Opinion ID: 1297458
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 6

Heading: Does ch. 3, Laws of 1969, violate art. IV, secs. 31 and 32 of the Wisconsin Constitution?

Text: It is contended that the appropriation violates paragraph 7th, art. IV, sec. 31 of the Wisconsin Constitution, [5] which prohibits the legislature from enacting any special or private law for the granting of corporate powers or privileges. It is also contended that art. IV, sec. 32, [6] is violated, because ch. 3, Laws of 1969, is not a general law because it applies only to one corporation. We need not consider sec. 32 because if there is no violation of sec. 31, sec. 32 is not applicable. Early authorities in Wisconsin construed the constitutional prohibition to relate only to the grant of a corporate charter for the creation of corporate powers and privileges or the addition of charter powers to an existing corporation. See Attorney General v. Railroad Companies (1874), 35 Wis. 425; Black River Improvement Co. v. Holway (1894), 87 Wis. 584, 59 N. W. 126. But respondent contends the constitutional restriction should now be construed more liberally to prohibit the grant by special act to a corporation of any power or privilege which it can exercise in fact under its general corporate powers and is essential to its corporate existence. However, in In re Southern Wisconsin Power Co. (1909), 140 Wis. 245, 258, 122 N. W. 801, this court pointed out that a franchise (the right to build a dam which was later assigned to a corporation) granted by the legislature was not a grant of corporate power or privilege within the meaning of art. IV, sec. 31, and did not require a corporate existence for its exercise. It is argued that the grant of funds to Marquette School of medicine confers the power and privilege to use state funds in its operation and a substantial appropriation may even save its corporate life because the medical school is now operating at a deficit. This argument is a play on words. The appropriation is a grant of funds, not of corporate power or privilege. Sec. 31 prohibits only the special creation or grant of corporate existence with powers to act as a corporation in respect to those powers and privileges and the special granting of additional powers to be exercised in a corporate capacity. We make it clear that our determination that the present minimal budgetary and financial controls are sufficient to sustain the proposed 1969 appropriation does not necessarily constitute a determination that continued appropriations with no greater controls than presently established by the law would have this court's constitutional approval. By the Court. Chapter 3 of the Laws of 1969 is valid and constitutional and respondent is ordered to honor its appropriation.