Page:Fletcher v. Oliver.pdf/6

294Rh himself and all other inhabitants of the city from any tax levied by the county court for the purpose of constructing roads and highways within the county of Pulaski.

If the complainant puts the proper construction on the meaning of these wardswords [sic], it then becomes us to inquire whether there is a conflict between this clause of the charter and that provision of the Constitution that says "laws shall be passed taxing, by a uniform rule, all moneys, credits, investments in bonds, joint stock companies, or otherwise, and all real and personal property, according to its true value in money, etc.; but burying grounds, etc., shall never be taxed."

Now, in the clause of the Constitution just cited, it is declared that all real and personal property shall be taxed, subject, however, to the condition that the Legislature may exempt $500 to each tax-payer.

It will be observed that, there is a radical change between the old and the present Constitution on the subject of taxation. Under the old Constitution, the Legislature was clothed with power to designate what species of property should be taxed; they could exempt the entire real property of the State from taxation, and collect the revenue from the personal property; they could have exempted the entire personal property of the State, and placed the burden of furnishing revenue on the real property. Not so with the present Constitution. It declares to the Legislature that all real property, except "burying grounds, public school houses, houses used exclusively for public worship, institutions of purely public charity, property used exclusively for any public purpose," shall be taxed by one uniform rule. It declares to the Legislature that "all moneys credits, investments in bonds, joint stock companies, or otherwise, and all personal property," except such an amount, less than $500, as the Legislature may determine upon, shall be taxed by a uniform rule."

The declaration that all real property, except certain kinds held for chwritable and public purposes, specifically enumerated, amounts to an inhibition on the Legislature from exempting