The New Orleans bulletin. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1874-1876, 1876-03-29
on which their validity depends. The same
observations apply to them which apply to the
first eight.
ment must be granted.
CITY COUNCIL.

CITY COUNCIL.
The Council met at 1880 o'clock yesterday
afternoon, in regular session. Hon. Charles J.
Leeds, Mayor, in the chair, and oil of the
Administrators present except Mr.. Pil6bury.
VETO MESSAGE FROM THE MAYOR.
The following veto message from the Mayor
was read, and referred to the Committee of
the Whole:
NATIONALITY OF NEW ORLEANS,
City Hall, March %. 1876.
Gentlemen of the City Council:
/ return without my approval can ordi-
nance to carry into effect Act No. 20 of the
General Assembly of the State of Louisiana,
approved March 8, 1876" This ordinance
violates the constitutional amendment, which
prohibits an increase Of city debt as you have
provided no means, and have none ct your
disposal, to meet the expenses which will be
incurred in lis execution; and also because
the election for which it provides being for
the benefit Of private corporation, the ex-
penditures, if made, will be diversion of the
public funds to an entirely private use.
As the act imposes duty without furnish
ing the means to carry it into effect, it de-
mands of you what you can not constitution
ally perform.
also object to the ordinance because it is
to carry into effect an act which, in my opin-
ion, Is illegal and unconstitutional and there
fore void.
believe the act unconstitutional for the
following reasons, viz:
l. The tax is for the benefit of . private
corporation, and is in no manner for pub
lie purpose.
The United States Supreme Court in the
Topeka case, lays down the following limita-
tn tho irhf ~ kavo 60
only be used in aid of q public object which
is within the purposes for which governments
were established. It can not therefore be
used in aid of enterprises strictly private for
the benefit Of individuals, although in remote
or collateral way, the local public may be
benefited thereby"
; AL hough the courts have sometimes held
that a railroad partook of such q nature as to
justify tax in aid Of its construction, but few
have SO decided without division among the
judges of which they were composed, and in
none of the cases, I believe. in which the right
to tax for railroad purposes has been affirmed,
has such right been recognized where the
road does not run to or through the locality
to be taxed.
As the money to be derived from this tex
is to be appropriated to build road more
than two hundred miles from New Orleans,
and it is not contemplated to use the tax to
build road to or through this city, and as
there is nothing in the act which imposes
this obligation upon the company, such de-
cisions can not apply, although the company
may have or express the intention, ct some
future time, to continue their road to this
point.
2. This tax violates the article of the Con.
stitution which provides that Taxation
shall be equal and uniform throughout the
State
This article prohibits the levy of State tax
except upon the whole State.
Although the title of the act il, "To
authorize, with the consent of popular vote,
q special" etc., yet the act itself levies the
tax, with the consent of the people, and has
no one to levy it.
II it be maintained that this is q local tax
levied by the majority of registered voters,
submit that, this being. by the Constitution,
Q representative government, the powers con-
ferred must be exercised by those duly select
ed to perform the respective duties imposed
by il, and that the mass of the people have
no more right to make q law or levy q tax,
than they have to exercise the executive or
judicial functions which have been conferred
upon other departments.
see no more right in mere majority to
vote away the property Of the minority than
to vote away the liberty or life of an
obnoxious individual. All such violations of
the rights of person and property are re pugnant
to the principles Of our American system OF
In view of the above article of
the Constitution, think local tax can only
be levied by the duly elected representatives
of the community, taxed, subject of course,
to such regulations as the law and Constitu-
ton may have provided.
g. This act violates the lately adopted con-
stitutional amendment, which provides that
s.the city of New Orleans shall not hereafter
increase her debt in any manner or form, d
under any pretext"
II this tax be levied it will become q debt
due, in four installments, by the city of New
Orleans 70 the New Orleans Pacific Railroad
Company. and will, in effsct, add over
50, 600, 600 to the debt which this community
has to pay, and will be just as much burden
upon the property of the city as if bonds.
p ,yable in from one to four years, had been
issued to the road.
This constitutional amendment was un-
doubted adoptedly in the interests of the citi-
zens of New Orleans and its creditors, to pre-
vent any further burdens from being imposed
upon the city, by which they might be inc
jured, the one by increased taxation, and the
other, through the diminished credit thereby
occasioned. y,
tied by the Constitution.
4. This act violates the contract made by
the premium bond act, by which the taxable
power of the city is limited, in any one year,
TO one and one-half per cent
As the former act proposes to increase the
tax to two per cent, it is rendered void by the
latter act, which repeats all laws in conflict,
unless it be maintained that the railroad ak
shall be taken out Of the one and one-half
per cent tax already levied. If this be the
proper construction Of these acts, there will
not be means enough left to carry on the
of government, pay the quotas
which have been fixed for the police and
schools and meet the demands Of the public
creditor.
II this acthe carried into effect and the tax
be not voted, it viii entail an expenditure
upon the city to no purpose, and which will
not be reimbursed by the parties in interest.
II the tax be voted, it is probable that it can
not be collected until the cou.ts shall have
passed upon the constitutionality Of the law.
The great number of suits which will thus be