Crosby v. Lyon

Citations

• 37 Cal. 242

Syllabus

<p>School Fund Raised by the Legislature Inviolable.—Whenever the Legislature of this State raises a fund, by taxation or otherwise, for the support of common schools, any contemporaneous or subsequent legislation having for its object the diversion of such fund to any other purpose is in contravention of the second section of Article IX of the State Constitution, and is void.</p> <p>Idem—Construction of Section Two, Article IX, of Constitution.—The clause of Section Two, Article IX, of the Constitution, which provides “ * * * and such other means as the Legislature may provide shall be inviolably appropriated to the support of schools throughout the State,” includes as such “means” any fund arising from annual taxation for school purposes levied under general laws passed for that purpose.</p> <p>Idem—Unconstitutional Statute.—So much of section eighteen of “An Act to authorize the County of Placer to subscribe to the capital stock of the Central Pacific Railroad Company of California, and to provide for the payment of the same,” etc., (Stats. 1863, p. 145,) as provides that “the taxes that may be paid by said [railroad] company to said [Placer] county, from time to time,” shall be paid into “the Railroad Fund” created by said Act, is unconstitutional and void, so far as it relates to the school tax of said county.</p> <p>Idem—A statute having the effect to exempt the taxable property of a railroad company in any county from the payment of a school tax lawfully levied upon the taxable property within such county, is in contravention of section thirteen of Article XI of the Constitution, which provides that “taxation shall be equal and uniform throughout the State,” and in so far is void.</p>