Case Name: Eddie BURRELL, et al., etc., Claiborne County Board of Supervisors v. MISSISSIPPI STATE TAX COMMISSION
Court: Mississippi Supreme Court
Jurisdiction: Mississippi
Decision Date: 1988-08-10
Citations: 536 So. 2d 848
Docket Number: No. 58054
Parties: Eddie BURRELL, et al., etc., Claiborne County Board of Supervisors v. MISSISSIPPI STATE TAX COMMISSION.
Judges: ROY NOBLE LEE, C.J., and PRATHER and ANDERSON, JJ., join in this opinion.
Reporter: Southern Reporter, Second Series
Volume: 536
Pages: 848–895

Head Matter:
Eddie BURRELL, et al., etc., Claiborne County Board of Supervisors v. MISSISSIPPI STATE TAX COMMISSION.
No. 58054.
Supreme Court of Mississippi.
Aug. 10, 1988.
Rehearing Denied Jan. 18, 1989.
E. Clifton Hodge, Jr., Michael B. Wallace, Jean Hogan Sansing, Phelps, Dunbar, Marks, Claverie & Sims, Jackson, for appellants.
Edwin Lloyd Pittman and Mike Moore, Attys. Gen. by Robert E. Sanders, Sp. Asst. Atty. Gen., Jackson, for appellee.

Opinion:
ROBERTSON, Justice,
for the Court:
I. Introduction and Overview
By no means the least insignificant effect of the advent of the Grand Gulf Nuclear Power Plant is the litigation it has spawned. For years political debate has raged regarding the authority to tax Grand Gulf and to enjoy the lagniappe thus generated. Today's appeal tests the legality of the political solution.
For the reasons enumerated below, we find in state law no legal infirmity in the scheme devised. Taxpayers residing in Grand Gulfs home county, however, have asserted claims to relief under federal law, claims which ought be heard and decided on their merits someday, somewhere. As the federal courts have declined subject matter jurisdiction, we remand with instructions that Taxpayers' federal claims be heard within the concurrent jurisdiction of the Chancery Court.
II. Factual Context and Proceedings Below
The Mississippi Legislature, at its 1986 session, adopted House Bill No. 388 (H.B. 388) amending Miss.Code Ann. § 27-35-309. H.B. 388 exempted from county, municipal and district ad valorem taxes any in-state nuclear generating plant owned or operated by a public utility rendering electrical service within the state. The exemption applied to any such plant which was not (1) otherwise exempt from ad valorem taxes, or (2) owned or operated by an instrumentality of the federal government.
H.B. 388 further provided that any such utility, in lieu of the taxes from which it was thus exempted, would be required to pay annually to the State Tax Commission a sum equal to two percent (2%) of the value of the plant as assessed by the State Tax Commission, but in no event less than $16,000,000.00 for any taxable year. In addition, H.B. 388 provided for distribution of those revenues to the situs county, the most populous incorporated municipality within the situs county, the state's general fund, and the in-state counties and municipalities served by the utility. The distribution plan favored the situs county, particularly in the early years following passage of the act. Under normal ad valorem taxation principles, however, the situs county would receive all of the revenues so generated.
There is, of course, only one such nuclear generating plant in Mississippi at this time: the Grand Gulf Nuclear Power Plant located in Claiborne County. Taxpayers are residents of Claiborne County and are of the view that their county is entitled to all of the ad valorem tax revenues generated by the plant, the same as would be the case for any other assessable and taxable properties within the county. To that end, Eddie Burrell and eight others (hereinafter "Taxpayers"), on August 6, 1986, filed a complaint in the Chancery Court for the First Judicial District of Hinds County. Burrell and four of his Co-Taxpayer Plaintiffs have sued individually and as members of the Claiborne County Board of Supervisors. The other four have sued as taxpayers and citizens of Claiborne County, as private attorneys general, if you will. See Canton Farm Equipment, Inc. v. Richardson, 501 So.2d 1098, 1106 (Miss.1987). Named as Defendant is the Mississippi State Tax Commission as the agency charged by law with preparing the public utilities assessment roll for each county.
In their complaint Taxpayers seek (1) an order declaring that H.B. 388 and certain purported amendments to the Mississippi Constitution of 1890 are null and void, (2) an injunction restraining enforcement of those provisions, and (3) an injunction mandating that the State Tax Commission issue an assessment roll permitting Claiborne County to tax the Grand Gulf nuclear facility as it would any other property within the county, notwithstanding the provisions of H.B. 388.
On motion of the Commission, the Chancery Court dismissed the complaint with prejudice, holding H.B. 388 (the law exempting Grand Gulf from county tax and imposing a state tax) constitutional and valid legislation. From that dismissal, the Taxpayers appeal, raising five (5) issues.
III. Summary of Issues Presented
We consider the case the parties have presented and as they have presented it. Structurally, Taxpayers first argue that H.B. 388 violates the pre-1983 version of Miss. Const., Art. 4, § 112 (1890). Assuming such a violation — which we find — the question becomes whether H.B. 388 may be saved by two amendments to Section 112, S.C.R. 519 ratified in 1983 and H.C.R. 41, ratified June 3, 1986.
Even if H.C.R. 41 has been validly incorporated into the Constitution, H.B. 388 must hurdle two further obstacles Taxpayers would interpose. First, Taxpayers note that H.B. 388 was enacted in April of 1986, some two months before the validating amendment to Section 112, an amendment possessing no retroactive validation power, or so we are told. Second, Taxpayers charge that H.B. 388 should in law be declared local and private legislation. If this be so, Taxpayers charge that it runs afoul of the substantive limitations of Miss. Const. Art. 4, § 90(h) (1890) prohibiting tax exemptions and the procedural requirements of Miss. Const. Art. 4, § 89 (1890) requiring submission to the local and private committees of each legislative house.
Finally, Taxpayers assert error in the Chancery Court's denial of their eleventh hour motion for leave to amend their complaint to assert claims under the Equal Protection Clause of the U.S. Const., Amdt. XIV, § 1.
IV. The Claims Under "Old" Section 112
The first point need not detain us. Suffice it to say that Taxpayers present a powerful case that H.B. 388 fails under unamended, pre-1983 Section 112 on at least two fronts. First, H.B. 388 violates the uniformity and equality clause, see, Washington County Board of Supervisors v. Greenville Mill, 437 So.2d 401, 403 (Miss.1983) and State Tax Commission v. Fondren, 387 So.2d 712, 723-24 (Miss.1980). Old Section 112 did not allow the sort of pretended exemption plus in-lieu tax provided in H.B. 388. See Chicago Rock Island & Pacific Railroad Company v. Robertson, 122 Miss. 417, 84 So. 449 (1920); see also Ethridge, Mississippi Constitution 227, 336-40 (1928). Second, H.B. 388 violates old Section 112 in that it denies Claiborne County the power to tax Grand Gulf which is and ought be taxable property of that county. On this latter point, we regard Brennan v. Mississippi Home Insurance Company, 70 Miss. 531, 13 So. 228 (1893) as incorrectly decided and of quite dubious precedential value.
But Section 112 has been amended. There is no need to consider further the serious constitutional questions here presented unless and until we determine H.B. 388 unconstitutional under Section 112 as it now reads, the matter to which we now turn.
