Fairfield v. People ex rel. McCrea

Citations

• 94 Ill. 244

Syllabus

<p>1. Taxation—whether for corporate purpose, and herein, as to the validity of an enabling act in respect to back taxes. The tax ordered to be levied by the common council of the city of Chicago for municipal expenditures for the years 1873 and 1874, was for a corporate purpose and within the appropriation ordinances of those years, and the act of 1877 authorizing cities and towns to collect back taxes, the collection of which had been defeated, does not require the imposition or levy of a new tax, but the act is merely remedial to aid in the remedy to enforce a pre-existing right, and therefore the collection of such back taxes is not for the payment of debts contracted in excess of the constitutional limitation of the power of the city to create indebtedness.</p> <p>2. AYhere a city levies a tax within its authorized powers but fails to collect the same, the levy being defective in not having been made in the time required by law, and because not certified to the county clerk for extension, it is competent for the legislature subsequently to authorize their collection by certifying the proper amount of the levy to the county clerk, and having the same extended upon the assessment of the year for which they were levied, the same as might have been done at the proper time.</p> <p>3. Under the act of 1877 for the collection of unpaid back taxes, the common council has nothing to do in the way of the imposition of taxes, but is merely to ascertain and cause to be certified what was done by the former common councils, and the only limitation is that such amount shall not exceed the appropriation ordinances for the years in which such taxes were levied.</p> <p>4. The fact that the municipal expenses of a city have been paid for certain years in which the collection of its taxes was defeated, presents no constitutional or other grounds why such back taxes may not be collected under appropriate enabling legislation, it being a cardinal principle of taxation under the con