The Montgomery advertiser., 1907-09-28
SECTION OF
 CODE INVALID School Money Must Go
 to Counties. ATTORNEY GENERAL DECIDES No Hint of Real Text of Bill in Its
 Title. Prcvision for Sending Appropriation Direct to school Districts ln- vaIid--would Reduce In-
 come of County su-
 perintendents.

Attorney General Garber, in an opinion handed down yesterday, de- clares unconstitutfonal that section Of the municipal code which directs the State Superintendent of Schools to send the apportionment of the school money to which town districts are entitled direct to the authorities in those districts, instead of through the county superintendents. He specifical- ly holds, however, that the balance of the municipal code is constitutional and valid.
 The Attorney General bases his opin- ion upon the fact that no hint of any such provision in the enactment, which Is very lengthy one, was contained in It's title. as 1t passed the two houses of the Legislature.
 Section 176, the section of the nu- nicipal code. which is affected by the opinion. reads as follows:
 Each incorporated city or town, as a special school district, or embraced therein, shah receive it's proportionate be paid over by the State Superintend- ent of Education direct to the City Superintendent of Schools and by him paid over to the treasurer" Section Invalid.
 There was no suggestion of any such provisions or contents of the bill In its title. to put either the legislators or the public on guard. and therefore the Attorney General holds that sec- ton of the new law invalid, as in vio- lation of Section 45 of the State Con- stitution. A
 The school funds for the various city school districts of the State. therefore. will, in the future as in the past, be paid by the State Superintendent to the County Superintendent of the proper county, and by him given to the city district, rather than be sent direct, as the section of the code directs.
 The opinion is an important one, as 1t affects many hundreds of cities and towns over the State which are organ ixed as special school districts.
 The compensation of each of the sixty-seven County Superintendents of the State will be affected. also as their pay Is fixed at a percentage of the school funds thAt pass through their hands. Should a portion of the school funds. therefore, be sent direct to the city superfntendents, and not through the county offlcials, there would be a less volume of money. and corre- spending decrease in the salaries of the county ofiieials.
 The full text of the opinion by the Attorney General is as follows:
 September 27, 1907 Hon. Harry c. Gunnels, State Superin-
 tendent of Education. Capitol.
 Dear Sir:--on the 9th instant you addressed a communication to me with which you enclosed a letter from Ar thur F. Harman, Superintendent of the New Decatur Public Schools, New De- catur. Ala, in which MT. Harman de- sires to be advised by you whether the school funds for New Decatur for the year 1907S.- will be paid to him by the County Superintendent of Morgan coun- ty or paid over by you direct to MT. Harman under Section 176 of the act of August 1S, 1907, known as the Mu- nicipal Code.
 "The title of the act referred to Is as follows:
 "'An act to provide for the organi- zation, incorporation. government and regulation of cities and towns and to define the rights, powers. duties, juris- dictfon and authority of such cities and towns and of the officers thereof, and to prescribe penalties for violations of the provisions of this act
 Section ITS of the act is as follows:
 Each incorporated city or town, as a special school district or embraced therein shall receive its proportionate share of the public school revenue to
  dent of Education direct to the city superintendent of schools and by him paid over to the treasurer
 "Aftter a very careful consideration of the question, I am of opinion that the provision contained in Section 176 directing the State Superintendent of Education to pay over to the city su- perintendent of schools of each incor- porated city or town the proportionate
  not a subject expressed in, covered or suggested by the title of the act or necessary or proper to the full round- ing of an enactment upon the subject which is expressed in the title and is, therefore, obnoxious to the requirement. of Section 45 of the Constitution that each law shall contain but one subject which shall be clearly expressed in its title'
 Tn the case of Bell vs. State, 115 Ala, s7, the court considered an act to establish e new charter for the City of Huntsville,' and held that the provision of this act forbidding the prosecution on affidavit before a justice of the peace of a person who had al- ready ben arraigned before the mayor for the same act under the city ordi- nance, was violative of the constitu- tional provision to which have re- ferred.
 Tn the course of the opinion Judge Mcclellan, speaking for the court, said:
 The subject to be contained in a bill may be as broad and comprehen- sive as the Legislature may choose to make it. It may include innumerable minor subjects, provided all these minor subjects are capable of being so combined as to form one grand and comprehensive subject; and if the title of the bill containing this grand and comprehensive subject, is also compre- hensive enough to include all these minor subjects as one subject, the bill and all parts thereof will be valid. The grand and comprehensive subject expressed in the title to this act Is the charter of the city. the crea- tion of corporate existence and the conferring of corporate powers. Such subject embraces all the minor sub jects incident to such corporate exist ence and powers; and whatever is nec- essary to a complete municipal charter, or is embraced in the thought con tained in the general expression, is a part of the subject expressed, and au- thorized by the general expression.
 But, to take away from any tribunal, even of the most inferior character, established by general laws and charged with their admiration. Ju- risdiction heretofore conferred to try offenses against the criminal laws of the State. and to confer 1t exclusively upon an officer of municipal corpora ton, is not to provide for the exercise of any function of municipal life nor to confer any power incident to muni- cipal government nor to follow any