V. Have The People Validly Amended Section 112?
In 1983 and again in 1986, the legislature submitted to the electorate a proposed amendment to Section 112. Each in turn was ratified by the voters. Each amendment is here challenged, the 1983 amendment for lack of power and the 1986 amendment for having been submitted to the electorate in a manner inconsistent with the Constitution.
We consider the 1986 amendment first, where our question on the merits is whether that amendment illegally combined into one what in legal reality are two separate and distinct amendments. If the 1986 amendment survives this challenge and is valid — and if it possesses ratifying power regarding H.B. 388, our assumption that H.B. 388 violates the "old" Section 112 is of limited consequence. Similarly, Taxpayers' attack upon the 1983 amendment loses much of its sting.
The form and procedure for amending our Constitution are themselves matters of constitutional mandate. Taxpayers argue that the form in which the 1986 amendment was submitted to the voters contravened those strictures. Miss. Const., Art. 15, § 273 (Supp.1987). Concretely, H.C.R. 41 presented to the voters the nuclear power plant classification here at issue coupled with a general property classification system for ad valorem taxation purposes. This we are told had the legal effect of combining into one submission two separate and distinct amendments, contrary to Section 273.
The evolution of Section 273 aids understanding. Prior to 1959, Section 273, in relevant part, provided that
. if more than one amendment shall be submitted at one time, they shall be submitted in such a manner and form that the people may vote for or against such amendment separately....
Miss. Const., Art. 15, § 273 (1958).
In 1959, that portion of Section 273 was validly amended to provide as follows:
. if more than one amendment shall be submitted at one time, they shall be submitted in such manner and form that the people may vote for or against each amendment separately; and, notwithstanding the division of the Constitution into sections, the Legislature may provide in its resolution for one or more amendments pertaining and relating to the same subject or subject matter, and may provide for one or more amendments to an article of the Constitution pertaining and relating to the same subject or subject matter, which may be included in and voted on as one amendment. .
Our question is whether H.C.R. 41 runs afoul of post-1959 Section 273. Does H.C. R. 41 submit to the electorate multiple amendments which under a faithful reading of Section 273 is proscribed? If the answer be, "No," we need pursue this assignment of error no further. Any infirmity in the 1983 amendment, S.C.R. 519, becomes moot as it was carried forward in relevant part in H.C.R. 41. Moreover, H.C.R. 41 quite apparently empowers the legislature to enact H.B. 388, subject only to the retroactivity and local and private law challenges discussed below.
Our Constitution — any constitution — is a document presumed capable of ordering human affairs decades beyond the time of its ratification under circumstances beyond the prescience of the draftsmen. Dye v. State ex rel. Hale, 507 So.2d 332, 342 (Miss.1987); Frazier v. State By and Through Pittman, 504 So.2d 675, 694 (Miss.1987); Alexander v. State ex rel. Al- lain, 441 So.2d 1329, 1333 (Miss.1983). We should read and enforce the Constitution in the manner which best fits its language, is most consistent in principle with the best justification which may be given for that language, and which best serves our state today. See Alexander v. State ex rel. Allain, 441 So.2d 1329, 1334, 1339 (Miss.1983); Stepp v. State, 202 Miss. 725, 729-30, 735-36, 32 So.2d 447, 447-48, 33 So.2d 307, 309 (1948); Albritton v. City of Winona, 181 Miss. 75, 102-03, 178 So. 799, 806 (1938); Moore v. General Motors Acceptance Corp., 155 Miss. 818, 822-23, 125 So. 411, 412 (1930). These principles inform interpretation of Section 273 as well as more substantive constitutional law.
Constitutions stabilize society. They insulate us from the passions of the moment's majority. Yet societies grow and, it is to be hoped, mature, and no constitution serves well that unreasonably inhibits that growth. An amendment process is vital if our society be vital. Some such notion in part justifies Section 273, whose interpretation should be consistent with that justification. The reading we give Section 273 should also be that which best fits the words employed and as well the life experience those words have enjoyed.
But there is more. Section 273 contemplates separate submission of separate amendments. This is so that persons "may vote for or against each amendment separately." This both in theory and practical effect facilitates a true expression of the will of the people in the amendment referendum process. The language is best justified against a backdrop of sensitivity to the discriminating citizen who just might favor one amendment and oppose another. Still any defensible reading of Section 273 must fit the entire text. That text, whatever it means, recognizes the impracticability of submitting for separate vote every matter that would change within the constitution a point of substance.
We have had no occasion to read post-1959 Section 273, and in that superficial sense we write on a clean slate. What was added in 1959 was the proviso that two arguably overlapping classes of multiple amendments could be "voted on as one amendment." These are:
(a) multiple amendments "relating to the same subject or subject matter," and
(b) multiple "amendments to an article of the Constitution pertaining and relating to the same subject or subject matter." Surely, the 1959 amendment changes something of Section 273 as it stood before.
Our ease law exists as intermediate chapters of the Section 273 chain novel. It is all post-1890 but pre-1959. Those chapters nevertheless inform the meaning of Section 273 today.
Some forty-five (45) years ago, we held that, "[i]n order to constitute more than one amendment [and thus require separate submission under "old" Section 273], the proposition submitted must relate to more than one subject and have at least two (2) distinct and separate purposes not dependent upon or connected with each other." State ex rel. Collins v. Jones, 106 Miss. 522, 563, 64 So. 241, 249 (1914). Past that point, our pre-1959 chapters have not been characterized by consistency. Compare State v. Brantley, 113 Miss. 786, 74 So. 662 (1917) (holding that Laws 1916, ch. 159 satisfied § 273), and Power v. Robertson, 130 Miss. 188, 93 So. 769 (1922) (quite inconsistently holding that Laws 1916, ch. 159 violated § 273). Nevertheless, we may glean from the cases interpreting the "old" Section 273 certain principles not without present utility. Certain maxims expressed in those decisions may be found in numerous opinions from other courts construing similar constitutional provisions.
If, in the light of common sense, the proposed amendments have to do with different subjects, if they are so essentially unrelated that their association is artificial, they are not one; but if they may be logically viewed as parts or aspects of a single plan, then the constitutional requirement is met in their submission as one amendment. State v. Brantley, 113 Miss. 786, 799, 74 So. 662, 666 (1917); State v. Cook, 44 Ohio App. 501, 185 N.E. 212 (1932); State v. Alderson, 49 Mont. 387, 142 P. 210 (1914).
The unity of object is to be looked for in the ultimate end, and not in the details or steps leading to the end. Brantley, 113 Miss. 786, 799, 74 So. 662, 666 (1917); Reid v. Jones, 261 Ark. 550, 551 S.W.2d 191 (1977); Holton v. State, 28 Fla. 303, 9 So. 716 (1891).
But we may not merely proceed upon these principles, our history and the justifications enumerated above. Our interpretation is not of multiple amendment referendum clauses generally. Our interpretation must best fit -the particular multiple amendment referendum clause numbered Section 273 as it read in 1986. Notwithstanding the principles, justifications and history recited above, multiple amendments "relating to the same subject or subject matter" may be submitted together so that the voter has but two choices: approve them all or reject them all.
