Allhands v. People ex rel. Lukens

Citations

• 82 Ill. 234

Syllabus

<p>Taxation—must be equal, and not imposed upon a part for the benefit of the whole. A county treasurer, in answer to an application for a mandamus to compel him to pay over to the treasurer of a school district in his county certain taxes levied by the school directors on the property of a railroad company, which he had collected, set up that the township in which the school district was situated subscribed a certain sum to aid in the construction of the said railroad, and that, by the provision of the act of the General Assembly of April 16,1869, entitled “ An act to fund and provide for paying the railroad debts of counties, townships, cities and towns,” he was required to pay into the State treasury all the taxes collected by him in the town in w'hich the school district was situated, for any purpose whatever, on the assessments of railroads, etc., and that said town had issued bonds to the railroad company for the amount of its subscription, and that the same, with a considerable amount of accruing interest, remained unpaid: R'eld, that, as it did not appear that the town and school district were territorially the same, the answer was insufficient; that to allow such defense would be, in effect, to tax a part for the benefit of the whole, which is not admissible under the present constitution.</p>