ERROR to the Circuit Court of the United States for the District of Kansas.
A statute of Kansas, approved March 2, 1871, confers upon cities of the second class authority to enact ordinances for certain defined purposes. By the sixteenth section anthority is given: 1st, to levy and collect taxes for general revenue purposes, not to exceed five mills on the dollar in any one year, on all the real, mixed, and personal property within their limits, taxable according to the laws of the State; 2d, to open and improve streets, avenues, and alleys, make sidewalks, and build bridges, culverts, and sewers, the cost of which may be met by assessments in the following manner, to wit: first, for opening, widening, and grading all streets and avenues, for building bridges, culverts, and sewers, and for footwalks across streets, assessments shall be made on all taxable property within the corporate limits of the city, not exceeding five mills on the dollar in any one year; second, for making and repairing sidewalks, assessments shall be made on all lots and pieces of ground abutting on the improvement, according to front feet; third, for paving, macadamizing, curbing, and guttering streets, alleys, and avenues, and excavating, grading, and filling same, and for improvements of the squares and areas formed by the crossing of streets, assessments shall be made on all lots and pieces of ground to the centre of the block extending along the street or avenue, the distance improved or to be improved, according to the assessed value of the lots or pieces of ground, without regard to the buildings or improvements thereon, which value must be ascertained by three disinterested appraisers, appointed by the mayor and council.
By the seventeenth section it is declared that assessments made pursuant to the third clause of the second subdivision of the preceding section shall be known as 'special assessments for improvements,' and, except as thereinafter provided, shall be levied and collected as one tax, in addition to taxes for general revenue purposes. But the mayor and council are empowered to issue bonds of the city for the costs of paving, macadamizing, curbing, and guttering streets and avenues, and excavating, grading, and filling for same, to be made payable as follows: one-third of the aggregate amount of bonds of any issue in one year, one-third in two years, and one-third in three years, with interest from date, at the rate of ten per cent per annum, payable annually. 'And for the payment of said bonds, assessments shall be made in each year to pay the principal and interest maturing on said bonds during said fiscal year, upon the taxable property chargeable therewith, as is provided in the third clause of the second subdivision of the preceding section, and such tax shall be certified by the city clerk to the county clerk, and placed upon the tax-roll for collection, subject to the same penalties and collected in like manner as other taxes.' Laws of Kansas, 1871, p. 148.
The eighteenth section provides that 'the council may appropriate money and provide for the payment of the debts and expenses of the city, and, when necessary, may provide for issuing bonds for the purpose of funding any and all indebtedness now existing or hereafter created of the city, now due or to become due.' And for the payment of any coupons of bonds issued under that section the council is required to levy taxes, payable in cash, on all the property in the city, in addition to other taxes. Id.
The nineteenth section declares that the council may provide for making any and all improvements of a general nature in the city, and to pay for same may, from time to time, borrow money and issue bonds. In the payment of such bonds, with their interest coupons, at maturity, the council is required to levy taxes, payable in cash, on all taxable property within the city, in addition to other taxes. Bonds authorized by that section cannot, bowever, be issued unless the council is previously instructed to do so by a majority of all the votes cast at an election held for that purpose.
By sect. 21 the council is required 'to make provision from time to time for a sinking-fund to redeem at maturity the bonded indebtedness of the city,' the taxes levied for that purpose being payable only in cash.
By sect. 22 the council is authorized and required to levy annually taxes, payable in cash only, on all the taxable property within the city, in addition to other taxes, and in amount sufficient to pay the interest and coupons as they become due 'on all the bonds of the city' then (1871) issued or thereafter to be issued by the city.