It is in light of the teachings of history, the force of principle, and the requirements of justification and fit that we examine the two amendments at issue. H.C.R. 41 as ratified (1) authorized the legislature to deny a county the right to levy taxes on a nuclear-powered electrical generating plant, and (2) altered the classification system for taxation. Taxpayers argue that these two provisions may not logically be viewed as parts or aspects of a single plan, that the goal of one is to shift certain tax revenues from a specific county to the state, while the goal of the other is to classify property and establish the assessment ratio for each class.
Again a page of history. In State ex rel. McClurg v. Powell, 77 Miss. 543, 27 So. 927 (1900), this Court was faced with a challenge to a proposed constitutional amendment based upon the multiple amendments portion of old Section 273. The challenged proposition to amend would have made elective the offices of justice/judge of the supreme, circuit and chancery courts. This would, in effect, have repealed five existing sections of the Mississippi Constitution, three of which authorized the Governor to appoint supreme, court justices, and two of which required the districting of the state into circuit and chancery court districts, and the appointment by the Governor of such judges. The Court developed a narrow test in reviewing such proposed amendments by stating:
Whether amendments are one or many must be solved by their inherent nature, by the consideration of whether they are separate and independent of each of the other so that each can stand alone with the other, leaving the constitutional system symmetrical, harmonious, and independent on the subject.
Powell, at 572, 27 So. at 931.
In State ex rel. Collins v. Jones, 106 Miss. 522, 64 So. 241 (1914), this Court was again faced with a challenge to a proposed amendment to the Mississippi Constitution that would make circuit and chancery court judges elected officials instead of appointees of the Governor. Again the challenge was based upon a claim that the proposal was in effect two amendments embodied in one, in violation of old Section 273. The Court, in rendering its decision, heavily criticized Powell as far too narrow. Jones, at 564-65, 64 So. at 249. The Court reasoned that under the Powell approach it would be practically impossible to amend the Constitution, for any amendment that may be proposed could surely be divided to produce multiple amendments. Id. Instead, the Court stated, as the proper test, that:
In order to constitute more than one amendment, the proposition submitted must relate to more than one subject and have at least two distinct and separate purposes not dependent upon or connected with each other. [Emphasis added]
Id. at 545, 64 So. at 243. Upon this basis, and under this more liberal test, the Court found but one "purpose" and "subject" in the proposed amendment.
Jones is our pre-1959 case most consistent in principle with modern Section 273. Indeed, the 1959 amendment to Section 273 may be read as having incorporated the "same subject" test applied by this Court in Jones, supra, and adding an additional "same subject matter" test. The new Section 273 language, however, does not include the "two distinct and separate purposes" part of the Jones formulation. This is significant in that two amendments may be motivated each by a distinct and separate purpose but may yet pertain to and relate to the same subject or subject matter. Current Section 273 thus requires a broader than Jones reading, a proposition this day of dispositive power.
House Concurrent Resolution 41 has as its single subject the revision of constitutional principles regulating Mississippi's ad valorem tax system. In our view the subject of H.C.R. 41 is property classification for ad valorem tax purposes. Nuclear-powered electrical generating plants are one classification of property, along with other utility property, residential property, other real property and the like. There is no natural law of property classification, that being in this state a function of the positive constitutional law. That the light bulb shines as bright, without regard to the power source, imposes no constitutional impediment to separate classification of nuclear and non-nuclear power plants.
Without doubt, a rational voter may have favored the nuclear power plant provisions of the amendment and opposed the other classifications, or vice versa. But within the former provision, a rational voter may have favored conferring legislative power to limit county taxation of such nuclear facilities but opposed the denial of such county taxation authority altogether. And vice versa. And within the remainder of the classification scheme, a rational voter may have approved assessing' all single family residences at ten percent of true value, while opposing a fifteen percent assessment ratio for all other real property— because it is too high or not high enough. The insight of State ex rel. Collins v. Jones, 106 Miss. 522, 564-65, 64 So. 241, 249 (1914) remains with us: that any amendment expressing more than a single thought is inevitably divisible, so that rational voters may favor one part and not another. A brief perusal of the amendments adopted since 1890 makes apparent that practically all run afoul of Taxpayers' reading of Section 273.
Candor requires recognition of the possibility of two wholly distinct political motivations undergirding H.C.R. 41. The general property classification system may be seen as the latest chapter in the legislative effort at evisceration of the effect of State Tax Commission v. Fondren, 387 So.2d 712 (Miss.1980). The provisions relating to nuclear power plants may be read un-relatedly, as a greedy grab of Claiborne County's newfound pot of gold — none of the service area counties showed interest in sharing Claiborne County's one time poverty but all want a share of her new found wealth. None of this is of consequence today, for the distinct and separate purposes part of the Jones formulation was not carried forward into post-1959 Section 273.
Careful thought suggests a further blunting of the separate purposes argument. The citizen has some indirect protection against the political ploy of lumping together controversial and attractive amendments, although there is no legal mandate for such. The democratically elected constituent assembly proposes amendments such as H.C.R. 41. That assembly, our legislature, is the citizens' indi rect voice. With far greater facility, each legislative house first in committee and then on the floor may haggle and debate the particulars of the multiple amendments. No proposed amendment ever goes on the referendum ballot until it has received a two-thirds majority vote of each house. We do not regard this indirect role of each qualified elector in the shaping of amendments without practical, theoretical or legal significance.
Of course, nothing said thus far has suggested any mathematical or scientific formula into which we might feed the data and receive a right answer to Taxpayers' Section 273 challenge. Integrity in judgment is the essence of the judicial function in such cases and requires in the end that we identify and give deference to the principles of judicial review applicable in today's special context.
Without doubt, our constitutional scheme contemplates the power of judicial review of legislative enactments. Alexander v. State ex rel. Allain, 441 So.2d 1329, 1333 (Miss.1983). That power may be exercised affirmatively, however, only where the legislation under review be found
in palpable conflict with some plain provision of the . constitution.
Hart v. State, 87 Miss. 171, 176, 39 So. 523, 524 (1905).
On like principles we review concurrent resolutions submitting to the electorate proposed constitutional amendments. The unconstitutionality of a statute or concurrent resolution must be made to appear clearly before this Court has authority to hold the statute or resolution, in whole or in part, of no force or effect. See, e.g., Mississippi Power Co. v. Goudy, 459 So.2d 257, 263, 274 (Miss.1984); Anderson v. Fred Wagner & Roy Anderson, Jr., Inc., 402 So.2d 320, 321 (Miss.1981); Clark v. State ex rel. Mississippi State Medical Association, 381 So.2d 1046,1048 (Miss.1980); Russell Investment Corp. v. Russell, 182 Miss. 385, 419, 182 So. 102, 107 (1938); Miller v. State, 130 Miss. 564, 585, 94 So. 706, 709 (1923). To state that there is reasonable doubt regarding the constitutionality of an act such as H.C.R. 41 brings one close to conceding it constitutionally valid. Ivy v. Robertson, 220 Miss. 364, 370, 70 So.2d 862, 865 (1954); Russell Investment Corp. v. Russell, 182 Miss. 385, 419, 182 So. 102, 107 (1938); State ex rel. Greaves v. Henry, 87 Miss. 125, 143, 40 So. 152, 154 (1906).
