USA > Missouri > Pettis County > The History of Pettis County, Missouri, including an authentic history of Sedalia, other towns and townships, together with biographical sketches > Part 18
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SECTION 1. The taxing power may be exercised by the general as- sembly for state purposes, and by counties and other municipal corpora- tions, under authority granted to them by the general assembly, for county and other corporate purposes.
SEC. 2. The power to tax corporations and corporate property shall not be surrendered or suspended by act of the general assembly.
SEC. 3. Taxes may be levied and collected for public purposes only. They shall be uniform upon the same class of subjects within the territorial limits of the authority levying the tax; and all taxes shall be levied and collected by general laws.
SEC. 4. All property subject to taxation shall be taxed in proportion to its value.
SEC. 5. All railroad corporations in this state, or doing business therein, shall be subject to taxation for state, county, school, municipal and other purposes, on the real and personal property owned or used by them, and on their gross earnings, their net earnings, their franchises and their capital stock.
SEC. 6. The property, real and personal, of the state, counties and
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other municipal corporations, and cemeteries, shall be exempt from taxa- tion. Lots in incorporated cities or towns, or within one mile of the limits of any such city or town, to the extent of one acre, and lots one mile or more distant from such cities or towns, to the extent of five acres, with the buildings thereon, may be exempted from taxation, when the same are used exclusively for religious worship, for schools, or for purposes purely charitable; also, such property, real or personal, as may be used exclusively for agricultural or horticultural societies: Provided, That such exemptions shall be only by general law.
SEC. 7. All laws exempting property from taxation, other than the property above enumerated, shall be void.
SEC. 8. The state tax on property, exclusive of the tax necessary to pay the bonded debt ot the state, shall not exceed twenty cents on the hundred dollars valuation; and whenever the taxable property of the state shall amount to nine hundred million dollars, the rate shall not exceed fif- teen cents.
SEC. 9. No county, city, town, or other municipal corporation, nor the inhabitants thereof, nor the property therein, shall be released or discharged from their or its proportionate share of taxes to be levied for state pur- poses, nor shall commutation for such taxes be authorized in any form whatsoever.
SEC. 10. The general assembly shall not impose taxes upon counties, cities, towns or other municipal corporations; or upon the inhabitants or property thereof, for county, city, town or other municipal purposes; but may, by general laws, vest in the corporate authorities thereof, the power to assess and collect taxes for such purposes.
SEC. 11. Taxes for county, city, town and school purposes, may be levied on all subjects and objects of taxation; but the valuation of property therefor shall not exceed the valuation of the same property in such town, city or school district for state and county purposes. For county purposes the annual rate on property, in counties having six million dollars or less, shall not, in the aggregate, exceed fifty cents on the hundred dollars valua- tion ; in counties having six million dollars and under ten million dollars, said rate shall not exceed forty cents on the hundred dollars valuation; in counties having ten million dollars and under thirty million dollars, said rate shall not exceed fifty cents on the hundred dollars valuation; and in counties having thirty million dollars or more, said rate shall not exceed thirty-five cents on the hundred dollars valuation. For city and town pur- poses the annual rate on property in cities and towns having thirty thou- sand inhabitants or more, shall not, in the aggregate, exceed one hundred cents on the hundred dollars valuation; in cities and towns having less than thirty thousand and over ten thousand inhabitants, said rate shall not exceed sixty cents on the hundred dollars valuation; in cities and towns having less than ten thousand and more than one thousand inhabi- tants, said rate shall not exceed fifty cents on the hundred dollars valuation; and in towns having one thousand inhabitants or less, said rate shall not exceed twenty-five cents on the hundred valuation. For school purposes in districts, the annual rate on property shall not exceed forty cents on the hundred dollars valuation: Provided, The aforesaid annual rates for school purposes may be increased, in districts formed of cities and towns, to an amount not to exceed one dollar on the hundred dollars valuation; and in other districts to an amount not to exceed sixty-five cents on the hundred
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dollars valuation, on the condition that a majority of the voters who are tax-payers, voting at an election held to decide the question, vote for said increase. For the purpose of erecting public buildings in counties, cities or school districts, the rates of taxation herein limited may be increased when the rate of such increase and the purpose for which it is intended shall have been submitted to a vote of the people, and two-thirds of the qualified voters of such county, city, or school district, voting at such elec- tion shall vote therefor. The rate herein allowed to each county shall be ascertained by the amount of taxable property therein, according to the last assessment for state and county purposes, and the rate allowed to each city or town by the number of inhabitants, according to the last census taken under the authority of the state, or of the United States; said re- strictions, as to rates, shall apply to taxes of every kind and description, whether general or special, except taxes to pay valid indebtedness now ex- isting or bonds which may be issued in renewal of such indebtedness.
