Allen v. Peoria & Bureau Valley Railroad

Citations

• 44 Ill. 85

Syllabus

<p>1. Taxes—special tax—to he valid must he authorized. The levy of a special tax for purposes not authorized by the legislature, is void. Thus after the passage of the act of 1803, authorizing “ county courts, for county business in counties without township organization, and the board of supervisors of coun. ties under township organization in such counties as may be owing debts which their current revenue under existing laws is not sufficient to pay, may, if deemed advisable, levy a special tax, not to exceed, in any one year, one per cent, upon the taxable property of any such county, to be assessed and collected in the same manner, and at the same time and rate of compensation as other county taxes; and when collected, to be kept as a separate fund, in the county treasury, and to be expended under the direction of the said county court, or board of supervisors, as the case may be, in liquidation of such indebtedness,” the supervisors of Bureau county passed a resolution levying among other taxes a special tax “for the purpose of liquidating the interest on any loan made, or to he made, and to provide for paying the indebtedness of Bureau county, for war purposes, one dollar on one hundred dollars of valuation and payment thereof was resisted, on the ground that the supervisors had no authority to levy a tax to liquidate interest on loans to he made. Held, that the levy was unauthorized, and void to the extent of future loans.</p> <p>2. Same — legal not invalidated hy connection with unauthorized, if separable. The board of supervisors having authority to levy a tax to pay existing indebtedness, the levying of a tax, in connection therewith, to pay-a nón-existing indebtedness, does not render the entire levy void, if the. authorized can be separated from the unauthorized.</p>