The point is put otherwise. We have dozens of cases stating, often without citation of authority because the point is so clear, that legislative actions are presumed constitutional, albeit rebuttably so, see, e.g., Mississippi Power Co. v. Goudy, 459 So.2d 257, 263 (Miss.1984); Hart v. State, 87 Miss. 171, 176-77, 39 So. 523, 524 (1905), and this is as true of concurrent resolutions as of statutes. This presumption is not idly accorded. It is based in the fact that a resolution such as H.C.R. 41 comes before this Court sustained and authenticated by the sanction and approval of one of the three great departments of state government. Russell Investment Corp. v. Russell, 182 Miss. 385, 419, 182 So. 102, 107 (1938). See also Fullilove v. Klutznick, 448 U.S. 448, 473, 100 S.Ct. 2758, 2772, 65 L.Ed.2d 902, 920-21 (1980). The legislators who — by a two thirds majority vote — have passed the concurrent resolution here under review have taken the same oath as have we to uphold and support the Constitution. See Alexander v. State ex rel. Allain, 441 So.2d 1329, 1347 (Miss.1983); see also Rostker v. Goldberg, 453 U.S. 57, 64, 101 S.Ct. 2646, 2651, 69 L.Ed.2d 478, 486 (1981).
It has long been settled in this state that, when the constitutionality of a statute is drawn into question, a construction will be placed upon it, if reasonably possible, to enable it to withstand the constitutional attack and to carry out the purpose embedded in the legislative language. Chassanoil v. City of Greenwood, 166 Miss. 848, 860, 148 So. 781, 783 (1933); see also State ex rel. Greaves v. Henry, 87 Miss. 125, 143-44, 40 So. 152, 154 (1906); Hart v. State, 87 Miss. 171, 176-77, 39 So. 523, 524 (1905); Burnham v. Sumner, 50 Miss. 517, 520-21 (1874). The same rule of construction applies when the challenge is leveled at a concurrent resolution under which an amendment to the Constitution has been submitted to the electorate. A like approach applies to the construction of the open-textured language of constitutional provisions such as Section 273; that is, out of deference to the authority and prerogative of the legislature, we will ordinarily afford the gray areas of the Constitution any reasonable construction that will avoid unconstitutionality of the statute. Miller v. State, 130 Miss. 564, 585, 94 So. 706, 709 (1923). This is for the obvious reason that the propriety, wisdom and expediency of a proposed constitutional amendment are questions for the people — indirectly through their legislature and directly through referendums — and not this Court. Anderson v. Fred Wagner & Roy Anderson, Jr., Inc., 402 So.2d 320, 321 (Miss.1981); Russell Investment Corp. v. Russell, 182 Miss. 385, 419, 182 So. 102, 107 (1938).
In the final analysis we have been asked to review judicially not just an enactment of the legislature but a constitutional amendment affirmatively ratified by the people. More so than in ordinary cases of judicial review, we exercise an authority requiring the utmost delicacy. Blodgett v. Holden, 275 U.S. 142, 148, 48 S.Ct. 105, 107, 72 L.Ed. 206, 210 (1927) (Holmes, J.). We should proceed with caution, Russell Investment Corp. v. Russell, 182 Miss. 385, 419, 182 So. 102, 107 (1938); State ex rel. Greaves v. Henry, 87 Miss. 125, 144, 40 So. 152, 154 (1906).
These thoughts in mind, we return to the form and substance of H.C.R.41, scrutinized under the force of modern Section 273, best and most legitimately read. H.C. R. 41 may fairly be read as relating to a single subject or subject matter: classification of property for ad valorem taxation purposes. Because it may be so read, nothing in Section 273 invalidates H.C.R. 41 nor its ratification and incorporation into Section 112. The assignment of error is denied.
VI. Did The Chancery Court Err In Failing To Hold That, Even If House Concurrent Resolution No. 4-1 Has Been Validly Adopted, It Does Not Retroactively Validate House Bill No. 388?
" Taxpayers argue that ratification in June, 1986, of amended Section 112 in the form of H.C.R. 41 cannot retroactively validate House Bill 388, effective on April 23, 1986. The argument is premised on the theory that laws operate only prospectively-
The public record reflects that H.B. 388 became law on April 23, 1986. Section 8 thereof provides "this act shall take effect and be in force from and after its passage." Miss.Laws, ch. 507, § 8 (1986). The empowering amendment to Section 112, H.C.R. 41, was approved by the Legislature three weeks earlier — Senate adoption having occurred on April 1, 1986, and adoption in the House of Representatives on the next day. Miss.Laws, ch. 522 (1986). Popular ratification, however, did not occur until June 3, 1986. The final act of ratification is that which makes a constitution law. Cf. McCulloch v. Maryland, 17 U.S. (4 Wheat.) 316, 403, 4 L.Ed. 579, 600 (1819).
Taxpayers' argument implicitly recognizes that law can be made to operate retroactively. Rather, they argue that we should not so construe it unless retroactive intent be manifest, citing Mladinich v. Kohn, 186 So.2d 481, 483 (Miss.1966), regarding retroactive effect of statutes. We have recently given individuals the benefit of post-conduct primary rules enacted for the benefit of the class to which they belong. State ex rel. Pittman v. Ladner, 512 So.2d 1271, 1274-77 (Miss.1987). We often give individuals the benefit of retro active application of new judge-made law. See Hall v. Hilbun, 466 So.2d 856, 875-77 (Miss.1985); Keyes v. Guy Bailey Homes, Inc., 439 So.2d 670, 672-73 (Miss.1983).
Taxpayers direct our attention to a general statement of the rule they say obtains in determining whether a constitutional amendment should be given retroactive effect, so as to validate a previously enacted statute:
A constitutional provision may ratify and validate a previously enacted statute, but it will not so operate unless an intention to do so is clearly manifested . an act of a legislature not authorized by the constitution at the time of its passage is absolutely void, and, if not reenacted, is not' validated by a subsequent amendment to the constitution.
16 C.J.S. Constitutional Law § 44 at 122 (1984).
We have no quarrel with this general principle, though the quoted expression is a bit too strong. More importantly, we find an exception to it, in that statutes enacted in anticipation of the adoption, or the taking effect, of constitutional amendments that prescribe the manner of effectuating such amendments, are valid in the absence of a constitutional provision prohibiting such legislation at the time of passage. See Lee v. Superior Court, 191 Cal. 46, 214 P. 972, 974-75 (1923); Boyd v. Olcott, 102 Or. 327, 202 P. 431, 447-48 (1921); 16 C.J.S. Constitutional Law, § 44 at 123 (1984). Ratification of such an amendment relates back and validates the legislation.
The outcome-determinative question is whether legislative enactment of House Bill No. 388 was so integrally related to the adoption of House Concurrent Resolution 41, so that the latter, once ratified, ought be taken as breathing legal life into the former. A combined reading of the history recited above and the language of H.C.R. 41 permits only the "Yes" answer.
H.C.R. 41 and H.B. 388 were passed during the 1986 Regular Session of the Mississippi Legislature. They were part and parcel of a legal revamp of property classification for ad valorem tax purposes. Valid promulgation of each was prerequisite to the success of the scheme. The tax liabilities created pursuant to Section (3)(b) of House Bill No. 388 would not be payable until February 1, 1987. Assuming arguen-do that there may have been a constitutional impediment to enforcement of House Bill No. 388 in April, 1986, that impediment was effectively removed in June of 1986. The assignment of error is denied.