SEC. 12. No county, city, town, township, school district or other polit- ical corporation or subdivision of the state, shall be allowed to become indebted in any manner or for any purpose to an amount exceeding in any year the income and revenue provided for such year, without the assent of two-thirds the voters thereof, voting at an election to be held for that purpose; nor in cases requiring such assent shall any indebtedness be allowed to be incurred to an amount including existing indebtedness, in the aggregate, exceeding five per centum on the value of the taxable prop- erty therein, to be ascertained by the assessment next before the last as- sessment for state and county purposes, previous to the incurring of such indebtedness: Provided, That with such assent any county may be allowed to become indebted to a larger amount for the erection of a court house or jail: And provided further, That any county, city, town, township, school district or other political corporation, or subdivision of the state, incurring any indebtedness, requiring the assent of the voters as aforesaid, shall, be- fore or at the time of doing so, provide for the collection of an annual tax, sufficient to pay the interest on such indebtedness as it falls due, and also to constitute a sinking fund for payment of the principal thereof, within twenty years from the time of contracting the same.
SEC. 13. Private property shall not be taken or sold for the payment of the corporate debt of a municipal corporation.
SEC. 14. The tax authorized by the sixth section of the ordinance adopted June sixth, one thousand eight hundred and sixty-five, is hereby abolished, and hereafter there shall be levied and collected an annual tax sufficient to pay the accruing interest upon the bonded debt of the state, and to reduce the principal thereof each year by a sum not less than two hundred and fifty thousand dollars; the proceeds of which tax shall be paid into the state treasury, and appropriated and paid out for the purposes expressed in the first and second subdivisions of section forty-three of arti- cle IV of this constitution. The funds and resources now in the state in- terest and state sinking funds shall be appropriated to the same purposes; and whenever said bonded debt is extinguished, or a sum sufficient there- for has been raised, the tax provided for in this section shall cease to be assessed.
SEC. 15. All moneys now, or at any time hereafter, in the state treas- ury, belonging to the state, shall, immediately on receipt thereof, be deposited by the treasurer to the credit of the state for the benefit of the
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funds to which they respectively belong, in such bank or banks as he may, from time to time, with the approval of the governor and attorney gen- eral, select; the said bank or banks giving security, satisfactory to the gov- ernor and attorney general, for the safe keeping and payment of such deposit, when demanded by the state treasurer on his checks; such bank to pay a bonus for the use of such deposits not less than the bonus paid by other banks for similar deposits; and the same, together with such interest and profits as may accrue thereon, shall be disbursed by said treasurer for the purposes of the state, according to law, upon warrants drawn by the state auditor, and not otherwise.
SEC. 16. The treasurer shall keep a separate account of the funds, and the number and amount of warrants received, and from whom; and shall publish, in such manner as the governor may designate, quarterly state- ments, showing the amount of state moneys, and where the same are kept or deposited.
SEC. 17. The making of profit out of state, county, city, town or school district money, or using the same for any purpose not authorized by law, by any public officer, shall be deemed a felony, and shall be punished as provided by law.
SEC. 18. There shall be a state board of equalization, consisting of the governor, state auditor, state treasurer, secretary of state and attorney general. The duty of said board shall be to adjust and equalize the valu- ation of real and personal property among the several counties in the state, and it shall perform such other duties as are or may be prescribed by law.
SEC. 19. No moneys shall ever be paid out of the treasury of this state, or any of the funds under its management, except in pursuance of an appropriation by law; nor unless such payment be made, or a warrant shall have issued therefor, within two years after the passage of such ap- propriation act; and every such law, making a new appropriation, or con- tinuing or reviving an appropriation, shall distinctly specify the sum appro- priated, and the object to which it is to be applied; and it shall not be suffi- cient to refer to any other law to fix such sum or object. A regular state- ment and account of the receipts and expenditures of all public money shall be published from time to time.
SEC. 20. The moneys arising from any loan, debt or liability, con- tracted by the state, or any county, city, town, or other municipal corpora- tion, shall be applied to the purposes for which they were obtained, or to the repayment of such debt or liability, and not otherwise.
SEC. 21. No corporation, company or association, other than those formed for benevolent, religious, scientific, or educational purposes, shall be created or organized under the laws of this state, unless the persons namned as corporators shall, at or before the filing of the articles of association or incorporation, pay into the state treasury fifty dollars for the first fifty thousand dollars or less of capital stock, and a further sum of five dollars for every additional ten thousand dollars of its capital stock. And no such corporation, company or association shall increase its capital stock without first paying into the treasury five dollars for every ten thousand dollars of increase: Provided, That nothing contained in this section shall be con- strued to prohibit the general assembly from levying a further tax on the franchises of such corporation.
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ARTICLE XI .- EDUCATION.
