Funds raised by taxes levied and collected for one purpose cannot be derived to another purpose without valid legislative authority so to do. Such funds are held in trust by their custodian or custodians for the purpose for which the taxes were levied and collected. Oven v. Ausley, et al.,
The Constitution prohibits the Legislature from passing any special or local laws regulating the jurisdiction and duties of any class of officers, except municipal officers. Art III, Section 20.
As to those matters with reference to which the Constitution permits local or special laws to be passed, it is expressly provided that no local or special bill shall be passed unless notice of the intention to apply therefor shall have *Page 190 been published in the locality where the matter or thing to be affected may be situated, which notice shall state the substance of the contemplated law and shall be published at least thirty days prior to the introduction into the Legislature of such bill, and proof of such publication must be entered upon the journals of both houses, unless the bill provides that it shall not become operative or effective until the same has been ratified by a majority of the qualified electors in an election called in the territory affected by such special or local law. Art. III, Section 21.
These sections of the Constitution were adopted by the people for very wise reasons, and should be given full force and effect by this Court.
In Whitney v. Hillsborough County,
In the case of Jordan, as Clerk, et al., v. State,
In the case of Stripling v. Thomas,
In the case of Anderson v. Board of Public Instruction,
"4. Classification in law is the grouping of things in speculation or practice because they agree with one another or in certain particulars, and differ from other things in those same particulars. Classification must always rest upon some difference which bears a reasonable and just relation to the Act in respect to which the classification is proposed, and can never be made arbitrarily and without any such basis. Whether or not a classification adopted is purely arbitrary or is a reasonable and practical one within the legislative discretion, is a subject for judicial review and determination in contested cases presenting justiciable controversies."
"7. House Bill No. 200XX, enacted at Second Extraordinary Session of the Legislature, 1931, approved by the Governor July 24, 1931, and providing for the calling and holding of special school district tax elections in all counties of the State of Florida having a population of not less than 145,000 and not more than 155,000, HELD: to be a *Page 192 special or local law and not constitutionally enacted in accordance with Section 21 of Article III of the Constitution as amended in 1928, because no notice of intention to apply for passage of same appears to have been given, as required by organic law."
In the case of Latham v. Hawkins,
"In State v. Sheppard,
"If the Act under review is permitted to stand, then the Legislature can single out every county in the State and under the guise of a local law fix the compensation of county officers, arbitrarily and without reference to the organic mandate. General uniformity and operation would be destroyed and caprice substituted as a basis for determining the compensation of county officers. This should be done by general law treating the whole subject matter.
"In our view the decree of the chancellor was correct and is hereby affirmed. Knight v. Board of Public Instruction,
In the case of State, ex rel. Hunter, v. O'Quinn,
"Whether a classification for statutory regulation embracing less than all the counties of the State is permissible under Section 20 and 21 of Article III or under organic provisions and principles requiring equal protection of the laws and forbidding unjust discrimination depends upon the nature of the subjectregulated as well as upon the reasonableness of the classification.
"Where a subject of statutory regulation is inherently statewide, or is under organic law regarded as being statewide, the statutory regulation may not be limited in its operation to less than all the counties of the State, when that would prevent the uniform operation throughout the State that is required by the intendments of the Constitution."
See also in this connection Carlton v. Johnson,
We have held so many statutes based on narrow differences in population to be local or special Acts and hence void if dealing with subjects prohibited by Section 20 of Art. III, or void, because, though dealing with a permissible subject of local legislation, the journals of the Legislature did not show that notice had been published as required by Section 21 of Art. III, that I will not encumber this opinion by citing them all. *Page 194
What has been said above has reference largely to questions occurring in other cases in the group of cases which the court now has under consideration, but in this particular case, known as the Washington County case, the Act in question is on its face an Act for the benefit or advantage of one particular county and hence such a local or special Act as is absolutely void in the absence of the publication of notice thereof prior to its introduction in the Legislation as required by Section 21 of Art. III. If this attempted diversion of State tax moneys to the Road and Bridge Fund of Washington County does not make it a local Act, then it is bound to be a special Act, and special Acts are also void unless notice of publication is given as required by the section of the Constitution above referred to.
Neither the petition for the alternative writ nor the alternative writ itself shows that notice of publication was published as required by the Constitution. The rule is that a pleading must be construed most strongly against the pleader.
Furthermore, if it is not to be regarded as a local Act, and is classed as a special Act, which for some reason is beyond the notice requirements of Section 21 of Art. III, it would seem that this Act must still fall within the condemnation of Section 20 of Art. III which prohibits the Legislature from passing any special or local laws regulating the jurisdiction and duties of any class of officers, except municipal officers. This Act changes the jurisdiction and duties of the members of the State Board of Administration and other state officers from what they were under the general law applicable to the whole State. Its title also clearly declares this purpose in express language.
Furthermore, as pointed out by Mr. Justice BUFORD, this Act violates Section 2 of Art. IX of the Constitution in *Page 195 that it undertakes to apply State revenues for the current fiscal year, levied and collected for State purposes, by sending a portion of the same into the road and bridge fund of a particular county, which fund is under the statute a transferable fund and may be used, and is thus capable of being used, for purely county purposes. For the reasons above stated I think the Act here under review is unconstitutional.
I agree with much that is said in the able opinion of Mr. Justice TERRELL in this case with regard to the power of the Legislature over all public roads in the State, whether they be State roads or county roads. My views on this subject were expressed in the case of Lewis v. Leon County,
It seems to me that the Act here in question is on its face both a local and a special law and that in the shape in which it is presented to us it runs counter to both sessions 20 and 21 of Art. III, for the reasons hereinabove stated.
I therefore concur with Mr. Justice BUFORD that the motion to quash the alternative writ should be granted.
BUFORD, J., concurs.