VII. Did The Chancery Court Err In Holding House Bill 388 To Be A General Law Instead Of Invalid Local and Private Legislation?
Taxpayers argue that House Bill No. 388 is constitutionally local and private legislation and invalid twice over. Substantively, Taxpayers point to Section 90(h) of the Mississippi Constitution which prohibits the passage of local, private or special legislation in the exemption of property from taxation, or from levy or sale. This argument is made in light of the fact that Section 112, as amended by H.C.R. 41, facially, provides for the exemption of property from taxation only by general laws. Procedurally, Taxpayers note Section 89 which requires that all local and private bills be considered by and reported out of the local and private committees of each house.
The general principle operative here is Miss. Const. Art. 4, § 87 (1890): "No special or local law shall be enacted for the benefit of individuals or corporations, in cases which are or can be provided for by general law...." This principle remains intact even with the amendments to Section 112 of the Constitution approved above. Our question, thus, is whether H.B. 388 is a "special or local law".
A law is "general" when it operates uniformly on all members of a class of persons, places, or things requiring legislation peculiar to the case dealt with. City of Jackson v. Deposit Guaranty Bank & Trust Co., 160 Miss. 752, 766, 133 So. 195, 197 (1931); State ex rel. Knox v. Speakes, 144 Miss. 125, 155-56, 109 So. 129, 132 (1926). Additionally, where the classification that has been drawn by the legislature is one that exempts property from taxation, the only limit upon legislative power is that, "the exemption shall not be arbitrary; that is to say that it must have some just and rational relation to the promotion of the public welfare." Id. at 767, 133 So. at 198.
In cases dealing with classifications drawn by the legislature in statutes and laws, we have said:
The question of classification is one primarily for the legislature, and in the exercise of this power the legislature possesses a wide discretion. We have also held in view of the presumptions in favor of a legislative judgment as to classification, the legislative judgment will be upheld if any state of facts can reasonably be conceived to sustain it, and can be overthrown by the courts only when it is clearly erroneous. [Emphasis added]
Jackson Redevelopment Authority v. King, Inc., 364 So.2d 1104, 1107-08 (Miss.1978); Board of Education v. State Educational Finance Commission, 243 Miss. 782, 814, 138 So.2d 912, 926 (1962). See also Comment, General Special, Local and Private Legislation: A Mississippi Overview, 56 Miss.L.J. 327, 334-46 (1986).
Taxpayers argue that there is no rational distinction between nuclear power plants and other power plants for taxing purposes. But, nowhere is the power of classification accorded more latitude than in the field of taxation, and the state may tax certain kinds of property, yet exempt others. Sharpe v. Standard Oil Co., 322 So.2d 457, 461 (Miss.1975). In Sharpe, this Court observed the great latitude in tax classification cases by noting that:
In Broad River Power Co. v. Query, 288 U.S. 178, 53 S.Ct. 326, 77 L.Ed. 685 (1933), a suit was filed contesting the validity of a South Carolina law that taxed the production of hydroelectric power but not the production of electricity by oil or internal combustion engines . The Court held that the existence of comparatively few internal combustion electric plants was sufficient reason for creating the tax classification. 288 U.S. at 179-80, 53 S.Ct. at 327, 77 L.Ed. at 686.
Id. As such, a close comparison can be drawn to the distinction made by the legislature between nuclear and non-nuclear power plants in House Bill No. 388 for the purpose of exclusion from taxation.
Along similar lines, Taxpayers assert that there is no rational distinction between the in-lieu tax provided for by House Bill No. 388 and those provided for by House Bill No. 387. House Bill No. 387 specifically provided for a different manner of in-lieu taxes to be paid on the Yellow Creek Nuclear Plant, which is owned and operated by the Tennessee Valley Authority in Tishomingo County, Mississippi, than those to be paid by privately owned nuclear generating plants. This Court will uphold legislative judgment in deriving a classification if any state of facts can reasonably be conceived to sustain it. Jackson Redevelopment Authority, supra. As the difference between taxing' privately owned property and that owned by the federal government is readily apparent, the classification is valid.
Finally, Taxpayers argue that House Bill No. 388 is local and private legislation because under its terms, it can only apply to the Grand Gulf facility in Claiborne County. Taxpayers specifically point to the provision in Section 2 of House Bill No. 388 which provided for a decreasing payment schedule to the situs county of the nuclear plant beginning in 1987 with a fifty percent payment, gradually diminishing to thirty percent by 1991, which will be the figure paid to any situs county there after. In regard to this argument, this Court's long-standing rule is that:
Where a law is broad enough to reach every portion of the state and to embrace within its provisions every person or thing distinguished by characteristics sufficiently marked and important to make them clearly a class by themselves, it is not a special or local, but a general law even though there may be but one member of the class or one place on which it operates. [Emphasis added]
Jackson Redevelopment Authority, 364 So.2d at 1107. Vardaman v. McBee, 198 Miss. 251, 260, 21 So.2d 661, 664 (1945); see also Comment, General, Special, Local and Private Legislation: A Mississippi Overview, 56 Miss.L.J. 327, 333 (1986). The real question is whether every person that can be brought within its predicament becomes subject to its operation. Delta & Pine Land Co. v. Board of Supervisors, 228 So.2d 893 (Miss.1969). As House Bill No. 388 will "bring into its predicament" any privately owned nuclear facilities built in the future, it does not comprise local and private legislation. The assignment of error is denied.
VIII. Did The Chancery Court Err In Failing To Permit The Plaintiffs To Amend Their Complaint To Assert That House Bill No. 388 Violates The Equal Protection Clause Of The Fourteenth Amendment?
In addition to the present action, Taxpayers sued in the United States District Court for the Southern District of Mississippi, challenging House Bill No. 388 on various grounds, including an assertion that it violated the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. A trial was had from November 24, 1986, to November 26, 1986. In a judgment rendered on December 31, 1986, the District Court held that it lacked jurisdiction to hear the Taxpayers' federal constitutional claims by virtue of the Tax Anti-Injunction Statute, 28 U.S.C. § 1341. The Supreme Court of the United States ultimately affirmed without opinion. Burrell v. Attain, — U.S. —, 107 S.Ct. 3179, 96 L.Ed.2d 668 (1987).
On January 6, 1987, Taxpayers moved for leave to amend their complaint in the present action to invoke 42 U.S.C. § 1983 and assert a claim that Senate Concurrent Resolution No. 41, and House Bill No. 388 violate the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. Undeniably, this was late in the day, as on October 8, 1986, the Chancery Court had granted the Commission's motion for summary judgment. The matter remained alive on Taxpayers' motion for a rehearing filed on October 17, 1986. See Rule 59, Miss.R.Civ.P. On January 13, 1987 — one week after the motion to amend was filed — the Court overruled all pending motions, including the Taxpayers' motion to amend their complaint.
Taxpayers now argue that the Chancery Court was in error, in denying their motion to amend in that amendments to pleadings should be "freely given when justice so requires" under Rule 15, Miss.R.Civ.P.
