Auditor of Lucas County v. State ex rel. Boyles

Citations

• 75 Ohio St. (N.S.) 114

Syllabus

<p>Relief of the blind — Act of April 25, 1904, invalid — Legislative power vested in General Assembly — Powers of taxation — Special legislation — Constitutional law.</p> <p>1. The legislative power of this state is delegated to the General Assembly. This comprises the taxing power, but the power of the state to take the property of its citizens by a. tax is not broader than the purpose for which the state is formed and so is not wholly within the discretion of the Legislature, but, without express prohibition, is subject to the inherent limitation that it may be exercised only for a public purpose.</p> <p>2. The act entitled “An act to provide relief for worthy blind,” passed April 23, 1904 (97 O. L., 392), which provides that all male blind persons over the age of twenty-one years, and all female blind persons over the age of eighteen years, who have been residents of the state for five years and of the county for one year and have no property or means with which to support themselves, shall be entitled to and receive not more than twenty-five dollars per capita quarterly from the county treasury, is unconstitutional for the reason that it requires the expenditure for a private purpose of public funds raised by taxation.</p>