Sleight v. People

Citations

• 74 Ill. 47

Syllabus

<p>1. Taxation—by municipal corporations — constitutional limitations. Under the constitution of 1848, as well as that of 1870, the legislature is prohibited from authorizing the corporate authorities of counties, townships, school districts, cities, towns and villages to assess and collect taxes for any other than corporate purposes ; and it is indispensable to the validity of all taxes levied and collected for corporate purposes, that they shall be uniform in respect to persons and property within the jurisdiction of the body imposing the same.</p> <p>2. Same—what is a “ corporate purpose.” A tax imposed for the payment of a debt not incurred by the authority imposing the tax, and for the payment of which it is in nowise responsible, is not for a corporate purpose.</p> <p>3. Constitutional law — denoting county taxes and township taxes to the payment of debt of a particular town. A section in a railway charter provided that the taxes to be collected from the company for county and township purposes by the several counties and townships through which the railroad ran, should be set apart by the county treasurer as a sinking fund to redeem the principal of the bonds issued by any township or townships in such county. It was claimed that the county taxes and the township taxes levied upon the railroad by two townships, which had issued no bonds, should have been set apart to create a sinking fund for two townships which had issued railroad bonds, but the court held that this could not be constitutionally done, as its effect was to devote taxes levied for county and township purposes to the payment of the debt of the townships which had issued their bonds, and to that extent increased the taxes in the county and the other two townships to make up the deficiency thus caused in their revenue, and therefore the law was unconstitutional and void.</p>