USA > Kentucky > A history of Kentucky > Part 17
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shall be eligible for the succeeding term.
include an auditor or assessor, or any other officer whose chief duty is not the collection or holding of public moneys. The General Assem- bly shall prescribe the qualifications of all officers of towns and cities, the manner in and causes for which they may be removed from office, and how vacancies in such offices may be filled.
SEC. 161. The compensation of any city, county, town, or munici- pal officer shall not be changed after his election or appointment, or during his term of office ; nor shall the term of any such officer be extended beyond the period for which he may have been elected or appointed.
SEC. 162. No county, city, town, or other municipality shall ever be authorized or permitted to pay any claim created against it, under any agreement or contract made without express authority of law, and all such unauthorized agreements or contracts shall be null and void.
SEC. 163. No street railway, gas, water, steam-heating, telephone, or electric-light company, within a city or town, shall be permitted or authorized to construct its tracks, lay its pipes or mains, or erect its poles, posts, or other apparatus along, over, under, or across the streets, alleys, or public grounds of a city or town, without the con- sent of the proper legislative bodies or boards of such city or town being first obtained ; but when charters have been heretofore granted conferring such rights, and work has in good faith been begun there- under, the provisions of this section shall not apply.
SEC. 164. No county, city, town, taxing district, or other munici-
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pality shall be authorized or permitted to grant any franchise or privi- lege, or make any contract in reference thereto, for a term exceeding twenty years. Before granting such franchise or privilege for a term of years, such municipality shall first, after due advertisement, re- ceive bids therefor publicly, and award the same to the highest and best bidder ; but it shall have the right to reject any or all bids. This section shall not apply to a trunk railway.
SEC. 165. No person shall at the same time be a State officer or a deputy officer, or member of the General Assembly, and an officer of any county, city, town, or other municipality, or an employee thereof; and no person shall at the same time fill two municipal offices, either in the same or different municipalities, except as may be other- wise provided in this Constitution; but a notary public, or an officer of the militia, shall not be ineligible to hold any other office mentioned in this section.
SEC. 166. All acts of incorporation of cities and towns heretofore granted, and all amendments thereto, except as provided in section one hundred and sixty-seven, shall continue in force under this Con- stitution ; and all city and police courts established in any city or town shall remain, with their present powers and jurisdictions, until such time as the General Assembly shall provide by general laws for the government of towns and cities, and the officers and courts there- of, but not longer than four years from and after the first day of January, one thousand eight hundred and ninety-one, within which time the General Assembly shall provide by general laws for the gov- ernment of towns and cities, and the officers and courts thereof, as provided in this Constitution.
SEC. 167. All city and town officers in this State shall be elected or appointed as provided in the charter of each respective town and city, until the general election in November, 1893, and until their successors shall be elected and qualified, at which time the terms of all such officers shall expire ; and at that election, and thereafter as their terms of office may expire, all officers required to be elected in cities and towns by this Constitution, or by general laws enacted in conformity to its provisions, shall be elected at the general elec- tions in November, but only in the odd years, except members of municipal legislative boards, who may be elected either in the even or odd years, or part in the even and part in the odd years : provided that the terms of office of police judges who were elected for four years at the August election, eighteen hundred and ninety, shall expire August thirty-first, eighteen hundred and ninety-four, and the terms of police judges elected in November, eighteen hundred and ninety-three, shall begin September first, eighteen hundred and ninety-four, and continue until the November election, eighteen hundred and ninety-seven, and until their successors are elected and qualified.
SEC. 168. No municipal ordinance shall fix a penalty for a violation thereof at less than that imposed by statute for the same offense. A conviction or acquittal under either shall constitute a bar to another prosccution for the same offense.
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REVENUE AND TAXATION.
SEC. 169. The fiscal year shall commence on the first day of July in each year, unless otherwise provided by law.
