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SENATE BILL No. 268.

INTRODUCED BY MR. SHAW, MARCH 11, 1868.

AN ACT TO PROVIDE REVENUE FOR THE SUPPORT OF GOVERNMENT.

The People of the State of California, represented in Senate and Assembly, do enact as follows:

PART I.

GENERAL PROVISIONS CONTROLLING THIS ACT.

SECTION 1. All property in this State shall be taxed in proportion 2 to its value, to be ascertained as directed by this Act.

SEC. 2. Taxation shall be equal and uniform throughout the 2 State, and double taxation shall not be imposed nor exacted, directly nor indirectly, except as a forfeiture, as hereinafter provided, to 4 prevent frauds and inequalities in assessments.

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SEC. 3. Taxes necessary for the support of Government are levied upon all visible private property now or hereafter in this State, in 3 proportion to its value; and all titles and claims thereto shall be 4 held at all times subject to the payment thereof, as annually fixed 5 and assessed according to law.

SEC. 1. To ascertain the property to be taxed for the support of 2 Government, in proportion to its value, all property in the State is 3 divided into two classes, namely: property appertaining to Govern4 ment and property appertaining to persons.

SEC. 5. The property appertaining to Government shall be 2 deemed and adjudged to include all property belonging to the Gov

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3 ernment of the United States, the Government of this State, or of 4 any county, city and county, town, village or school district in this 5 State; or to any incorporated college or school, and used exclusively 6 for purposes of education; or to any eleemosynary or educational 7 school or society (not exceeding six acres in any city, nor twelve acres elsewhere, and the improvements thereon), so long as the same shall be entirely devoted to the care or education or maintenance of indigent orphans or other helpless persons; and all church buildings and the lands they occupy, not held nor used as 12 private property, but devoted to public use for religious education 13 and worship; and all lots of ground surrendered by public necessity 14 to the dead and used exclusively for human graves, and not made a 15 source of revenue or pecuniary advantage to the owners; and all 16 public parks and public roads and highways.

SEC. 6. The property appertaining to persons is all the property 2 in this State, except the property appertaining to Government, as 3 specified in the preceding section of this Act.

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SEC. 7. No property appertaining to Government shall be assessed or taxed.

SEC. 8. All property appertaining to persons shall be assessed 2 and taxed.

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SEC. 9. There shall not be more than one assessment of any 2 property in any one year. That assessment shall be the one directed 3 by this Act, and it shall be deemed and held the only lawful assessment for any taxation during the year, whether imposed by general Act or by any special Act, local in its operation, and whether for 6 State, county, city, city and county, town, village, school district or 7 any other purpose required or authorized by law, except where 8 otherwise provided by the charters of incorporated cities or towns or villages.

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SEC. 10. All Acts and parts of Acts requiring any other or different assessment than that required by this Act are hereby repealed, so far as they require such other or different assessment, but no further; and the assessment herein required is made applicable thereto. 5 And all Acts and orders imposing or fixing the rate or amount of 6 any public tax shall be deemed and construed to mean a tax upon 7 the property therein named or intended, according to the value 8 thereof as ascertained under the assessments directed and required by this Act, and not according to any other assessment.

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SEC. 11. All persons, companies and corporations having prop 2 erty or incomes within this State, and not residents of nor located in this State, shall be assessed and taxed the same as residents.

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SEC. 12. The Governor and his advisers, who are, for the pur2 poses and within the meaning of this Act, the Secretary of State, 3 Treasurer, Attorney-General, Controller and Surveyor-General, shall 4 see to it that the laws for the equal and uniform assessment and tax5 ation of all private property in the State be justly and equally enforced throughout the State; that all officers chosen to assess and

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7 collect the public revenues perform their duties with fidelity and 8 intelligence; that no unreasonable or unequal burdens be permitted.

9 in any portion of the State, and that no partiality be allowed in 10 favor of any one portion of the State over any other portion of the 11 State. The better to insure these objects, the Governor may at any 12 time send or appoint persons thoroughly informed on the subject in 13 such counties as may be thought advisable, in order to ascertain the 14 mode and manner of assessing and collecting revenue therein, and 15 to advise, aid and assist the revenue officers therein in the proper 16 understanding and performance of their duties, and to disclose any 17 negligence in office, or defects or inequality in the operations of the 18 revenue laws; and may make such allowance to such persons, not 19 exceeding seven dollars per day, for the time actually employed, as 20 he may think proper; and the necessary money to pay the same, 21 not exceeding five thousand dollars in any one year, is hereby appro22 priated out of any money in the Treasury not otherwise appropri 23 ated, the same to be first audited and allowed by the Board of 24 Examiners, as other claims against the State.

SEC. 13. The Governor and his advisers aforesaid, or a majority 2 of them, are authorized to agree to and publish such rules and 3 instructions for the better government of Assessors and Collectors 4 of taxes, and of Auditors and Treasurers of counties, as they may deem proper or necessary, and as may not be contrary to any law 6 in force, and all Assessors, Collectors, Auditors and Treasurers shall 7 observe and obey the same.

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SEC. 14. This Act is designated and shall be known as the Revenue Laws; and all sections of Acts concerning the Revenue Laws 3 hereafter passed shall be arranged in their appropriate places by the 4 Governor and his advisers aforesaid, at the close of each legislative session, and so numbered as to conform to the numbers of the sec6 tions of this Act; and the consecutive numbers of the sections of this 7 Act shall at all times be made to conform thereto; and at the close 8 of any session making amendments thereto, the same shall be 9 re-published in pamphlets, with the sections so arranged as afore10 said; and such publications are made official, and are given the same 11 authority as any other publication of statutes, and as well for the purpose of further amendments thereof as for any and all proceed13 ings, official, judicial or otherwise.

