Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1915-10-19
MUNICIPAL LICENSE

MUNICIPAL LICENSE
Acting upon his own motion, the ed
itor Of The Enquirer has been seeking
all the legal information possible on
the municipal license question pending
in Yorkville. Several lawyer friends,
all Of state wide reputation, have been
on the subject and without
exception they have agreed that the
ordinance Is unlawful. So I'M
pressed was the editor with an opinion
expressed by Mr.. w. F. Stevenson
recently, that he took the liberty OF
ascertaining whether Mr.. Stevenson
would be willing to become associated
in the case now being fought by Mr..
w. R. Carroll. What the editor did
of course, was to be subject to the ap-
prevail Of Mr.. Carroll, and with h I'M
Outstanding hat The Enquirer would
help pay the expense If desired. 1t de-
veloped that Mr.. Stevenson would not
be able to take an active hand in the
matter for the reason that he has i'm
portant engagements in the court at
Cheraw at the time Mr.. CarrolPs
Ease is expected to come up in York;
but he is keenly alive to the import
ance Of the situation, and he is willing
to contribute his splendid abilities to
unfolding the law. Mr.. Stevenson has
generously provided the following
strong brief, without charge, upon
which he stakes his professional repu-
tation:
STEVENSON & PRINCE,
Attorneys at Law,
Cheraw, s. c.,
October 18th, 1915.
Mr.. w. D. Grist, York, s.. c.
My Dear Sir: Replying to the ques-
ton you PROFOUND to me about mu-
nicipal license tax, I will start with
the construction Of III constitution.
Article 8, section 3, says: THE gen.
eral assembly shall restrict the powers
of cities and towns to levy taxes n
assessments" It does not, as you
see, provide hat they shall give the
power to collect license taxes, but 1t
gives the legislature the power to re-
strict them.
Then in section 6, they say: License
or privilege axes imposed shall be
graduated so as to secure a just i'm
position of such tax upon all the
classes subject thereto" You notice
they do not give the power by consti-
tuition to impose these taxes, but they
give the legislature the power to allow
them to be imposed and to restrict 1t
so as to secure a just imposition Of
the same. Therefore, the point that
you raised that the legislature might
not be able to prohibit the imposition
of license taxes in towns Is not well
taken. The legislature Is given the sole
authority to control all Of these things.
The language Of the constitution Is
such as to make them exercise their
power If it Is exercised 80 as to Sc
cure a just imposition Of these taxes.
Following that, the legislature in
1896, % Stat. at Large, p. II, section
IL, provides that town councils were
authorized to require by ordinance the
payment Of such sums Of money or IL
cense, ETC., by any person engaged In
business or occupation" with certain
exceptions, and put no limits on 1t at
all and left it wide open for the towns
to act. Acting on that authority, the
city council Of Abbeville levied a tax
in a most unjust way, in which they
put a tax of SIS on a bank Of $15,O0O.00
capital and SIS taX on a cotton mill
Of $3.50, 100000 capital, and they also
put taxes on people who bought cot
ton seed for nonresident corpora
tions, and excepted the resident fell
lows. Hill brought his suit and it Is
reported in So s. c., at page 1886, run
ming through nearly so pages. 1t Is SUI
ficient to say that the court held that
the levying Of licenses on a cotton seed
buyer who bought for an out Of town
corporation and excepted h Ia who
bought for a resident corporation was
illegal, but the general scheme was
sustained on the ground that the IL
cense part in the constitution provided
that the license must be just n there
fore the provision that taxes must be
uniform did not apply to license tax
es, that that applied to property taxes.
They said, however, citing with ap-
prevail the case Of Mauldin VS.. City
Council, AZ s. c.. 29S, to the following
effect: "a municipal corporation In
this state can only exercise power
with which it is clothed by u gener-
al assembly which Is only able to vest
such municipal corporations within the
restrictions contained in u own con-
stitution and with the constitution Of
the United States. The power Of tax
ing may be given a municipal corpora
ton, but such power when exercised by
such corporation must not only be ex-
ercised by the charter thereof, but also
within the limitations of the constitu-
ton of the state" So the statute Is the
chart, and they can't exercise this
power except according to the statute.
After the decision in the cas- Of Hill
VS.. City Council in which they held that
1t didn't have to be uniform with re-
spect to persons because neither the
constitution nor the statute said so, the
legislature Immediately took action,
and in 1901 (the Hill case being decid-
ed in 1900 or circuit, and finally decid-
ed by the supreme court in 1901) Stat
utes at Large, vol. XIII, page 653,
they inserted In the power to levy tax
es the following provision: Provided,
that said license shall be graduated
according to the gross income of the
person, firm or corporation required to
pay such tax or upon the amount Of
capital invested in said business"
There you see they get around the de-
cision that it didn't have to be gradu-
ated according to any form at all, but
had to be just such as the council de-
cided just, and there is no escape from
II In Mauldin and Hill cases and all the
law of the land. The town can't go be-
yond what the legislature prescribes,
and the constitution in no way prohib-
its the legislature from making these
regulations. Then, that being the case,
the interference with the purchase Of
cotton and cotton seed even with these
limitations became onerous, and while
1 was in the legislature in 1911 the
act No. II, page %, vol. q, Statutes
at Large, was passed, I think without a
dissenting vote, which provides that no
CITY, town or village within this state
shall collect any occupation, license or
tax from any person or persons engag-
ed in the business Of buying or selling
cotton or cotton seed in any such city,
town or village"
This act Is of force and the town
council Of York has NJ more power to
override that than the legislature has
to override the constitution, and there
can be no question Of the outcome of