State ex rel. City of Toledo v. Cooper

Citations

• 97 Ohio St. (N.S.) 86

Syllabus

<p>Municipal corporations — Home rule — Taxation — Limitation of levy— County budget commission — Qualification of members — Delegation of legislative power — Constitutional law — Smith one per cent. law.</p> <p>1. Municipalities that have adopted charters under Section 7, Article XVIII of the Amendments to the Constitution, adopted September 3, 1912, have not the absolute and unrestricted power to levy taxes for local purposes.</p> <p>2. The power of all municipalities to levy taxes may be limited or restricted by general laws. Such limitations or restrictions are warranted by Section 6, Article XIII, adopted in 1851, and by Section 13, Article XVIII of the Amendments adopted September 3, 1912.</p> <p>3. Taxation is a sovereign function. The rule of liberal construction will not apply in cases where it is claimed a part of the state sovereignty is yielded to a community therein. It must appear that the people of the state have parted therewith by the adoption of a constitutional provision that is clear and unambiguous.</p> <p>4. The Smith one per cent, law (Sections 5649-2 to 5649-5f>, General Code) does limit the power of municipalities to levy taxes, and is not repealed by any provision of the present Constitution, but is continued in force by Article XX of the Schedule to that instrument.</p> <p>5. The state has. authority to- appoint administrative agencies not only to levy but to supervise and adjust the levies between its taxing units; and Sections 5649-3b and 5649-3c, General Code, creating the budget commission and defining its duties, are not a delegation of legislative power.</p> <p>6. The fact that, under said budget-commission law, the members of such commission may not be actual residents of a taxing unit, does not render the law void. The state authority is supreme in that regard unless restricted by the Constitution.</p>