The granting or denial of a motion for leave to amend under Rule 15 is addressed to the sound discretion of the trial judge. Red Enterprises, Inc. v. Peashooter, Inc., 455 So.2d 793, 796 (Miss.1984); 3 Moore's Federal Practice (2d ed. 1984) § 15.08(4); 6 Wright and Miller, Federal Practice and Procedure (1971) § 1484. As such, this Court's scope of review is limited in that we have authority to reverse only where we are convinced that the trial judge abused his discretion. Bourn v. Tomlinson Interest, Inc., 456 So.2d 747, 749 (Miss.1984), citing Forman v. Davis, 371 U.S. 178, 182, 83 S.Ct. 227, 230, 9 L.Ed.2d 222 (1962).
Ordinarily we would be loath to disturb a trial court's post-judgment denial of a motion to amend to assert a new theory and claim. In determining whether the court below abused its discretion, we must consider the special context of today's case. As we will presently demonstrate, Taxpayers have a right to be heard on their Section 1983/Equal Protection claims. Their allegations are more than sufficient to withstand threshold scrutiny under Rule 12(b)(6) and, indeed, Rule 56, summary judgment. The federal courts, however, have held that they have no jurisdiction to hear Taxpayers' claims. By denying the motion to amend, the Chancery Court created the anomalous circumstance of Taxpayers with a justiciable claim upon which they were entitled to be heard but with no forum,willing to hear it. Here lies the key to the Chancery Court's abuse of discretion.
But first things first. The Chancery Court of the First Judicial District of Hinds County was indeed a court having authority to hear and adjudge Taxpayers' properly pleaded claims under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 and the Equal Protection Clause. Marx v. Truck Renting & Leasing Association, Inc., 520 So.2d 1333, 1346 (Miss.1987). That the point be removed from doubt, we set forth the premises more fully-
The Supremacy Clause of the Constitution of the United States, Article VI, cl. 2, provides that all valid enactments of Congress shall be the supreme law of the land.
And the Judges in every State shall be bound thereby, anything in the Constitution or Laws of any State to the contrary notwithstanding.
The Constitution contemplates that state courts have concurrent jurisdiction with federal courts in the enforcement of federally created rights. Hamilton, The Federalist Papers, No. 82.
The Supreme Court has recognized time and time again that state courts have the duty to enforce federally created rights. Claflin v. Houseman, 93 U.S. (3 Otto) 130, 136-37, 23 L.Ed. 833 (1876); Mondou v. New York, N.H. & H.R. Co., 223 U.S. 1, 55-58, 32 S.Ct. 169, 177-78, 56 L.Ed. 327, 348-49 (1912); Testa v. Katt, 330 U.S. 386, 389-91, 67 S.Ct. 810, 812-13, 91 L.Ed. 967, 970-71 (1947); Charles Dowd Box Co. v. Courtney, 368 U.S. 502, 507, 82 S.Ct. 519, 527, 7 L.Ed.2d 483, 487 (1962). A state court may not refuse to enforce a right arising under a statute of the United States because it may disagree with that statute or question the wisdom of Congress in the enactment of that statute. Minneapolis & St. Louis Railroad Co. v. Bombolis, 241 U.S. 211, 222, 36 S.Ct. 595, 598, 60 L.Ed. 961, 965 (1916).
This Court has recognized, as a general proposition, that this state's courts exercise concurrent jurisdiction with federal courts in the enforcement of federally created rights. The only exceptions to this rule are those eases in which the federal statutes expressly provide for exclusive jurisdiction in the federal courts. Koehring Co. v. Hyde Construction Co., Inc., 254 Miss. 214, 229, 178 So.2d 838, 842-43 (1965); Masonite Corp. v. International Woodworkers of America, AFL-CIO, 215 So.2d 691, 696 (Miss.1968); Lewis v. Delta Loans, Inc., 300 So.2d 142, 144-45 (Miss.1974). The courts of this state are not free to refuse adjudication of claims brought under the Constitution and laws of the United States. Indeed, we enforce such rights even when convinced that their federal source has erred greatly. Sanders v. State, 429 So.2d 245, 248, 251 (Miss.1983); Bolton v. City of Greenville, 253 Miss. 656, 666, 178 So.2d 667, 672 (1965). If the ordinary jurisdiction of the state court is adequate to the case, the court must accept jurisdiction and proceed to enforce federally created rights. Lewis v. Delta Loans, Inc., 300 So.2d 142, 144-45 (Miss.1974).
This Court has in fact recognized the duty and obligation of the courts of this state to enforce rights created under a variety of federal statutes:
(a) Fair Labor Standards Act: Mengel v. Ishee, 192 Miss. 366, 4 So.2d 878 (1941);
(b) Carmack Amendment to Interstate Commerce Act: Illinois Central Railroad Co. v. Terry, 137 Miss. 371, 380-81, 102 So. 391 (1924);
(c) Federal Employees Liability Act: Illinois Central R.R. Co. v. Coussens, Admx., 223 Miss. 103, 77 So.2d 818 (1955);
(d) Jones Act: Larry v. Moody, 242 Miss. 267, 274, 134 So.2d 462, 464 (1961); Standard Products, Inc. v. Patterson Admx., 317 So.2d 376, 378 (Miss.1975); Penrod Drilling Co. v. Bounds, 433 So.2d 916, 928-29 (Miss.1983) (Robertson, J., concurring);
(e) Labor Management Relations Act of 1947: Masonite Corp. v. International Woodworkers of America, AFL-CIO, 215 So.2d 691, 695 (Miss.1968);
(f) Truth in Lending Act: Brown v. Credit Center, Inc., 444 So.2d 358, 366 (Miss.1983); Lewis v. Delta Loans, Inc., 300 So.2d 142, 144-45 (Miss.1974);
(g) Contract Settlement Act: Walsh Construction Co. v. Davis, 204 Miss. 509, 37 So.2d 757 (1948).
The Supreme Court has recently reaffirmed the proposition that state courts have concurrent jurisdiction with the federal courts over claims brought under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 for violations of rights secured by the Constitution and laws of the United States. Martinez v. California, 444 U.S. 277, 100 S.Ct. 553, 62 L.Ed.2d 481 (1980). Absent some federally imposed limitation on the Section 1983 action, the courts of the State of Mississippi have subject matter jurisdiction thereof — concurrent with the courts of the United States. State Tax Commission v. Fondren, 387 So.2d 712, 723 (Miss.1980). When Mississippi courts are enforcing rights created under federal law, the Mississippi courts must follow the interpretations of those rights provided by federal courts. Illinois Central Railroad Co. v. Coussens, Admx., 223 Miss. 103, 113, 77 So.2d 818, 821 (1955); Saunders v. Mullins, 412 So.2d 245 (Miss.1982).
To be sure, State Tax Commission v. Fondren, 387 So.2d 712, 723 (Miss.1980), says that the state courts have no authority to entertain claims under Section 1983 where the suit is one seeking to enjoin unconstitutional state action with regard to the collection of taxes. Fondren confuses a federal jurisdictional limitation, 28 U.S.C. § 1341, with the enforceability of a federally created right and remedy in state court. Much of the wind has been taken from Fondren's sails by Fair Assessment In Real Estate Association, Inc. v. McNary, 454 U.S. 100, 102 S.Ct. 177, 70 L.Ed.2d 271 (1981). Indeed, our recent decision in Marx v. Truck Renting and Leasing Association, Inc., supra, may only be read as holding that the Section 1983/1988 discussion in Fondren stands overruled.