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SEC. 15. In all biennial messages of the Governor hereafter 2 made, he shall specify what particular sections of the Revenue Laws, 3 if any, require amendment, and precisely the amendment, in his 4 opinion, required.

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SEC. 16. In the year one thousand eight hundred and seventyone, and every year thereafter, all taxes necessary for State purposes 3 shall not be levied by percentages, but shall be levied and appor4 tioned in gross sums of money upon each and every county in the 5 State, in exact and equal proportion to the taxable property therein, 6 respectively, as ascertained from the official returns of assessments of each preceding year.

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SEC. 17. After said year eighteen hundred and seventy-one afore

2 said, all county taxes shall belong to the counties wherein the same 3 are collected, subject only to the payment of said gross levy for 4 State purposes.

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SEC. 18. The detailed form of entering assessments in the assessment rolls, or books to be prepared for that purpose, shall 3 continue the same as authorized and in use in the year eighteen 4 hundred and sixty-seven; but the Governor and his advisers afore5 said may add to or modify said form at any time prior to the first 6 of November in any year.

SEC. 19. The Assessors, Auditor and Treasurer of each county 2 shall procure such books, papers and blanks as may be necessary for 3 their use, and charge the cost thereof to the county, unless the 4 Board of Supervisors of their county shall promptly supply the 5 same.

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SEC. 20. On the application and proper showing of any guardian, or of any executor, or administrator, or other legal representative 3 of a deceased person, the Probate Court shall authorize the imme4 diate application of money belonging to the estate, or the immediate sale and conversion into money of any personal property, or, if there 6 be none, then of any real property belonging to the estate, sufficient 7 to pay the taxes thereon when the same become due, or sufficient to 8 redeem the same from any sale for taxes, taking care that said 9 money be used for no other purpose; and any guardian of any 10 infant child or children, and any executor or administrator, or other 11 legal representative of a deceased person, and any agent or attorney 12 having the care or management of any real property of any person, 13 or of any company or corporation, who shall suffer or permit any 14 real property so under his care or management as guardian, or exec15 utor, or administrator, or agent, or attorney, as aforesaid, to be sold 16 for taxes whilst having the ability as such to pay or raise sufficient 17 to pay the same, shall be presumed, in any action to set aside such 18 sale, to have fraudulently connived and consented thereto.

SEC. 21. Whenever the word "county" occurs in this Act it shall 2 be invariably construed to mean and include city and county, as 3 completely as though such words were in every instance repeated 4 and added thereto;. but the term "city" shall not in any instance be 5 construed to include city and county.

SEC. 22. The term Auditor, or County Auditor, whenever used in 2 this Act, shall be construed to include the officers discharging the 3 duties of Auditors, or ex officio Auditors, as well as those elected to 4 such office only.

SEC. 23. The only districts in this State, for the purposes of 2 assessing or of collecting taxes for State or county purposes, are 3 the counties of this State respectively.

SEC. 24. All Acts and parts of Acts authorizing or establishing town or township boundaries as revenue districts, or districts wherein taxes are to be assessed and collected, or creating or authorizing any 4 towns or townships of less dimensions than the counties wherein

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the same are situated, are, for all purposes of assessing or collecting 6 taxes for State or county purposes, but for no other or further purpose, repealed.

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SEC. 25. All taxes assessed or collect doby county officers within 2 any county shall be deemed and adjudged faxes assessed and collected 3 for State and county purposes, and all Assessors and Collectors 4 thereof shall be elected by the qualified electors of the county, and all acts performed by the deputy or deputies of any County Assessor, or any County Taxcollector, or any County Treasurer or any County 7 Auditor shall be held and adjudged the acts of such Assessor, or of 8 such Taxcollector, or of such Treasurer or of such Auditor, as the case may be, and they shall be and remain, respectively, as responsi10 ble therefor, in all respects, as though such acts were, respectively, 11 performed by themselves directly.

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SEC. 26. All taxes imposed under authority of this Act, or of any 2 Acts or parts of Acts of this State, except Acts of incorporation of 3 incorporated cities or towns or villages, shall become due and payable at the same time, and shall be collected by the Collectors of the county in which the property taxed is situated, anything in any 6 other Acts or parts of Acts to the contrary notwithstanding.

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SEC. 27. The Attorney-General shall prepare, and the Controller shall cause to be printed and sent, blank forms of official bonds to be executed by Sheriffs and County Assessors, County Treasurers and 4 County Auditors; and the Controller shall also cause to be prepared and sent to such officers the blank forms of statements and affidavits 6 required by the Revenue Laws to be uniform throughout the State.

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SEC. 28. Each county, town, city and incorporated village shall 2 make provision for the support of its own officers, under the restric3 tions and regulations prescribed by the Revenue Laws of this State as to the mode of assessing and collecting taxes therein and therefor. 5 (See State Constitution.)

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OF OFFICERS GENERALLY-THEIR ELECTIONS, LIABILITIES, BONDS, etc.

SEC. 29. At the Presidential election in November next, there 2 shall be elected in and for each and every county in the State, and 3 in the manner provided by law for the election of county officers, one County Assessor for one year and one County Asssessor for four 5 years; and thereafter, at each and every election of members of the 6 Assembly, one County Assessor for four years. All County Assessors are made ex officio Taxcollectors, and shall be deemed, held and 8 adjudged elected as Taxcollectors as well as Assessors; and they 9 shall each also qualify and take the oath of office of Taxcollectors 10 as well as that of Assessors.

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SEC. 30. The term of office of County Assessors shall be four 2 years, and shall invariably commence on the first day of January next after their election, and they shall continue to perform the 4 duties of the office until their successors are, respectively, elected 5 and qualified.

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