Hessler v. Drainage Commissioners

Citations

• 53 Ill. 105

Syllabus

<p>1. Taxation—upon whom the ,•power may he conferred. Under our State constitution'the right of taxation in no form can he granted by the general assembly to private persons or to private corporations.</p> <p>2. Same—and herein, what constitutes a private corporation. • The act of the 15th of February, 1855, authorizing the drainage of wet lands in certain townships of Cook county, and constituting certain persons therein named a body politic and corporate by the name and style of The Drainage Commissioners, was never submitted to a vote of the people to be affected by it, but the sole charter of the authority thereby conferred is the act itself. And although the object of the corporation, when accomplished, would be a public benefit, yet the corporation itself, in its composition and management, is strictly private.</p> <p>3. And so much of the act as undertakes to confer upon the commissioners the power to levy a tax, under the name of assessments, upon lands within the designated districts, to carry out the objects of the corporation, is in violation of section 5, of article 9, of the constitution, the commissioners not being “corporate authorities” of the district to be affected by their action, and the corporation being merely a private corporation.</p> <p>4. Same—consent of the people essential. Although several towns may be united in one district for the special purpose of establishing and maintaining certain designated improvements, and the corporate authority of the district so created, in respect to the object of its creation, may be vested in commissioners specially created for the purpose, and in whom the power may be vested of assessing and collecting taxes for the special corporate purposes within the new corporate district, yet a local burden of that character cannot be imposed upon the people of the district so created, without their consent.</p> <p>5. “Corporate authorities”—who constitute. By the term “corporate authorities,” as used in the consti