Opinion ID: 2226504
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 6

Heading: the library maintenance fund objection

Text: Objection was made to Library Maintenance Fund appropriations for machinery and equipment in the amount of $5000; motor vehicles $25,000, and furniture and fixtures, $5000. For the five years, 1943 to 1947, inclusive, appropriations for machinery and equipment totaled $23,000. During those years no expenditures were made from this account. For the same years total appropriation of $54,500 were made for motor vehicles. No part of these appropriations was spent for the purpose appropriated. For the same five years $34,000 was appropriated for furniture and fixtures. Of this total, $1,616.26 was spent during the five-year period, leaving an unexpended balance of $32,383.74. Upon the basis of these facts, the taxpayer, by his objection, charges that the 1948 appropriation and levy for the three purposes stated were grossly excessive, and so illegal and void. He asserts that these excessive appropriations must have been made with the intention of raising a fund for some purpose other than that for which the levy was made, or of creating a surplus for use at some future date, or with both intentions. A tax levy greatly in excess of the amount required for a particular purpose, with the intention of creating a surplus to be used for another purpose, is not a legal tax levy even though the rate be within the statutory limit. People ex rel. Toman v. Signode Steel Strapping Co. 380 Ill. 633; People ex rel. Toman v. 110 South Dearborn Street Building Corp. 372 Ill. 459; People ex rel. Hudson v. Cleveland, Cincinnati, Chicago and St. Louis Railway Co. 360 Ill. 180; People ex rel. Clark v. Baltimore and Ohio Southwestern Railway Co. 353 Ill. 492; People ex rel. James v. Wabash Railway Co. 314 Ill. 388; People ex rel. Price v. Illinois Central Railroad Co. 266 Ill. 636. The collector argues that war conditions made it difficult or impossible for the city to purchase the items in question during most of the period 1943-1947, and that this fact renders inapplicable the decisions relied upon by the objector. Allowing full scope to this contention, it still appears that ample time elapsed, after war conditions had terminated, to permit the city to meet the accumulated need for the items in question had it desired to do so. Objection No. 9 to the taxes for the Library Maintenance Fund was properly sustained.