The Princeton union. [volume] (Princeton, Minn.) 1876-1976, 1909-10-21
LIABLE
Village, Town or County Officers Can
Not Incur Indebtedness to Ex- 3
coed Maximum Tax Levy.
Such Contracts Null and Void and the
Officers Making the Same Are
Individually Liable.

Village, town and county officers
should understand that there is limit
to the amount of indebtedness they
can incur without rendering them.
selves individually liable for such in.
debtedness. This is as it should be-.
otherwise village council, town
board or board of county COM.
missioners might let contracts and in
cur indebtedness in any amount and
the Taxpayers would have no redress.
Section 1874 revised laws is as fol-
lows:
CONTRACTS IN EXCESS voID-L1ABILI-
TY OF OFFICERS.
1T shall be unlawful for the authors
ties of any county, town, city, village,
or school district, unless expressly
authorized by law, to contract any
debt or incur any pecuniary liability
for the payment of either the principal
or the interest of which during the
current or any subsequent years it
shall be necessary to levy rate of
taxes higher than the maximum
prescribed by law. Every such con-
tract shall be null and void in regard
to any obligation thereby sought to
be imposed upon such corporation;
but every officer, agent or member
thereof who participates in or auth
orizes the making of such contract
shall be individually liable for it's
performance. Every such officer or
agent who is present when such con-
tract is made or authorized shall be
deemed to participate in or authorize
the making thereof, as the case may
be unless he enter or cause to be en-
tered his dissent therefrom in the
records of such corporation.
The language of the statute is so
plain that no one possessed of com.
mon intelligence can misunderstood
the meaning of the section above
quoted.
There are several supreme court de-
iclsions bearing upon the subject Of
creating an indebtedness higher than
the maximum tax levy will care for,
one particularly applicable will be
found in 81 MINI. 4334 , in the case of
Rogers VS.. LIE Sueur county, in which
the court held that, "The board of
county commissioners has no power
to incur liability for the county,
which, with the ordinary current
yearly expenses and other liabilities
payable within a year, will exceed
both the amount of funds in the county
treasury and the maximum amount
which can be assessed as one years
taxes for county purposes according
to the tax lists on file when the con-
tract is made under which the liability
will he incurred.''
Except in specific cases, where an
Indebtedness may be incurred by a
vote of the people, no board or
council can contract an Indebtedness
which, together with the outstanding
obligations, will exceed the amount of
the maximum current tax levy and
available funds in the treasury. The
law also wisely provides a limit to
the amount of bonded Indebtedness
that can be created even by vote of
the people. For instance, the total
net Indebtedness of village cannot
exceed ten per cent of the assessed
valuation. It would he we'll for vii
lage, town and county officials to paw
closer attention to the law governing
the creating of floating or bonded
Indebtedness.
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