David Josiah Brewer

“ Manufactories have been exempted, but only in the belief that thereby large industries will be created, and the material prosperity increased; churches and charitable institutions, because they tend to a better order of society. Or it may be that a sum, in gross or annual installments, is received in lieu of taxes. But in every case there is the implied fact of some consideration passing for the grant of exemption. But those considerations, as a rule, pass to the public generally, and do not work the enhancement of the value of any particular area of property. ”

“ Inasmuch as the payment by the corporation is to be always made into the state treasury, and for a time to be applied only to a single state purpose, a very plausible argument might be made to the effect that all that was intended to be granted was an exemption from state taxes, leaving the property, like other property, still subject to municipal taxation. ”

“ So that, independently of the use of the word 'taxation,' which has under such circumstances received almost a uniform construction, the terms of the agreement between the state and corporation excluded special assessments, and included only those matters which are the ordinary equivalent of state taxation. ”

“ In the case of special taxation, the imposition of the tax by the corporate authorities is of itself a determination that the benefits to the contiguous property will be as great as the burden of the expense of the improvement, and that such benefits will be so nearly limited, or confined in their effect, to contiguous property, that no serious injustice will be done by imposing the whole expense upon such property.' And in City of Sterling v. ”

“ The argument would have great force if the provision for exemption had been contained in a general tax law, or in a law in framing which the legislature might reasonably be supposed to have in view general taxation only. But the provision under consideration is found in a law providing for the construction of levees and drains, and devoting to that object funds supposed to be more than adequate, derived from the very lands exempted, and the exemption is for ten years, or until reclaimed, and is offered as an inducement to take up the lands, and thus furnish those funds. ”

“ As in the case of all other taxation, it may sometimes happen that the expenditure will fail to realize the expectation on which the levy is made, and it may thus appear that a special assessment has been laid when justice would have required the levy of a general tax ”

“ That question, however, is not before us; and it has been held by the supreme court of Illinois, in Neustadt v. Railroad Co., 31 Ill. 484,-and properly so, in view of the provision in section 27 that the act 'shall be favorably construed for all purposes therein expressed and declared,'-that the charter exemption extends to all general municipal taxation.
But can any intent be derived from the language of these exempting clauses to include within them special assessments? Obviously not; for out of the state treasury seldom, if ever, is money appropriated for merely local improvements. ”

“ The justice of demanding the special contribution is supposed to be evident in the fact that the persons who are to make it, while they are made to bear the cost of a public work, are at the same time to suffer no pecuniary loss thereby ”

“ The state is bound to provide highways for its citizens, and a railroad company, in part, discharges that obligation. Or the recipient may be doing a work which adds to the material prosperity or elevates the moral character of the people. ”

“ Boston, 9 Cush. 233, 241, Chief Justice Shaw said: 'When certain persons are so placed as to have a common interest among themselves, but in common with the rest of the community, laws may justly be made, providing that, under suitable and equitable regulations, those common interests shall be so managed that those who enjoy the benefits shall equally bear the burden.' In McGonigle v. Allegheny City, 44 Pa. St. 118, 121, is this declaration: 'All these municipal taxes for improvement of streets rest, for their final reason, upon the enhancement of private properties.' In Litchfield v. ”