Holmes Investment Co. v. Board of Supervisors

PRESTON, J.

Mandamus

proceeding presented by a petition and general demurrer thereto. The issue involved is the proper scope to be accorded the word “expenditures” found in article XI, section 20, of the Constitution, this section being a part of the so-called Riley-Stewart tax plan voted into the Constitution and made effective June 27, 1933.

The proper construction of this word will disclose the ingredient items which shall go to make up the net sum or “base” upon which the permitted increase of revenues for a given year over the preceding year or years is to be calculated. Petitioner is a taxpayer and asserts that respondent board is now, by its proposed tax levy for the year 1934-1935, about to exceed the allowable sum by $1,866,696. Petitioner, in reaching the' above amount of excess, strips from the gross budget the items specially mentioned in said constitutional provision and also the following items: “Proceeds of 1932 relief bonds”, “borrowings from the state loan relief fund”, and all so-called subventions, consisting of such items received from the state as orphans’ aid, widows’ pensions, tuberculosis patients, one-half of cost of fire-boats, pensions to the blind, old age pensions and gasoline and motor vehicle tax. The amount so arrived at is called the net base and it is then compared with the corresponding figures for the years 1932-1933 and 1933-1934. Thus comes into being the proper base for the calculation of the increase allowable according to petitioner. But it is further disclosed that the decrease in such base figure of the year 1933-1934, over the year 1932-1933, is in excess

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of the figure obtained by taking five per cent of the base figure of 1933-1934.

Petitioner allows the city the benefit of the larger of the two items and deduces the conclusion that the corresponding base figure for the year 1932-1933 becomes the limit of revenue allowable to the city and county for the year 1934r-1935. This limit is less than the proposed limit set by respondents by the said sum of $1,866,696. Respondents insist that not only should the proceeds of said relief bonds be an ingredient of said net base but also the sums borrowed from the state relief fund and the so-called subvention items as well.