SEC. 170. There shall be exempt from taxation public property used for public purposes ; places actually used for religious worship, with the grounds attached thereto and used, and appurtenant to the house of worship, not exceeding one-half acre in cities or towns, and not exceeding two acres in the country ; places of burial not held for private or corporate profit, institutions of purely public charity, and institutions of education not used or employed for gain by any per- son or corporation, and the income of which is devoted solely to the cause of education ; public libraries, their endowments, and the in- come of such property as is used exclusively for their maintenance ; all parsonages or residences owned by any religious society, and occu- pied as a home, and for no other purpose, by the minister of any religion, with not exceeding one-half acre of ground in towns and cities, and two acres of ground in the country, appurtenant thereto ; household goods and other personal property of a person with a fam- ily, not exceeding two hundred and fifty dollars in value ; crops grown in the year in which the assessment is made, and in the hands of the producer ; and all laws exempting or commuting property from taxa- tion other than the property above mentioned shall be void. The General Assembly may authorize any incorporated city or town to exempt manufacturing establishments from municipal taxation, for a period not exceeding five years, as an inducement to their location.
SEC. 171. The General Assembly shall provide by law an annual tax, which, with other resources, shall be sufficient to defray the esti- mated expenses of the Commonwealth for each fiscal year. Taxes shall be levied and collected for public purposes only. They shall be uniform upon all property subject to taxation within the territorial limits of the authority levying the tax ; and all taxes shall be levied and collected by general laws.
SEC. 172. All property not exempted from taxation by this Constitution shall be assessed for taxation at its fair cash value, estimated at the price it would bring at a fair voluntary sale ; and any officer, or other person authorized to assess values for taxation, who shall commit any willful error in the performance of his duty, shall be deemed guilty of misfeasance, and upon conviction thereof shall forfeit his office, and be otherwise punished as may be provided by law.
SEC. 173. The receiving, directly or indirectly, by any officer of the Commonwealth, or of any county, city, or town, or member or officer of the General Assembly, of any interest, profit, or perquisites arising from the use or loan of public funds in his hands, or moneys to be raised through his agency for State, city, town, district, or county purposes, shall be deemed a felony. Said. offense shall be punished as may be prescribed by law, a part of which punishment shall be disqualification to hold office.
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SEC. 174. All property, whether owned by natural persons or corporations, shall be taxed in proportion to its value, unless ex- empted by this Constitution ; and all corporate property shall pay the same rate of taxation paid by individual property. Nothing in this Constitution shall be construed to prevent the General Assem- bly from providing for taxation based on income, licenses, or fran- chises.
SEC. 175. The power to tax property shall not be surrendered or suspended by any contract or grant to which the Commonwealth shall be a party.
SEC. 176. The Commonwealth shall not assume the debt of any county, municipal corporation, or political subdivision of the State, unless such debt shall have been contracted to defend itself in time of war, to repel invasion, or to suppress insurrection.
SEC. 177. The credit of the Commonwealth shall not be given, pledged, or loaned to any individual, company, corporation, or asso- ciation, municipality, or political subdivision of the State, nor shall the Commonwealth become an owner or stockholder in, nor make donation to, any company, association, or corporation ; nor shall the Commonwealth construct a railroad or other highway. (For amendment of 1908, see p. 272.)
SEC. 178. All laws authorizing the borrowing of money by and on behalf of the Commonwealth, county, or other political subdivision of the State, shall specify the purpose for which the money is to be used, and the money so borrowed shall be used for no other purpose.
SEC. 179. The General Assembly shall not authorize any county or subdivision thereof, city, town, or incorporated district, to become a stockholder in any company, association, or corporation, or to obtain or appropriate money for, or to loan its credit to, any corpo- ration, association, or individual, except for the purpose of construct- ing or maintaining bridges, turnpike roads, or gravel roads : provided, if any municipal corporation shall offer to the Commonwealth any property or money for locating or building a Capitol, and the Com- monwealth accepts such offer, the corporation may comply with the offer.
SEC. 180. The General Assembly may authorize the counties, cities, or towns to levy a poll-tax not exceeding one dollar and fifty cents per head. Every act enacted by the General Assembly, and every ordinance and resolution passed by any county, city, town, or municipal board or local legislative body, levying a tax, shall specify distinctly the purpose for which said tax is levied ; and no tax levied and collected for one purpose shall ever be devoted to another purpose.
