Court Opinion

ID: 9643297
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 20:24:45.421006+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:10:59.100166
License: Public Domain

PHILLIPS, Chief Judge
(concurring).
The opinion of the court has my full concurrence but it seems to me, the conclusion that ad valorem taxes to create a fusd to pay the principal and interest of the waterworks bonds will not be so palpably arbitrary and discriminatory as to violate the Fourteenth Amendment, will more clearly appear if certain facts are more fully stated and emphasized.
The Morton Salt Company, hereinafter called Morton, purchased land within the territorial limits of the City of South Hutchinson, hereinafter called the City, and constructed its plant on such land. It must have known when it did so that its property would be subject to ad valorem taxes for general municipal purposes such as public health, fire and police protection, waterworks, and public schools.
What the Supreme Court said in Kelly v. Pittsburgh, 104 U.S. 78, 82, 26 L.Ed. 658, with respect to ad valorem taxes assessed against a tract of farm land within the city limits of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, is apposite :
“It may be true that he does not receive the same amount of benefit from some or *893any of these taxes as do citizens living in the heart of the city. It probably is true, from the evidence found in this record, that his tax bears a very unjust relation to the benefits received as compared with its amount. But who can adjust with precise accuracy the amount which each individual in an organized civil community shall contribute to sustain it, or can insure in this respect absolute equality of burdens, and fairness in their distribution among those who must bear them?
“We cannot say judicially that Kelly received no benefit from the city organization. These streets, if they do not penetrate his farm, lead to it. The water-works will probably reach him some day, and may be near enough to him now to serve him on some occasion. The schools may receive his children, and in this regard he can be in no worse condition that those living in the city who have no children, and yet who pay for the support of the schools. Every man in a county, a town, a city, or a State is deeply interested in the education of the children of the community, because his peace and quiet, his happiness and prosperity, are largely dependent upon the intelligence and moral training which it is the object of public schools to supply to the children of his neighbors and associates, if 'he has none himself.”
Here, as the opinion of the court clearly demonstrates, a waterworks system is urgently necessary to protect the public health of the inhabitants of the City. Certain of Morton’s employees live in the populated section of the City. Other of Morton’s employees no doubt come in direct contact, from time to time, with the inhabitants of the City. Children of some of Morton’s employees attend the public schools of the City. An epidemic of disease in the City would directly endanger the health of the employees of Morton who live in or mingle with the other inhabitants of the City and the children of Morton’s employees who attend the public schools of the City. Such employees would come m immediate contact with other employees of Morton during working hours and subject them to the danger of infection. Hence, it seems to me that the protection and improvement of the public health of the inhabitants of the City must necessarily result in benefit to Morton.
Moreover, Morton has a substantial acreage of vacant and unimproved land lying between its plant and the improved and populated portion of the City. Unimproved lots within a city owned by nonresident persons, natural or corporate, are subject to taxes for general municipal purposes. Such property receives benefits, immediate or potential, when the general welfare within such city is promoted. Improvement of the general welfare within a city normally will make unimproved areas therein more desirable as locations for future improvements and enhance their value. The waterworks system as presently planned will extend to within 250 feet of Morton’s unimproved land. Should Morton plat and improve such land or sell it to others for residential or business purposes, I entertain no doubt that lawful means will be found to make the necessary extensions of the waterworks system to such land, since the bonds will be retired from year to year and the tax values of such vacant land will increase should development and improvement thereof ensue.
Accordingly, I conclude that the construction of the waterworks system will result in benefit to Morton both immediate and potential.
Ad valorem taxes are not based on benefits but on value of taxable property. Their burdens necessarily are not in proportion to benefits and need not be to meet the constitutional test of validity. They must be uniform and must not be palpably arbitrary or discriminatory. For the reasons indicated the taxes here in question, in my opinion, meet the constitutional test of validity.