El Paso daily herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1881-1901, 1897-12-10
TO CORRECT THE JUDGMENT.
The City's Argument in the Motion to
Rehear the Tax Cases.

l L .
Rehear the Tax Cases.
To the Hon. Court of Civil Appeals:
| Now comes the city OF Ell Paso, ap
pell in the above styled cause, sno
asks the court to set aside and hold for
naught its judgment retOfOre rem
dered in the same and t. grant the
appellee rehearing, for the following
reasons:
| FIRST:-This honorable court erred
in sustai ing the appellants first as
| Segment of error, Wi b is bass d upon
the contention that Ell Pa-O was not
| legally organized as an iudepend mt
scht oil district in 1882, and erred ia
| holding that I'll taxes levied for the
suppors of the pub ic free schools Of Ell
PasO were illegal, and tn IT Art. 1881 OF
the Revised Statutes OF 1879 was re-
pealed by i'm plication through the en-
actment of chapter 81 of the session
sc's of 1879. and in holGing that in
1872 city was not authorized by law
to organize it's If into an independent
school district upon vote of tax
payers.
STATEMENT.-The city council of
the city of Ell Paso, by an ordinance OF
date March Is. 1882. ordered an cleo
tion for the purpose of d termiping
whether or OF the city should assume
cOntrOi of all the public free schools
with It's limits. The election was
ordered upon tie petition of twenty
property tax pay ers of said city and
resulted in favor of the proposition
submitted. (Trans. p. SOY.
REMARKS:-We contend that at the
time the election was held in the city
of Ell Paso on April 4, 1882, to deter
nine whether or not the city
should control the public schools w tn
in it's limits, Art. 1871 Of the Revised
Statutes of 1879 was il force and has
renal ed in force ever since.
In ordec tina. our pos ition may be full
ly understood aud that the matter we
have under discussion, which is mat
ter OF supreme importance to the city
of Ell Peso, may be fully understood,
We beg leave to review the laws gov
erping the matter of the Organiza,i ion
OF independent school districts since
the epactment of the first statute un-
der " hich city was authorized to be-
come such district.
The first statute covering this mat
ter was the act of 1875. This act has
been directly referred to in subsequent
statutes and is referred to directly as
we will her after show, 10 the Revised
Statutes of 1895. 1t appears rs Chapter
lO3 OF the sion acts OF 1875, cOmmenc-
ing on pag- 16l. Il authorizes the
several ir corpora ed ci les a the state
to assume co d troll Of the pub ic schools
within their limits, to build school
houses. and TOP ovide for the gratuit-
Gus iuc stion of all cbil7re therein
''for su, h time as their constituted au-
thori,i. S may deem expsdiept," and
decla es thai any incorpora ed cit
that may Undertake TO provid: for the
gratuitous education of all the chill
dren of scholastic sge within its Ii
mits shall be N tied ''fr ,m the school
dist ic ing county" and shall be per-
mitteG 20 district the population with
in its limits as by its constituted au-
thoritie5 may be deem d best: and
when any such incorpoT sted city so as
sumes cOntrol OF the public educa zion
within its Unite, the county board OF
school directors my VIII n it is deemed
e6ient, re-district TIE 'erritory left
und er the ir cantrOl to suit the chang
ed rela ii ms of the sch Dla site popula-
ton; and schools SO organized and
provided for by such Incorporated
cities shall be subject to the general
laws Of the state as to public educa-
ton aud be under the supervision of the
department of public education in like
m amer as all OF Ter pubic schools in the
stat And in section OF this act
of 1875 it is de Jared, that WREN such
incorporated cities shall in good faith
SO assume the management and pro-
vision of the public schools within
their limits, tEeV should receive such
a share OF the public school funds ss
they may be so entitled to pro rata as
20 their scho1as ic population undeE
the schola= tic census, AID in section 6
It is provided that such additional
amounts as they may deem proper to
raire II the purpose of sustaining such
schools shall be levied upon the tax
able property in said city, in ac-
cordaDce with their usual city assess
ment of taxes for municipal purp see,
not to exc ed ore fourth of one per
cent. in addition to the taxes allowed
to be leyied by the general law, and
provision i made for giving notice to
the county superintendent, aud to the
supeript + nd ent of public instruction of
such action upon the part of an in
corporated city. N"thir G whatever is
said 10 this statute of 1875 about a vote
of any kind and it is plain from its
language that the legislature Of 1873,
contempt ated that a city nigh: become
an Independent school district upon a
mere resolution of it's city council
This is evidently the act with its sub
sequent amer dments which is referred
to 10 Az 1871 of TIE Revise Statutes
of 1879. as the act of May2 1875, and it
is eviden that soon after the passage
of this act of 1875 serious difficulties
suggested themselves, as the orgao ia
ton of city into an ind ,panden,
school d strict involves indirectly, if
no. directly, the exercise of the taxing
power in way that may be very
burd nsone and ve-y danger Gus. By
the corstitut on of 1876, Art. 6. Sac. 3,
it was dec AIRED that in all elections
within the limits of any city or in-
corporate town to determine the ex-
penditure of M ey or assumption of
debt. only these shall be qualified to
vote who pay taxes on prope rty in aid
city or incorporat ed town And in the
>ame year the legislature e7acted
Chap. 120 Of the session acts of 1876,
commencing at page 1879. And by Sec
ton SO, of Chap. 12O of the session acts
of 1876, all of the material pats of the
law of 1915, to which we have
referred, were re-enacted with a
very M aterial modification requiring
majority vote of the property tsx-
payers, III case of al ineorpo' ated city's
becoming an Incorporated school dis
trict The first sentence OF said Sec.
55, read as follows: ANY Incorporate