Mix v. People ex rel. Pierpont

Citations

• 72 Ill. 241

Syllabus

<p>1. Taxes—to/tai sufficient levy of, by boa/rd of supervisors. An order of tlie board of supervisors which shows that the committee on county taxes reported that they had examined the accounts of the county, and they recommended that a tax of §35,000, for all purposes, be levied for the year, upon all taxable property of the county, and that, on motion, the report was adopted, is,'in effect, an order that the tax be levied.</p> <p>3. Same—levy in excess of per cent allowed, does not vitiate whole ta/x. A levy of taxes in excess of the per cent allowed by the constitution, does not render the whole tax void, but only so much of it as is in excess of the constitutional limit, if the tax within the constitutional limit can be separated from the portion that is in excess of that limit.</p> <p>3. Same—exercise of power to levy, always ca/refully guarded. The levy of a tax is, in its nature, despotic, and is liable to serious abuse, and hence its exercise is always guarded with care. The power in the officers making such levies being delegated by law, they must exercise it within the limits of the law, and all their acts beyond the scope of the power delegated are void.</p> <p>4. So, where the authorities of towns, townships, districts, etc., are by law required annually, on or before a day specified, to certify to the county clerk the several amounts which they require to be raised by taxation, such certificates must be filed within the time limited to authorize the extension of the tax required, on the collector’s books, by the county clerk.</p> <p>5. Same—equalization of, by boom'd of supervisors. An equalization by the board of supervisors, made by arbitrarily fixing the value of improved lands in each town, at a uniform specified valuation, is illegal, and hence, if the clerk disregards such equalization, and extends the tax on the assessor’s return, the tax is not thereby vitiated or rendered illegal.</p> <p>6. County clerk—only a ministerial officer, in eastendin