Page:The Federal and state constitutions v5.djvu/288

2814 The proceeds of the State and county capitation-tax shall be applied to the purposes of education and the support of the poor, but in no one year shall more than twenty-five per cent. thereof be appropriated to the latter purpose.

Laws shall be passed, taxing by a uniform rule all moneys, credits, investments in bonds, stocks, joint-stock companies, or otherwise; and, also, all real and personal property, according to its true value in money. The general assembly may also tax trades, professions, franchises, and incomes: Provided, That no income shall be taxed when the property from which the income is derived is taxed.

The general assembly shall, by appropriate legislation and by adequate taxation, provide for the prompt and regular payment of the interest on the public debt, and, after the year 1880, it shall lay a specific annual tax upon the real and personal property of the State, and the sum thus realized shall be set apart as a sinking-fund, to be devoted to the payment of the public debt.

Until the bonds of the State shall be at par, the general assembly shall have no power to contract any new debt or pecuniary obligation in behalf of the State, except to supply a casual deficit, or for suppressing invasion or insurrection, unless it shall in the same bill levy a special tax to pay the interest annually. And the general assembly shall have no power to give or lend the credit of the State in aid of any person, association, or corporation, except to aid in the completion of such railroads as may be unfinished at the time of the adoption of this constitution, or in which the State has a direct pecuniary interest, unless the subject be submitted to a direct vote of the people of the State, and be approved by a majority of those who shall vote thereon.

Property belonging to the State, or to municipal corporations, shall be exempt from taxation. The general assembly may exempt cemeteries, and property held for educational, scientific, literary, charitable, or religious purposes; also, wearing-apparel, arms for muster, household and kitchen furniture, the mechanical and agricultural implements of mechanics and farmers, libraries, and scientific instruments, to a value not exceeding three hundred dollars.

The taxes levied by the commissioners of the several counties, for county purposes, shall be levied in like manner with the State taxes, and shall never exceed the double of the State tax, except for a special purpose, and with the special approval of the general assembly.

Every act of the general assembly, levying a tax, shall state the special object to which it is to be applied, and it shall be applied to no other purpose.

Every male person born in the United States, and every male person who has been naturalized, twenty-one years old or upward, who shall have resided in this State twelve months next preceding the election, and thirty days in the county in which he offers to vote, shall be deemed an elector.