SEC. 181. The General Assembly shall not impose taxes for the purposes of any county, city, town, or other municipal corporation, but may by general laws confer on the proper authorities thereof, respectively, the power to assess and collect such taxes. The Gen- eral Assembly may, by general laws only, provide for the payment of license fees on franchises, stock used for breeding purposes, the vari- ous trades, occupations, and professions, or a special or excise tax,
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and may by general laws delegate the power to counties, towns, cities, and other municipal corporations, to impose and collect license fees on stock used for breeding purposes, on franchises, trades, occu- pations, and professions. (For amendment of 1902, see p. 272.)
SEC. 182. Nothing in this Constitution shall be construed to pre- vent the General Assembly from providing by law how railroads and railroad property shall be assessed, and how taxes thereon shall be collected ; and until otherwise provided, the present law on said subject shall remain in force.
EDUCATION.
SEC. 183. The General Assembly shall by appropriate legislation provide for an efficient system of common schools throughout the State.
SEC. 184. The bond of the Commonwealth, issued in favor of the Board of Education for the sum of one million three hundred and twenty-seven thousand dollars, shall constitute one bond of the Com- monwealth in favor of the Board of Education ; and this bond and the seventy-three thousand five hundred dollars of the stock in the Bank of Kentucky, held by the Board of Education, and its proceeds, shall be held inviolate for the purpose of sustaining the system of common schools. The interest and dividends of said fund, together with any sum which may be produced by taxation or otherwise for purposes of common school education, shall be appropriated to the common schools, and to no other purpose. No sum shall be raised or collected for edu- cation other than in common schools until the question of taxation is submitted to the legal voters, and the majority of the votes cast at said election shall be in favor of such taxation : provided the tax now im- posed for educational purposes, and for the endowment and mainte- nance of the Agricultural and Mechanical College, shall remain until changed by law.
SEC. 185. The General Assembly shall make provision by law for the payment of the interest of said school fund, and may provide for the sale of the stock in the Bank of Kentucky ; and in case of a sale. of all or any part of said stock, the proceeds of sale shall be in- vested by the sinking-fund commissioners in other good interest-bear- ing stocks or bonds, which shall be subject to sale and reinvestment from time to time, in like manner and with the same restrictions as provided with reference to the sale of the said stock in the Bank of Kentucky.
SEC. 186. Each county in the Commonwealth shall be entitled to its proportion of the school fund on its census of pupil children for each school year ; and if the pro rata share of any school district be not called for after the second school year, it shall be covered into the treasury, and be placed to the credit of the school fund for general apportionment the following school year. The surplus now due the several counties shall remain a perpetual obligation against the Com- monwealth for the benefit of said respective counties, for which the Commonwealth shall execute its bond, bearing interest at the rate of
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six per centum per annum, payable annually to the counties respec- tively entitled to the same, and in the proportion to which they are entitled, to be used exclusively in aid of common schools.
SEC. 187. In distributing the school fund, no distinction shall be made on account of race or color, and separate schools for white and colored children shall be maintained.
SEC. 188. So much of any moneys as may be received by the Com- monwealth from the United States under the recent act of Congress refunding the direct tax shall become a part of the school fund, and be held as provided in section one hundred and eighty-four ; but the General Assembly may authorize the use, by the Commonwealth, of the moneys so received, or any part thereof, in which event a bond shall be executed to the Board of Education for the amount so used, which bond shall be held on the same terms and conditions, and sub- ject to the provisions of section one hundred and eighty-four, con- cerning the bond therein referred to.
SEC. 189. No portion of any fund or tax now existing, or that may hereafter be raised or levied, for educational purposes, shall be appro- priated to, or used by, or in aid of, any church, sectarian, or denom- inational school.
CORPORATIONS.
SEC. 190. No corporation in existence at the time of the adoption of this Constitution shall have the benefit of future legislation with- out first filing in the office of the secretary of state an acceptance of the provisions of this Constitution.