These things said, we return to whether the Chancery Court abused its discretion in overruling Taxpayers' motion for leave to amend to assert a Section 1983/Equal Protection claim. We regard this a case of great public interest. Justice demands as law permits that this claim be heard and decided on its merits — somewhere. The federal judiciary has declared that it has no subject matter jurisdiction. Ordinary notions of res judicata would preclude a new lawsuit in some state court. The only available alternative is allowing the amendment in the present action.
Under the arguably unique facts and circumstances of this case, we hold that the Chancery Court abused its discretion when it denied the motion to amend. We reverse that portion of the judgment below and remand with instructions that the amendment be allowed and such further proceedings had as may be appropriate and not inconsistent with this opinion.
AFFIRMED IN PART; REVERSED IN PART AND REMANDED
ROY NOBLE LEE, C.J., and PRATHER and ANDERSON, JJ., join in this opinion.
HAWKINS and DAN M. LEE, P.JJ., SULLIVAN and GRIFFIN, JJ., dissent to sections I-VII and concur to section VIII by separate written opinion.
ZUCCARO, J., not participating.
. CHAPTER NO. 507
HOUSE BILL NUMBER 388
AN ACT TO AMEND SECTION 27-35-309, MISSISSIPPI CODE OF 1972, TO PROVIDE FOR PAYMENTS IN LIEU OF AD VALOREM TAXES UPON NUCLEAR GENERATING PLANT PROPERTY AND TO DISTRIBUTE SUCH PAYMENTS TO THE SITUS COUNTY AND MUNICIPALITY, IF APPLICABLE, AND TO COUNTIES AND MUNICIPALITIES WHERE ELECTRIC SERVICE FROM SUCH POWER PLANT IS RENDERED; ETC.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of the State of Mississippi:
SECTION 1. Section 27-35-309, Mississippi Code of 1972, is amended as follows:
(3) Any nuclear generating plant which is located in the state, which is owned or operated by a public utility rendering electric service to the state and not exempt from ad valorem taxation under any other statute and which is not owned or operated by an instrumentality of the federal government shall be exempt from county, municipal and district ad valorem taxes. In lieu of the payment of county, municipal and district ad valorem taxes, such public utility shall pay to the State Tax Commission a sum based on the assessed value of such nuclear generating plant in an amount to be determined and distributed as follows:
(a)The State Tax Commission shall annually assign an assessed value to any nuclear generating plant described in this subsection in the same manner as for ad valorem tax purposes by using accepted industry methods for appraising and assessing public utility property. The assessed value assigned shall be used for the purpose of determining the in-lieu tax due under this section and shall not be included in the ad valorem tax rolls of the situs taxing authority. However, the assessed value so assigned may be used by the situs taxing authority for the purpose of determining salaries of its public officials.
(b) On or before February 1, 1987, for the 1986 taxable year and on or before February 1 of each year thereafter, such utility shall pay to the State Tax Commission a sum equal to two percent (2%) of the assessed value as ascertained by the State Tax Commission, but such payment shall not be less than Sixteen Million Dollars ($16,000,000.00) for any taxable year, all such payments in excess of Sixteen Million Dollars ($16,000,000.00) for any taxable year shall be paid into the General Fund of the state.
(c) After distribution of the payments as set forth in Section 2 of this act, the State Tax Commission shall distribute ten percent (10%) of the remainder of the payments to the General Fund of the state and the balance shall be distributed to the counties and municipalities in this state wherein such public utility renders electric service in the proportion that the amount of electric energy consumed by the retail customers of such public utility in each county, excluding municipalities therein, and in each municipality for the next preceding fiscal year bears to the total amount of electric energy consumed by all retail customers of such public utility in the State of Mississippi for the next preceding fiscal year.
(d) No county, including municipalities therein, shall receive in excess of twenty percent (20%) of the funds distributed under paragraph (c) of this subsection.
(e) The revenues received by counties and municipalities under paragraph (c) of this subsection shall be included and considered as proceeds of ad valorem taxes for the purposes of the growth limitation on ad valorem taxes for the 1987 fiscal year and thereafter under Section 27-39-321 and 27-39-305.
SECTION 2. The in-lieu payments made to the State Tax Commission pursuant to Section 27-35-309(3)(b), excluding payments made in excess of Sixteen Million Dollars ($16,000,-000.00) which are required to be paid into the General Fund of the state, shall be distributed by the State Tax .Commission as follows:
(a) For fiscal year 1987, fifty percent (50%) of such payment shall be paid to the situs county wherein such nuclear generating plant is located;
(b) For fiscal year 1988, forty-five percent (45%) of such payment shall be paid to the situs county wherein such nuclear generating plant is located;
(c) For fiscal year 1989, forty percent (40%) of such payment shall be paid to the situs county wherein such nuclear generating plant is located;
(d) For fiscal year 1990, thirty-five percent (35%) of such payment shall be paid to the situs county wherein such nuclear generating plant is located;
(e) For fiscal year 1991 and thereafter, thirty percent (30%) of such payment shall be paid to the situs county wherein such nuclear generating plant is located.
SECTION 3. Of the funds received pursuant to Section 2 of this act by a situs county wherein such nuclear generating plant is located, the board of supervisors of such situs county shall distribute ten percent (10%) of each payment, upon receipt, to the most populous incorporated municipality within the county; however, if such plant is located within a municipality, such payments which would otherwise be made to the situs county pursuant to Section 2 of this act shall be divided equally between the situs county and situs municipality.
SECTION 4. Of the funds retained by the situs county after the payment made pursuant to Section 3 of this act, not more than Five Million Dollars ($5,000,000.00) per year may be expected by the board of supervisors of the county for any purposes for which a county is authorized by law to levy an ad valorem tax, and any funds in excess of such amount shall be expended in accordance with Section 5 of this act.
SECTION 5. The board of supervisors of the situs county, upon receipt of the payments pursuant to Section 2 of this act less the payment made according to Section 3 of this act, shall pay all such funds in excess of Five Million Five Hundred Thousand Dollars ($5,500,000.00) to the governing authorities of the public school districts in such county in the proportion that the average daily attendance of the preceding scholastic year of each school district bears to the total average daily attendance of the county for the preceding scholastic year. Such funds may be expended only for the purposes of capital improvements to school facilities and only after plans therefor have been submitted to and approved by the Educational Finance Commission or its successor. The governing authorities of such school districts may borrow money in anticipation of receipt of payments pursuant to this section, and the levying authority for the school district may issue negotiable notes therefor, for the purposes set forth herein. Such loan shall be repaid from the payments received under this section by the governing authorities of the public school district.
. Because of its importance, H.C.R. 41 is reproduced in its entirety.