SECTION 1. A general diffusion of knowledge and intelligence being essential to the preservation of the rights and liberties of the people, the general assembly shall establish and maintain free public schools for the gratuitous instruction of all persons in this state between the ages of six and twenty years.
SEC. 2. The income of all the funds provided by the state for the sup- port of free public schools, shall be paid annually to the several county treasurers, to be disbursed according to law; but no school district, in which a free public school has not been maintained at least three months during the year for which the distribution is made, shall be entitled to receive any portion of such funds.
SEC. 3. Separate free public schools shall be established for the educa- tion of children of African descent.
SEC. 4. The supervision of instruction in the public schools shall be vested in a " board of education," whose powers and duties shall be pre- scribed by law. The superintendent of public schools shall be president of the board. The governor, secretary of state and attorney-general shall be ex-officio members, and with the superintendent, compose said board of education.
SEC. 5. The general assembly shall, whenever the public school fund will permit, and the actual necessity of the same may require, aid and maintain the state university, now established, with its present depart- ments. The government of the state university shall be vested in a board of curators, to consist of nine members, to be appointed by the governor, by and with the advice and consent of the senate.
SEC. 6. The proceeds of all lands that have been, or hereafter may be granted by the United States to this state, and not otherwise appropriated by this state or the United States; also, all moneys, stocks, bonds, lands and other property now belonging to any state fund for purposes of educa- tion; also, the net proceeds of all sales of lands, and other property and effects that may accrue to the state by escheat, from unclaimed dividends and distributive shares of the estates of deceased persons; also, any pro- ceeds of the sales of the public lands which may have been or hereafter may be paid over to this state, (if congress will consent to such appropria- tion); also, all other grants, gifts or devises that have been, or hereafter may be, made to this state, and not otherwise appropriated by the state or the terms of the grant, gift or devise, shall be paid into the state treasury, and securely invested and sacredly preserved as a public school fund; the annual income of which fund, together with so much of the ordinary reve- nue of the state as may be by law set apart for that purpose, shall be faith- fully appropriated for establishing and maintaining the free public schools and the state university in this article provided for, and for no other uses or purposes whatsoever.
SEC. 7. In case the public school fund now provided and set apart by law, for the support of free public schools, shall be insufficient to sustain a free school at least four months in every year in each school district in this state, the general assembly may provide for such deficiency in accordance with section eleven of the article on revenue and taxation: but in no case shall there be set apart less than twenty-five per cent. of the state revenue exclusive of the interest and sinking fund, to be applied annually to the support of the public schools.
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SEC. 8. All moneys, stocks, bonds, lands and other property belonging to a county school fund; also, the net proceeds from the sale of estrays; also, the clear proceeds of all penalties and forfeitures, and of all fines collected in the several counties for any breach of the penal or mili- tary laws of the state, and all moneys which shall be paid by persons as an equivalent for exemption from military duty, shall belong to and be securely invested, and sacredly preserved in the several counties, as a county public school fund; the income of which fund shall be faithfully appropriated for establishing and maintaining free public schools in the several counties of this state.
SEC. 9. No part of the public school fund of the state shall ever be invested in the stock or bonds, or other obligations of any other state, or of any county, city, town or corporation; and the proceeds of the sales of any lands or other property which now belong, or may hereafter belong, to said school fund, shall be invested in the bonds of the state of Missouri, or of the United States.
SEC. 10. All county school funds shall be loaned only upon unincum- bered real estate security, of double the valve of the loan, with personal security in addition thereto.
SEC. 11. Neither the general assembly, nor any county, city, town, township, school district or other municipal corporation, shall ever make an appropriation, or pay from any public fund whatever anything in aid of any religious creed, church or sectarian purpose; or to help to support or sustain any private or public school, academy, seminary, college, univers- ity or other institution of learning, controlled by any religious creed, church or sectarian denomination whatever; nor shall any grant or donation of personal property or real estate ever be made by the state, or any county, city, town or other municipal corporation, for any religious creed, church or sectarian purpose whatever.
ARTICLE XII .- CORPORATIONS.
SECTION 1. All existing charters, or grants of special or exclusive priv- ileges, under which a bona fide organization shall not have taken place, and business been commenced in good faith, at the adoption of this con- stitution, shall thereafter have no validity.
SEC. 2. No corporation, after the adoption of this constitution, shall be created by special laws; nor shall any existing charter be extended, changed or amended by special laws, except those for charitable, penal or reformatory purposes, which are under the patronage and control of the state.
SEC. 3. The general assembly shall not remit the forfeiture of the charter of any corporation now existing, or alter or amend such forfeited charter, or pass any other general or special laws for the benefit of such corporations.
