State ex rel. Clallam County v. Clausen

Citations

• 82 Wash. 137
• 143 P. 876

Syllabus

<p>Counties — Indebtedness—Limitation — Submission to Voters— Necessity — Statutes—Construction. Under Const., art. 8, § 6, providing that no county shall become indebted to an amount exceeding one and one-half per centum of its taxable property, without the assent of three-fifths of the voters voting at an election for that purpose, and that with such assent the total indebtedness shall not exceed five per cent, the submission to the voters of a proposition is presumed to be for the incurring of a debt beyond the first limitation, unless it clearly appears from the proposition or surrounding circumstances that it was the intention to include the first limitation; hence where the county commissioners submitted a proposition to issue bonds in the sum of $300,000, for roads and bridges, which was authorized by three-fifths of the voters, the commissioners thereafter had authority by proper resolution to issue bonds in the sum of $65,000 for a courthouse, without submitting the same to the electors, where such $65,000 indebtedness with all other indebtedness, excluding the $300,000, did not exceed one and one-half per centum of the taxable property.</p> <p>Same. Rem. & Bal. Code, § 5085, giving the board of county commissioners, without the assent of the voters, the power to create a county indebtedness, which “together with existing indebtedness” shall not exceed one and one-half per centum of the taxable property, means the “existing indebtedness” incurred without, the assent of the voters; so that propositions to exceed that limit may be submitted to the approval of the voters before the lower limitation has been reached; and after additional indebtedness has been authorized by the voters, the commissioners may, without assent of the voters, incur indebtedness within the one and one-half per centum limitation of § 5085.</p>