Opinion ID: 2115174
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Ch 459, Laws of 1961, Is a Public Law.

Text: The plaintiff taxpayer contends ch. 459, Laws of 1961, is a local law and embraces three subjects, one of which is not expressed in the title and thereby violates sec. 18, art. IV of the Wisconsin constitution. [3] The constitution does not define a private or local bill but the plaintiff contends a bill is local when it affects only a specific locality or only a portion of the state except when the portion of the state affected constitutes a legitimate legislative class, relying on Milwaukee County v. Isenring (1901), 109 Wis. 9, 85 N. W. 131, and Whitefish Bay v. Milwaukee County (1937), 224 Wis. 373, 271 N. W. 416. The provisions of the constitution are not applicable to a public and general act of the legislature which may contain matters outside of its title. Lawton v. Waite (1899), 103 Wis. 244, 79 N. W. 321. The reason for this requirement concerning local bills was to inform persons concerned with the nature and intent of the enactment and prevent the possibility of legislators or persons affected from being misled by the title. A law which affects the entire state is general but a law may affect less than the entire state without losing its status as a general law. Lamasco Realty Co. v. Milwaukee (1943), 242 Wis. 357, 8 N. W. (2d) 372, 8 N. W. (2d) 865. The difficulty arises under what circumstances the classification is proper. In Federal Paving Corp. v. Prudisch (1940), 235 Wis. 527, 293 N. W. 156, two groups of decisions were distinguished. A classification which applied only to cities of the first class was denominated local because by the terms of the act involved, it could not apply to any other city than Milwaukee. The other group classification, while applying to Milwaukee, was held to be general since by its terms it could apply in the future, however remotely that might be, to more than one city. This was the distinction between a closed and an open class. The plaintiffs contend the mandatory inclusion of 26 counties classified by reference to existing circumstances only created a closed class and the granting to those counties of the option to elect the rate of prior-service credits not given to other counties was a legislative conglomeration which the constitution sought to prevent. It is true, ch. 459, Laws of 1961, in effect, applies to 26 counties, but we do not see that the chapter makes a classification upon existing circumstances only, because of that fact. The net effect of ch. 459 is not to classify at all but to make county pension systems uniform throughout the state. If the 26 counties are considered to be a class, such classification for the purpose of making pensions uniform in the state was a germane and proper classification for a public purpose. If it is constitutional to recognize cities of the first class on the theory their metropolitan problems deserve a special classification under a general law, it is just as constitutional to consider an act which, in effect, applies to 26 counties or almost one third of the counties of the state as being general when that law requires statewide conformity to a public purpose. A law including fewer counties was held a general and not a local law in Collins v. Cowan (1881), 52 Wis. 634, 9 N. W. 787. Likewise, we said in Joint School Dist. v. Sosalla (1958), 3 Wis. (2d) 410, 88 N. W. (2d) 357, in sustaining an act as a general law, the statute applies to any number of school districts and adjoining territory when the terms of the statute are met. It is argued the class comprising the 26 counties is closed but this is so only because the application of ch. 459, Laws of 1961, now embraces all the existing counties of Wisconsin excepting Milwaukee county, which has its own pension plan. The concept of a closed class assumes there are other existing entities which are capable of meeting presently or in the future the requirements of the classification and are not then included. In view of our conclusion ch. 459, Laws of 1961, is a general or public act, sec. 18, art. IV of the Wisconsin constitution has no applicability, but if it were a local bill we would hold that it meets the requirements of the constitutional limitation. The act deals with only one subject, namely, pensions. Three phases of that subject, the mandatory inclusion of the counties, the option to select the basis for prior-service credits, and state aids to finance the Fund under certain conditions, all relate and are germane and included within the scope of the title of the act. [4] The title of a local law is not an index of its contents and should be liberally construed. Only where the title is so insufficient or defective as to not reasonably suggest the purpose of the act or what it covers, or where the reading of the act will disclose provisions clearly outside of its title, ought the act be held invalid. See Phillips v. Town of Albany (1871), 28 Wis. 340; State ex rel. Williams v. Kaempfer (1922), 176 Wis. 283, 187 N. W. 215; State ex rel. Hammann v. Levitan (1929), 200 Wis. 271, 228 N. W. 140; Ruud, No Law Shall Embrace More Than One Subject, 42 Minnesota Law Review (1958), 389; Diana Shooting Club v. Lamoreux (1902), 114 Wis. 44, 89 N. W. 880; In re Southern Wisconsin Power Co. (1909), 140 Wis. 245, 122 N. W. 801.