SEC. 4. The exercise of the power and right of eminent domain, shall never be so construed or abridged as to prevent the taking, by the general assembly, of the property and franchises of incorporated companies already organized, or that may be hereafter organized, and subjecting them to the public use, the same as that of individuals. The right of trial by jury shall be held inviolate in all trials of claims for compensation, when in the exercise of said right of eminent domain, any incorporated company shall be interested either for or against the exercise of said right.
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SEC. 5. The exercise of the police power of the state shall never be abridged, or so construed as to permit corporations to conduct their busi- ness in such manner as to infringe the equal rights of individuals, or the general well-being of the state.
SEC. 6. In all elections for directors or managers of any incorporated company, each shareholder shall have the right to cast as many votes in the aggregate as shall equal the number of shares so held by him or her in said company, 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 directors or managers shall not be elected in any other manner.
SEC. 7. No corporation shall engage in business, other than that ex- pressly authorized in its charter or the law under which it may have been or hereafter may be organized, nor shall it hold any real estate for any period longer than six years, except such as may be necessary and proper for carrying on its legitimate business.
SEC. 8. No corporation shall issue stock or bonds, except for money paid, labor done or property actually received, and all fictitious increase of stock or indebtedness shall be void. The stock and bonded indebtedness of corporations shall not be increased, except in pursuance of general law, nor without the consent of the persons holding the larger amount in value of the stock first obtained at a meeting called for the purpose, first giving sixty days public notice, as may be provided by law.
SEC. 9. Dues from private corporations shall be secured by such means as may be prescribed by law, but in no case shall any stockholder be indi- vidually liable in any amount over or above the amount of stock owned by him or her.
SEC. 10. No corporation shall issue preferred stock without the con- sent of all the stockholders.
SEC. 11. The term "corporation," as used in this article, shall be con- strued to include all joint stock companies or associations having any pow- ers or privileges not possessed by individuals or partnerships.
RAILROADS.
SEC. 12. It shall not be lawful in this state for any railway company to charge for freight or passengers a greater amount, for the transportation of the same, for a less distance than the amount charged for any greater distance, and suitable laws shall be passed by the general assembly to en- force this provision; but excursion and commutation tickets may be issued at special rates.
SEC. 13. Any railroad corporation or association, organized for the purpose, shall have the right to construct and operate a railroad between any points within this state, and to connect at the state line with railroads of other states. Every railroad company shall have the right, with its road, to intersect, connect with, or cross any other railroad, and shall receive and transport each the other's passengers, tonnage and cars, loaded or empty, without delay or discrimination.
SEC. 14. Railways heretofore constructed, or that may hereafter be constructed in this state are hereby declared public highways, and railroad companies common carriers. The general assembly shall pass laws tc correct abuses and prevent unjust discrimination and extortion in the rates
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of freight and passenger tariffs on the different railroads in this state; and shall, from time to time, pass laws establishing reasonable maximum rates of charges for the transportation of passengers and freight on said railroads, and enforce all such laws by adequate penalties.
SEC. 15. Every railroad or other corporation, organized or doing busi- ness in this state under the laws or authority thereof, shall have and main- tain a public office or place in this state for the transaction of its business, where transfers of stock shall be made, and where shall be kept, for public inspection, books in which shall be recorded the amount of capital stock subscribed, the names of the owners of the stock, the amounts owned by them respectively, the amount of stock paid, and by whom, the transfer of said stock, with the date of transfer, the amount of its assets and liabilities, and the names and places of residence of its officers. The directors of every railroad company shall hold one meeting annually in this state, pub- lic notice of which shall be given thirty days previously, and shall report annually, under oath, to the state auditor, or some officer designated by law, all of their acts and doings, which report shall include such matters relating to railroads as may be prescribed by law. The general assembly shall pass laws enforcing, by suitable penalties, the provisions of this sec- tion.
SEC. 16. The rolling stock and all other movable property belonging to any railroad company or corporation in this state, shall be considered personal property, and shall be liable to execution and sale in the same manner as the personal property of individuals; and the general assembly shall pass no law exempting any such property from execution and sale.
SEC. 17. No railroad or other corporation, or the lessees, purchasers or managers of any railroad corporation, shall consolidate the stock, property or franchises of such corporation, with, or lease or purchase the works or franchises of, or in any way control any railroad corporation owning or hav- ing under its control a parallel or competing line; nor shall any officer of such railroad corporation act as an officer of any other railroad corporation owning or having the control of a parallel or competing line. The ques- tion whether railroads are parallel or competing lines shall, when demanded, be decided by a jury, as in other civil issues.
SEC. 18. If any railroad company organized under the laws of this state shall consolidate, by sale or otherwise, with any railroad company organized under the laws of any other state, or of the United States, the same shall not thereby become a foreign corporation; but the courts of this state shall retain jurisdiction in all matters which may arise, as if said con- solidation had not taken place. In no case shall any consolidation take place, except upon public notice of at least sixty days to all stockholders, in such manner as may be provided by law.
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