SEC. 191. All existing charters or grants of special or exclusive privileges, under which a bona fide organization shall not have taken place, and business been commenced in good faith at the time of the adoption of this Constitution, shall thereafter be void and of no effect.
SEC. 192. No corporation shall engage in business other than that expressly authorized by its charter, or the law under which it may have been or hereafter may be organized, nor shall it hold any real estate, except such as may be proper and necessary for carrying on its legiti- mate business, for a longer period than five years, under penalty of escheat.
SEC. 193. No corporation shall issue stock or bonds except for an equivalent in money paid or labor done, or property actually received and applied to the purposes for which such corporation was created ; and neither labor nor property shall be received in payment of stock or bonds at a greater value than the market price at the time said labor was done or property delivered ; and all fictitious increase of stock or indebtedness shall be void.
SEC. 194. All corporations formed under the laws of this State, or carrying on business in this State, shall at all times have one or more known places of business in this State, and an authorized agent or agents there, upon whom process may be executed ; and the General Assembly shall enact laws to carry into effect the provisions of this section.
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SEC. 195. The Commonwealth, in the exercise of the right of emi- nent domain, shall have and retain the same powers to take the prop- erty and franchises of incorporated companies for public use which it has and retains to take the property of individuals ; and the ex- ercise of the police powers of this Commonwealth shall never be abridged, nor so construed as to permit corporations to conduct their business in such manner as to infringe upon the equal rights of individuals.
SEC. 196. Transportation of freight and passengers by railroad, steamboat, or other common carrier, shall be so regulated by general law as to prevent unjust discrimination. No common carrier shall be permitted to contract for relief from its common law liability.
SEC. 197. No railroad, steamboat, or other common carrier, under heavy penalty to be fixed by the General Assembly, shall give a free pass or passes, or shall, at reduced rates not common to the public, sell tickets for transportation to any State, district, city, town, or county officer, or member of the General Assembly, or judge; and any State, district, city, town, or county officer, or member of the General Assembly, or judge, who shall accept or use a free pass or passes, or shall receive or use tickets or transportation at reduced rates not common to the public, shall forfeit his office. It shall be the duty of the General Assembly to enact laws to enforce the pro- visions of this section.
SEC. 198. It shall be the duty of the General Assembly from time to time, as necessity may require, to enact such laws as may be nec- essary to prevent all trusts, pools, combinations, or other organiza- tions, from combining to depreciate below its real value any article, or to enhance the cost of any article above its real value.
SEC. 197. Any association or corporation, or the lessees or managers thereof, organized for the purpose, or any individual, shall have the right to construct and maintain lines of telegraph within this State, and to connect the same with other lines ; and said companies shall receive and transmit each other's messages without unreasonable delay or discrimination, and all such companies are hereby declared to be common carriers, and subject to legislative control. Telephone com- panies operating exchanges in different towns or cities, or other pub- lic stations, shall receive and transmit each other's messages without unreasonable delay or discrimination. The General Assembly shall, by general laws of uniform operation, provide reasonable regulations to give full effect to this section. Nothing herein shall be construed to interfere with the rights of cities or towns to arrange and control their streets and alleys, and to designate the places at which, and the manner in which, the wires of such companies shall be erected or laid within the limits of such city or town.
SEC. 200. If any railroad, telegraph, express, or other corporation organized under the laws of this Commonwealth shall consolidate, by sale or otherwise, with any railroad, telegraph, express, or other cor- poration organized under the laws of any other State, the same shall not thereby become a foreign corporation ; but the courts of this Commonwealth shall retain jurisdiction over that part of the corporate
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property within the limits of this State in all matters which may arise, as if said consolidation had not taken place.
SEC. 201. No railroad, telegraph, telephone, bridge, or common carrier company shall consolidate its capital stock, franchises, or prop- erty, or pool its earnings, in whole or in part, with any other railroad, telegraph, telephone, bridge, or common carrier company, owning a parallel or competing line or structure, or acquire by purchase, lease, or otherwise, any parallel or competing line or structure, or operate the same ; nor shall any railroad company or other common carrier combine or make any contract with the owners of any vessel that leaves or makes port in this State, or with any common carrier, by which combination or contract the earnings of one doing the carrying are to be shared by the other not doing the carrying.
