Board of Supervisors v. Weider

Citations

• 64 Ill. 427

Syllabus

<p>1. Taxes—-for what purposes may be levied by municipal corporations. Section 5 of Article 9 of tbe constitution of 1848 provides that tbe corporate authorities of counties, townships, school districts, cities, towns and villages may be vested with power to assess and collect taxes for corporate purposes; such taxes to be uniform in respect to persons and property within the jurisdiction of the body imposing the same: Held, that, within the meaning of this provision of the constitution, a tax for corporate purposes must be for such purposes and such only as are germane to the objects of the creation of the municipality, at least such as have a legitimate connection with those objects and a manifest relation thereto.</p> <p>3. To provide a location or site for a State institution is not such a corporate purpose as would authorize the authorities of such municipalities to impose upon property owners an onerous tax to pay the expense.</p> <p>3. The action of the board of supervisors of Livingston county in authorizing the issue of the bonds of the county for the purpose of securing the location of the State Reform School in the township of Pontiac, in that county, in accordance with the act of 1869, providing for aid from municipal corporations in the erection of that institution, was illegal and void, the legislature having no power, under the constitution, to authorize such corporations to levy a tax for such purposes.</p> <p>4. And, no matter in whose hands such bonds may be, where a tax has been levied and collected for their payment or for the payment of the accruing interest thereon, the county treasurer may be restrained from applying the money so collected to such purpose. Such money is the property of the tax-payers, and justice requires it should be refunded to them.</p>