Court, 1933)
Featherstone v. Norman
153 S.E. 58 (Supreme Court of Georgia, 1930)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
21 S.W.2d 867, 180 Ark. 387, 1929 Ark. LEXIS 303, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/baker-v-hill-ark-1929.