The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1896-03-03
AN ALDERMAN{G SESSION
THE MAYOR 4ND CORPORATION
COUNSEL TRITE TO THE BOARD.

for Appointments Received-Board of
Public Works Ordered to Carry Out In
struotions.
A communication was received last
evening by the board of aldermen from
the corporation counsel in answer to
the following question, which was sub
mitted to him by the court of common
council Can the court of common
council enact an ordinance that will
give to an officer Of the city government
legal authority to collect a tax or IL
cense fee or to enforce payment of any
money whatever into the municipal
treasury by transient dealers of the
kind specified?'
. In answering the first question the
corporation counsel also answers the
second and the third questions. The
communication reads:
"The supreme court of the state of
Connecticut in the case of State VS..
Conlan, reported in the 65th Conn, held
that the statute giving the mayors of
cities, Wardens of boroughs and select
men the power to levy taxes on tran
sient dealers was unconstitutional, and
in the opinion the court says We feel
bound to hold distinctly that an act of
the legislature, the only legal effect of
which is to grant exclusive privileges
in the conduct of an ordinary lawful
business, in respect to which the gov
ernlnent has no exclusive prerogative,
is obnoxious to the first section of the.
bill of rights, and void. The supreme
court decides that any act of the legis-
lature which makes the enjoying in a
lawful temporary or transient business
without the payment of license there
for a misdemeanor cannot be enforced,
and as the legislature cannot pass such
statute, of course they cannot confer
upon a municipal corporation authority
to pass an ordinance to the same effect.
The city therefore has, in my opinion,
no right to exact a license fee from
transient dealers.
'The power to collect a tax from such
dealers is not given to the city by the
charter; and the statutes, which of
course cannot be modified by the acts
of the common council, determine when
and how taxes shall be laid
THE supreme court has put those
carrying on an ordinary lawful bust
ing on similar business for long
time on the same footing This would
prevent a tax being assessed against
transient dealers as SUCH
$50 that under the charter of New
Haven the statutes and constitution of
the state, in my opinion, the common
council has not now the power to pass
a valid ordinance comforting the au-
thority specified in question one and
therefore before this power can be OBJ
tanned the constitution of the state
must be amended
Respectfully,
WILLIAM H. ELY,
Corporation Counsel
The following communication was re-
ceived from his honor the mayor:
To the Honorable Court of Common
Council:
The situation relating to the money
market, having assumed more favora-
BILE conditions for the floating of city
bonds, l would recommend that your
honorable body instruct the mayor the
city auditor and the city treasurer to
proceed in preparing and placing upon
the market bonds of the city of New
Haven for the purpose of meeting as
sumed obligations during the present
fiscal year for the payment of street
paving, sewer work and the erection of
the Quinnipiac drawbridge as follows:
Street paving $250000. for sewers $780,
0O0 for drawbridge $4,000, as the city's
portion, more or less, of the expense
attending the construction of the said
bridge.
Respectfully,
A. c. HENDRICK, Mayor
President James T. Moran of the
board of police commissioners appeared
before the board in regard to station
houses in the Howard avenue and the
DiXwell avenue precincts. He said
that leases of the present police sta
tions in those precincts expired on May
l, and that it was desirable to obtain
permanent quarters. 1t now seemed
possible to do So
The owners Of the property now used
in station were willing to sell the city
the building on an option, provided the
finance committee is directed to include
the price in the estimates for 1897 The
price agreed upon was s7,600 Auditor
Brown figures that 1865 year may be
saved by purchasing the property,
which rents for that sum per year. A
lot can be purchased in station and
station built for $4,000.
Mr. Moran urged upon the aldermen
the necessity of immediate action. The
committee on finance.
Alderman Chillingworth called the
attention of the following paragraph
of the mayors annual address:
The recent widening of Washington
street, from Congress avenue to Liber-
ty street, a distance of $50 feet, without
any very costly buildings to be remov-
ed except one, cost the city about $780,
900. the city realizing from this inn
provement for benfits from assessments
but S522 So From this we are led to be-
lieVe that the adjacent property owners
were not very much benefited thereby.
If the results of the Washington street
widening is a criterion of such expen-
sive work. and the adjoining property
receives so little benefit, what may be
expected if the Grand avenue and S.
John street widening, and Crown street
and Union avenue extensions, and other
similar improvements, as projected, are
carried out?
The following resolution was then
passed unanimously on motion of Alder