SEC. 202. No corporation organized outside the limits of this State shall be allowed to transact business within the State on more favor- able conditions than are prescribed by law to similar corporations organized under the laws of this Commonwealth.
SEC. 203. No corporation shall lease or alienate any franchise so as to relieve the franchise or property held thereunder from the liabilities of the lessor or grantor, lessee or grantee, contracted or incurred in the operation, use, or enjoyment of such franchise, or any of its privi- leges.
SEC. 204. Any president, director, manager, cashier, or other officer of any banking institution or association for the deposit or loan of money, or any individual banker, who shall receive or assent to the receiving of deposits after he shall have knowledge of the fact that such banking institution or association or individual banker is insol- vent, shall be individually responsible for such deposits so received, and shall be guilty of felony, and subject to such punishment as shall be prescribed by law.
SEC. 205. The General Assembly shall by general laws provide for the revocation or forfeiture of the charters of all corporations guilty of abuse or misuse of their corporate powers, privileges, or franchises, or whenever said corporations become detrimental to the interest and welfare of the Commonwealth or its citizens.
SEC. 206. All elevators or storehouses where grain or other property is stored for a compensation, whether the property stored be kept separate or not, are declared to be public warehouses, subject to legis- lative control ; and the General Assembly shall enact laws for the inspection of grain, tobacco, and other produce, and for the protec- tion of producers, shippers, and receivers of grain, tobacco, and other produce.
SEC. 207. In all elections for directors or managers of any corpora- tion, each shareholder shall have the right to cast as many votes in the aggregate as he shall be entitled to vote in said company under its charter, multiplied by the number of directors or managers to be elected at such election ; and each shareholder may cast the whole number of votes, either in person or by proxy, for one candidate, or distribute such votes among two or more candidates ; and such direct- ors or managers shall not be elected in any other manner.
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SEC. 208. The word "corporation " as used in this Constitution shall embrace joint-stock companies and associations.
RAILROADS AND COMMERCE.
SEC. 209. A commission is hereby established, to be known as " The Railroad Commission," which shall be composed of three com- missioners. During the session of the General Assembly which con- venes in December, eighteen hundred and ninety-one, and before the first day of June, eighteen hundred and ninety-two, the governor shall appoint, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, said three commissioners, one from each superior court district as now estab- lished ; and said appointees shall take their office at the expiration of the terms of the present incumbents. The commissioners so appointed shall continue in office during the term of the present governor, and until their successors are elected and qualified. At the regular election in eighteen hundred and ninety-five, and every four years thereafter, the commissioners shall be elected, one in each superior court district, by the qualified voters thereof, at the same time and for the same term as the governor. No person shall be eligible to said office unless he be, at the time of his election, at least thirty years of age, a citizen of Kentucky two years, and a resident of the district from which he is chosen one year, next preceding his election. Any vacancy in this office shall be filled as provided in section one hundred and fifty-two of this Constitution. The General Assembly may from time to time change said districts so as to equalize the population thereof, and may, if deemed expedient, require that the commissioners be all elected by the qualified voters of the State at large ; and if so required, one commissioner shall be from each dis- trict. No person in the service of any railroad or common carrier company or corporation, or of any firm or association conducting business as a common carrier, or in any wise pecuniarily interested in such company, corporation, firm, or association, or in the railroad business, or as a common carrier, shall hold such office. The powers and duties of the railroad commissioners shall be regulated by law ; and, until otherwise provided by law, the commission so created shall have the same powers and jurisdiction, perform the same duties, be subject to the same regulations, and receive the same compensation, as now conferred, prescribed, and allowed by law to the existing rail- road commissioners. The General Assembly may, for cause, address any of said commissioners out of office by similar proceedings as in the case of judges of the Court of Appeals ; and the General Assem- bly shall enact laws to prevent the nonfeasance and misfeasance in office of said commissioners, and to impose proper penalties therefor.
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