The Montgomery advertiser., 1901-07-04

question?
 Mir. Carmichael-Yes. sir. l Mfr. Dent-As understand the | amendment of the gentleman from Jef- | ferson that would leave it as 1t now
 stands at five per cent?
 MT. Carmichael-Yer sir. Mir. Dent-would that help your county? As understand your taxable property is less than four million. Mir. Carmichael (Colbert)-No. sir; 1t would not help us., The amendment | of the gentleman from Colbert which allows further indebtedness for the building of county jails and bridges, etc., will.
 Mir. Coleman (Greene)-wiil the gen. tleman permit me question? Mir Carmichael-Yes.s sir. Mir. Coleman (Greene)-If you will | turn to Section 5, commencing at line 6, it reads: provided. further. that to pay any debt or liability now existing | against any county incurred for the | erection, construction and maintenance of the necessary public buildings or bridges, or that may hereafter be creat- ed for the erection of necessary public | buildings, or roads. any county may levy and collect' special taxes. Does not that cover your case.
 MT. r.sCarmichael-I think not. tMr. Coleman (Greene)-Why not? MT, Carmichael-For this reason: |. This says, provided further. that to pay any debt or liability now existing against any county, incurred for the erection, construction and maintenance
 of the necessary public buildings or
 bridges, or that may hereafter be ere ated for the erection of necessary pup lie buildings, bridges or roads, any ,nfl m cial taxes not to exceed a rate or one fourth of one per centum. Now that Is in addition to the five mills; but that has to, be levied upon the assessed value, which. in our Coan- ty. amounts $3,S00,000. That has to be levied on the assessed value. But there is a subsequent section which says that no county shall be indebted in an amount greater than five per cent. of | the assessed value, which l think con- | trols this section.
 MT. Coleman-With your permis- sion, will reply when you get through Mir Carmchael-If this Convention Is | willing to adopt the amendment of the | gentleman from Colbert. very well; but | if not We would like to have an oppor- tunity of offering amendment to pro- vide that this amendment shall not ap- ply to the county of Colbert and then we would be perfectly willing to the amendment.
 MT. White-Will the gentlemen per-
 init me just a moment? A number of gentlemen wish further to discuss this matter and therefore release the gen. tleman from renewing the call for the previous question.
 Mr. Coleman (Greene)-If the posi-
 tion of the gentleman from Jefferson
 Is correct, that is, that the State shall
 pass no ex post facto law interfering with existing contracts, then his amendment Is wholly unnecessary. What field has 1t to operate in. It says you shall take into consideration the | existing indebtedness. The only effect it will have will be to prevent county from contracting one dollar of liability if the existing indebtedness has al- ready reached an extent to equal live per cent. Now, the purpose of that pro- vision by the committee was this: We do not wish to be placed in the atti- tude of repudiating honest debts which had been contracted by counties issu- ing their bonds putting them on the
 market and selling them for valua- | ble consideration. We thought 1t right and proper where counties had con- tracted these debts and had issued bonds and had received value received for them that those counties should be allowed to pay those debts. Otherwise you would be committing a fraud upon bona fide purchasers of bonds because | in the absence of this provision. and heretofore there has been no limit upon the power of a county to con- tract a debt, 1t could issue bonds ad libitum as mentioned by the delegate from Colbert. The provision is simply one in the interest of honesty and the performance of bona fide contracts. But we wish to put creditors upon notice hereafter when you buy bonds from counties of this State you must do so
 with the understanding that the county has no authority to issue an indebted ness beyond a certain amount. That Is fair dealing with the public and that Is the reason that provision Is put there.
 Mir. Kirk-Can ask the gentleman . question.
 MT. Coleman-Yes. sir.
 MT. Kirk-In order that may bring
 out more fully the point made by my
 amendment this says that no county
 shall become indebted to an amount
 greater than five per cent of the prop
 erty. Colbert having created a greater debt could not create any other debt
 for any purpose.
 MT. Coleman. (Greene)-I will an-
 swed you when you get through. MT. Kirk-Another section reported, but not adopted, provides that a county
 may levy a special tax of not more than one-fourth of one per cent to
 provide for certain expenses for coun- ty buildings. If Colbert could create a
 further debt by this levy of one-fourth
 of one per cent she could pay 1t off
 in four or five years.
 Mir. Coleman-Do you say &fat Sec
 tion 5 has not been adopted7
 MT. Kirk-No, sir; that Is not yet
 adopted. It was passed.
 MT. Coleman-Then as it has not yet
 been passed. I will make no furtehr ar
 gument other than to say 1t would re-
 quire time and study to answer the
 question, and I do not feel like
 giving an improptu answer as to
 whether the provision for a special tax
 would be controlled by the general pro-
 vision. I am inclined to think the spe-
 cial tax would stand as against the
 general law, but as to that, I would
 not undertake to inform the Conven-
 tion. But, as I have said, the coun-
 ties have issued bonds when there was
 no limit upon their power to contract
 indebtedness, and they have sold those
 bonds in the market, and certainly to
 insure fair dealing with their creditors
 this provision should stand and let the
 counties have the power to pay the debts they have contracted but give