Page:Proceedings of the Constitutional Convention held in Denver, December 20, 1875.djvu/695

Rh any amount, or for any purpose whatever; or become responsible for any debt, contract, or liability of any person, company, or corporation, public or private, in or out of the State.

Section 2.Neither the State, nor any county, city, town, township or school district shall make any donation or grant to, or in aid of, or become a subscriber to, or shareholder in any corporation or company, or a joint owner with any person, company or corporation, public or private, in or out of the State, except as to such ownership as may accrue to the State by escheat, or by forfeiture, by operation or provision of law; and except as to such ownership as may accrue to the State, or to any county, city, town, township or school district, or to either or any of them, jointly, with any person, company or corporation, by forfeiture or sale of real estate for non-payment of taxes, or by donation or devise for public use, or by purchase by or on behalf of any or either of them, jointly with any or either of them, under execution in cases of fines, penalties, or forfeiture of recognizance, breach of condition of official bond, or of bond to secure public moneys, or the performance of any contract in which they or any of them may be jointly or severally interested.

Section 3.The State shall not contract any debt by loan in any form, except to provide for casual deficiencies of revenue, erect public buildings for use of the State, suppress insurrection, defend the State, oi in time of war, assist in defending the United States; and the amount of debt contracted in any one year to provide for deficiencies of revenue shall not exceed one-fourth of a mill on each dollar of valuation of taxable property within the State, and the aggregate amount of such debt shall not at any time exceed three fourths of a mill on each dollar of said valuation until the valuation shall equal one hundred millions of dollars, and thereafter such debt shall not exceed one hundred thousand dollars, and the debt incurred in any one year for erection of public buildings shall not exceed one-half mill on each dollar of said valuation, and the aggregate amount of such debt shall never at any time exceed the sum of fifty thousand dollars (except as provided in Section Five of this Article), and in all cases the valuation in this Section mentioned shall be that of the assessment last preceding the creation of said debt.

Section 4.In no case shall any debt above mentioned in this article be created, except by a law which shall be irrepealable, until the indebtedness therein provided for shall have been fully paid or discharged; such law shall specify the purposes to which the funds so raised shall be applied, and provide for the levy of a tax sufficient to pay the interest on and extinguish the principal of, such debt within the time amended by such law for the payment thereof, which in the case of debts contracted for the erection of public buildings and supplying deficiencies of revenue shall not be less than ten nor more than fifteen years, and the funds arising from the collection of any such tax shall not be applied to any other purpose than that provided in the law