STATE EX REL. MINNEAPOLIS FIRE DEPARTMENT RELIEF ASSOCIATION v. CITY COUNCIL OF MINNEAPOLIS AND OTHERS

Minnesota Supreme Court1924-11-29No. No. 24,575

161 Minn. 103

Summary · law.co

Holding. The court affirmed the trial court's order granting a peremptory writ of mandamus, holding that the statutory requirement to levy one-tenth of a mill for a fireman's relief association's pension fund is a continuing legislative mandate that cannot be modified or excluded by municipal boards exercising general rate-setting authority.

The Minneapolis Fire Department Relief Association sought a court order requiring city officials to include a one-tenth mill tax levy for the relief association's pension fund in the 1924 tax assessment. State law had required cities with fireman relief associations to levy this tax annually since 1907, and Minneapolis had consistently complied until 1924, when the board of estimates and taxation set a maximum tax rate that excluded the relief fund tax, preventing the city council from certifying it and the county auditor from entering it on the tax rolls.

The court determined that the legislature's original mandate to levy one-tenth of a mill constituted a continuing statutory levy that municipal authorities could not modify or eliminate. Although the city had been granted authority to establish maximum tax rates, that power did not override or repeal the specific statutory obligation. The court upheld the lower court's issuance of a mandatory writ requiring officials to include the required tax levy.

Summary generated by law.co from the public-domain opinion. The opinion text itself is public domain.

Key issues

Whether a municipal board's authority to set maximum tax rates overrides a specific statutory requirement to levy a dedicated tax
Whether a legislative tax levy can be repealed or modified by local administrative action
Construction of 'levy' as a formal legislative act creating a continuing obligation

Procedural posture

The relator petitioned for a peremptory writ of mandamus to compel the city council, board of estimates and taxation, county auditor, and other respondents to include a one-tenth mill tax for the relief association in the 1924 tax levy.

Authorities cited

No cited authorities resolved to law.co cases yet.

Opinion · public domain

majority opinion

Quinn, J.

This action was instituted by the Minneapolis Fire Department Relief Association, as relator, against the various named respondents, to compel the city council and the board of estimates and taxation to certify to the county auditor and to require him to enter upon the tax boohs for 1924 a tax of one-tenth of a mill on all of the taxable property of the city of Minneapolis for the benefit of a pension fund of the relator, as provided for by chapter 24, p. 30, L. 1907; section 3357, G. S. 1913.

Section 3357 provides that the city council, or other governing body, of every city in which a fireman’s relief association exits, shall each year, at the time the tax levies for the support of the city are made, and in addition thereto, levy a tax of one-tenth of a mill on all the taxable properly of the city, etc., for the benefit of the fireman’s relief association. This statute applies to the city of Minneapolis and controls the question involved in this proceeding. Heretofore the city council has recognized the provisions of this statute and included in the tax levies for municipal purposes a tax of one-tenth of a mill for such relief fund.

The board of estimates and taxation fixed a maxium rate of taxation for all purposes of the city for the year 1924, but failed and refused to include therein one-tenth of a mill for the purpose of relator’s relief fund in accordance with section 3357, and therefore the city council failed to certify the same, and the auditor was unable to place the same upon the tax book. The payer in the petition asks for a peremptory writ of mandamus against all of the respondents to include, in the levy for 1924, a tax of one-tenth of a mill for such purpose.

The provision, contained in section 3357, providing for an annual levy of one-tenth of a mill, has existed and been carried into effect since 1907. In 1920 it was adopted by the people of Minneapolis and incorporated in their home rule charter. The term “levy” has a variety of meanings. As applied to the amount to be raised by taxation, it means the formal and official action of a legislative body, invested with the power of taxation — whether national, state or local — whereby it determines and declares that a tax of a certain amount, or of a certain percentage on value, shall be imposed on property subject thereto. So, where the legislature determines to raise the sum which a specific rate of taxation may produce, and delegates to administrative officers the duty of extending the same upon the tax books against the property to be assessed, it levies the same in a legal sense. C. & N. W. Ry. Co. v. State, 128 Wis. 553, 108 N. W. 557.

We think the provision of section 3357 of the statute under consideration was intended by the legislature as a continuing levy of one-tenth of a mill on the assessed value of all property subject thereto, for the purposes stated in the act. We know of no authority, vested in any municipal body, which may modify or set aside such a levy, so made by the legislature. True, chapter 252, p. 250, L. 1919, created the board of estimates and taxation of the city of Minneapolis, and clothed it with authority to determine the maximum amount of money and the maximum rate which may be raised in the aggregate by general taxation, and provides that no general taxes shall be levied in excess of the amount so fixed, but we find nothing in that act inconsistent with the provisions of section 3357, or that in any way repeals or modifies any of its provisions. The trial court was right in directing that a peremptory writ issue as prayed for in the petition.

Affirmed.