Charles Evans Hughes

“ A tax is an enforced contribution for the payment of public expenses. It is laid by some rule of apportionment according to which the persons or property taxed share the public burden, and whether taxation operates upon all within the state, or upon those of a given class or locality, its essential nature is the same. ”

“ The ultimate contention, then, is that the plaintiffs in error cannot be subjected to this preliminary tax of 25 cents an acre because their lands, as they insist, will not be benefited by the plan of drainage. In authorizing the tax, it is said, the legislature has departed from the principle of benefits, and the tax is asserted to be pro tanto an uncompensated taking of their property for public use. But the power of taxation should not be confused with the power of eminent domain. Each is governed by its own principles. ”

“ But none the less the organization of the district takes effect when it is duly constituted by the judgment of the court. The owners whose lands are embraced in the district as proposed, and who have not signed the articles, are summoned and their objections to the organization and to the inclusion of their lands are heard. As a public corporation, with defined membership, the district, when established, is empowered to go forward with the expert investigations and surveys which, of necessity, must precede the adoption of a complete scheme. ”