OCR Text |
Show FRICTION ' BETWEEN COUNTY AND STATE An opinion has been written by j County Attorney Westervelt for -Colin- , ty Assessoi'' Ben R. Eldredgo In which It Is held that taction' 2513' of the Revised Re-vised ' Statutes of 1S99. relating to the assessment of certain , kinds of property, prop-erty, is-unconstitutional. The . question arose' in connection Vith the merger of the Utah Eight & Power and the Consolidated Con-solidated -Railway companies. The Light company has been assessed by tho County Assessor-heretofore, and the railway company by the Stale Board of Equalization. ' Now that the two companies havo been consolidated, the question has naturally arisen!- which . of the authorities shall levy the tas.on inc. new, company, The statute says that "All property and franchises owned by railroad, street ralhyay, car, depot, telegraph' and telephone tele-phone companies In this State must be assessed by the State Board of Equalization, Equali-zation, as hereinafter provided,"- etc. This amendment was made by the Legislature" of 1S99, and, 11 is suid for the purpose of taking the taxing power from" Weber county In regard to the union depot at Ogden. The statute previous to that did-not include the word "depot," and specified that the State Board could tax the other property prop-erty mentioned of companies "operating "operat-ing more than one county of the State." It was necessary for the Legislature to strike out these last words when "depot" was Inserted. This makes the statu tf a violation of section 10 of article ar-ticle 13 of the Constitution, which iy a safeguard against special legislation. It Lb hold In tho opinion that tho law as It stands now is wholly unconstitutional; unconstitu-tional; If not, then the Stato could be given the power to assess any business lit the State, irrespective of kind or Whether confined to one county or not. The opinion holds, further, that should the question be taken into court and decided on the conclusions set forth, tho section would undoubtedly be declared unconstitutional. And in that case, then the county would be given the assessment of the new company, on the ground that the operatlonu of the railway are confined to this county and tho statute makes no provision as to light companies. Weber county would also be given the assessing power of the property of the union depot, and a still broader question would bo raised, in relation to the authority of tho State Board of Equalization to tax the proceeds of mines whose operations aro conilnod within Clio Hmit3 oC ono county |