CHAPTER NO. 522
HOUSE CONCURRENT RESOLUTION NUMBER 41
A CONCURRENT RESOLUTION PROPOSING AN AMENDMENT TO SECTION 112, MISSISSIPPI CONSTITUTION OF 1890, TO PRESCRIBE ASSESSMENT RATIOS FOR REVISED PROPERTY CLASSES; TO PROVIDE THAT THE ASSESSMENT RATIO ON ONE CLASS OF PROPERTY SHALL NOT BE MORE THAN THREE TIMES THE ASSESSMENT RATIO ON OTHER CLASSES OF PROPERTY; TO PROVIDE THAT THE LEGISLATURE MAY DENY OR LIMIT A COUNTY OR OTHER TAXING AUTHORITY THE RIGHT TO LEVY COUNTY AND/OR SPECIAL TAXES ON NUCLEAR-POWERED ELECTRICAL GENERATING PLANTS; TO AUTHORIZE THE LEGISLATURE TO PROVIDE FOR A SPECIAL MODE OF VALUATION, ASSESSMENT AND LEVY UPON NUCLEAR-POWERED ELECTRICAL GENERATING PLANTS AND PROVIDE FOR THE DISTRIBUTION OF THE REVENUE DERIVED THEREFROM.
BE IT RESOLVED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF MISSISSIPPI, TWO-THIRDS (¾) OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES AND THE SENATE CONCURRING THEREIN, WHICH TWO-THIRDS (⅜) CONSISTS OF NOT LESS THAN A MAJORITY OF THE MEMBERS ELECTED TO EACH HOUSE, That the following proposed amendment to the Mississippi Constitution of 1890 be submitted to the qualified electors of the state for ratification or rejection at an election to be held on the first Tuesday after the first Monday of June 1986:
Amend Section 112, Mississippi Constitution of 1890, to read as follows:
"Section 112. Taxation shall be uniform and equal throughout the state. AH property not exempt from ad valorem taxation shall be taxed at its assessed value. Property shall be assessed for taxes under general laws, and by uniform rules, and in proportion to its true value according to the classes defined herein. The Legislature may, by general laws, exempt particular species of property from taxation, in whole or in part.
The Legislature shall provide, by general laws, the method of which the true value of taxable property shall be ascertained; provided, however, in arriving at the true value of Class I and Class II property, the appraisal shall be made according to current use, regardless of location. The Legislature may provide for a special mode of valuation and assessment for railroads, and railroad and other corporate property, or for particular species of property belonging to persons, corporations or associations not situated wholly in one (1) county. All such property shall be assessed in proportion to its value according to its class, and no county, or other taxing authority, shall be denied the right to levy county and/or special taxes upon such assessment as in other cases of property situated and assessed in the county, except that the Legislature, by general law, may deny or limit a county or other taxing authority the right to levy county and/or special taxes on nuclear-powered electrical generating plants. In addition to or in lieu of any such county and/or special taxes on nuclear-powered electrical generating plants, the Legislature, by general law enacted by a majority vote of the members of each house present and voting, may provide a special mode of valuation, assessment and levy upon nuclear-powered electrical generating plants and provide for the distribution of the revenue derived therefrom. The Legislature may provide for a special mode of assessment, fixing the taxable year, date of the tax lien, and method and date of assessing and collecting taxes on all motor vehicles.
The assessed value of property shall be a percentage of its true value, which shall be known as its assessment ratio. The assessment ratio on each class of property as defined herein shall be uniform throughout the state upon the same class of property, provided that the assessment ratio of any one (1) class of property shall not be more than three (3) times the assessment ratio on any other class of property. For purposes of assessment for ad valorem taxes, taxable property shall be divided into five (5) classes and shall be assessed at a percentage of its true value as follows:
Class I. Single-family, owner-occupied, residential real property, at ten percent (10%) of true value.
Class II. All other real property, except for real property included in Class I or IV, at fifteen percent (15%) of true value.
Class III. Personal property, except for motor vehicles and for personal property included in Class IV, at fifteen percent (15%) of true value.
Class IV. Public utility property, which is property owned or used by public service corporations required by general laws to be appraised and assessed by the state or the county, excluding railroad and airline property and motor vehicles, at thirty percent (30%) of true value.
Class V. Motor vehicles, at thirty percent (30%) of true value.
The Legislature may, be general law, establish acreage limitations on Class I property.
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, That, the Secretary of State is hereby directed to give public notice of an election in the manner and for the time provided by Section 273 of the Constitution, for the purpose of submitting this and other proposed amendments to the Constitution to the qualified electors of this state for ratification or rejection, such election to be conducted and held on the first Tuesday after the first Monday of June, 1986, in the manner provided by law for statewide general elections."
Adopted by the House of Representatives: April 2, 1986.
Adopted by the Senate: April 1, 1986.
. The 1983 amendment to Section 112 altered two provisions of that section. First, it authorized the legislature to exempt particular species of property, in whole or in part, from taxation, an expansion of a power the legislature already possessed. Miss. Const. § 182. Second, it established a classification system for taxation. Taxpayers argue that there is, in these two provisions, no unity of ultimate object, that the purpose of one is to expand the legislature's power to exempt property from taxation while the purpose of the other is to create a classification system for taxation. Taxpayers argue further that the inclusion of both purposes in the broad category "taxation" is not enough to satisfy the requirement of Section 273. See Kerby v. Luhrs, 44 Ariz. 208, 36 P.2d 549 (1934).
Taxpayers' challenge to the 1983 amendment becomes moot in view of our several holdings below.
. See New York Trust Co. v. Eisner, 256 U.S. 345, 349, 41 S.Ct. 506, 507, 65 L.Ed. 963, 983 (1921); see also Cinque Bambini Partnership v. State, 491 So.2d 508, 517 n. 6 (Miss.1986), aff'd. sub. nom. Phillips Petroleum Co. v. Mississippi, 484 U.S. 469, 108 S.Ct. 791, 98 L.Ed.2d 877 (1988).
. Though this be enough, H.C.R. 41 may further be fairly read as relating to a single article of the Constitution. Article 4, Legislative Department. Taxpayers argue that H.C.R. 41 also amends Section 182 found in Article 7, Corporations, in that it amends the legislative power of tax exemption there provided. The point is specious. H.C.R. 41's property classification system simply does not alter Section 182's amendment power beyond the tensions existing between Section 112 and Section 182 long before H.C.R. 41 became a gleam in the legislature's eye.
. Without doubt, an excess of retroactivity in application of new law will imperil the integrity and efficacy of a legal system, particularly where citizens have relied to their detriment on prior law, as the late Prof. Lon L. Fuller persuasively demonstrated. See Fuller, The Morality of Law, 51-62 (1964). On the other hand, there are occasions where retroactivity is necessary to promote the integrity and efficacy of the system. Hart, Positivism and the Separation of Law and Morals, 71 Harv.L.Rev. 593, 610 (1958).
. If — twenty years ago — H.B. 388 had been validly enacted, one would have thought it local and private legislation. We doubt the thought would have occurred to anyone. The combined realities that Mississippi now has one privately owned nuclear power plant and that nuclear power is no longer seen a panacea for the nation's energy ills hardly change the constitutional classification of law like H.B. 388.
. See generally Steinglass, Section 1983 Litigation In State Courts (1988); and Steinglass, The Emerging State Court § 1983 Action: A Procedural Review, 38 U.Miami L.Rev. 381 (1984).