| Show TWO VICTORIES Two very important opinions were read in the rea supreme court yesterday One was that involving the validity of the recent election on the proposition of the school board to issue bonds to the amount of 300000 for the purchase of sites and the erection of school houses in this city The election was authorized by the last legisla ture and the act provided that the voting should be conducted under the votng of the board of education which educaton was author ized t appoint judges ote In no sense could the election be made of 1 political character nor was it suca an alanHn nf election as electon the Congressional law contemplated should be managed by the Utah commission Nevertheless the commission stepped in and assumed control appointing the judges and requiring that the returns be made to it for the canvass and declaration of the results re-sults It was plain enough as a legal proposition that i the election were conducted by tho commission then the statute itself was void and there could be no lawful voting of bonds Proceedings were insttiitnrl tn restrain thn rrnmTniosinn ana have the election proceed under the direction of the board of education educaton a the law requires Unfortunately the case went before tho judge who is coming to be known in court circles as Old Necessity and as might have been expected he decided de-cided in favor of the commission the result re-sult being a void election An appeal was I taken and the supreme court has unanimously unani-mously decided that the statute must b followed the Utah commission having nothing whatever to do with elections of this character Therefore the action taken last month amounts to nothing The work must all be done over again a new election called the bonding proposition submitted anew and the be people given an opportunity to pass upon i Of course the bonds will be voted as they were attempted to be voted before The schoolhouses are required and realizing that they are needed the people peo-ple will cheerfully vote the necessary money As some of these houses at least should Via erected and finaVtai3 linfrtw w u ter the school board should at once take the necessary steps for holding the election The bonds being legal there should bo no difficulty in disposing of them promptly I prompty It happens that in the other important case decided yesterday Judge ANDERSON was again turned down by the supreme court The action was the one involving the right t collect the speciallscbool taxes levied in the old districts previous to the t I consolidation of all the districts into one The proposition was an outrageous one The tnrns had been taes levied iimlnr thn nld law by the respective districts for the use and benefit of those districts and had been on the valuation of the valuaton property in 18S9 The rate varied from a few mills to 2 or S per cent according to the necessities of the district The following year under the boom assessment the valuation of property was trebled or quadrupled and as the assessment rate could not be changed the special tax in some cases amounted to a heavy burden and would have produced three or four times the money required by the district Meantime the old districts had been abolished and the entire city made into one so that in the event of the special tax being legal the district lega paying it would I get no more than its proportionate share proportonate as all the money would have al gone into the general gen-eral fund for expenditure gen throughout the city Some of the taxpayers cty joined in a proceeding pro-ceeding t prevent the collection of the taxes and the case going before ANDERSON I he naturally and necessarily neces-sarily in view of the fact that there were a wrong and a right side to the the question involved went wrong aId held that the people must pay the unjust ana inequitable taxes The supreme court has now reversed the lower tribunal and the collector will be restrained from collecting the tax from allthoso who joined in the suit It is understood that the amount involved is between 830000 and 40000 which will be saved to the propertyowners who had the courage to make 1 fight against 1 manifest injustice A good many paid the special tax fearing that the suit would involve them in further costs It i doubtful if these will be able t recover |
