Jordan v. Duval County

Citations

• 68 Fla. 48
• 66 So. 298

Syllabus

<p>1. The courts will not decline- to give effect to the legislative intent as expressed in a duly enacted statute on the ground that it is unconstitutional, unless it clearly appears beyond all reasonable doubt, that the statute in its essential features is in positive conflict with some identified provision of organic law.</p> <p>2. The Constitution does not define or amplify the term “county purposes”' for which counties may be authorized “to assess and impose taxes,” and the Legislature, in exercising its appropriate lawmaking functions, may determine what is a “county purpose,” and the courts are not authorized to render such determination ineffectual, unless some provision of the Constitution is violated, or unless the particular enactment can have no legal or practical relations whatever to any “county-purpose.”</p> <p>3. Where the courts may enquire into the existence of legislative power to enact a statute, the absence of power must clearly appear before the statute will be declared to be ineffectual for the purpose designed.</p> <p>4. The courts are authorized to determine the legality of a statute in appropriate proceedings; but considerations of policy including the necessity and wisdom of ¿ regulation are determined by the Legislature in enacting the statute.</p> <p>5. As applied to the taxing power that may be conferred upon counties, the organic mandate that “the Legislature shall provide for a unform and equal rate of taxation,” doeá not require that the rate of taxation shall be the same in each and every county, but that all property which is legally taxable for a given purpose, shall be subjected to “a uniform and equal rate of tavation.”</p> <p>6. Chapter 6580 Acts of 1918, is a special and local law authorizing the county of Duval upon stated conditions to issue bonds and to levy taxes to pay the principal and interest thereof for the purpose of erecting and equipping an armory to be used in whole or in part for the State Militia, in the county,