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THE FISCAL PROBLEM IN MISSOURI

CONSTITUTIONAL PROVISIONS

The constitutional provisions concerning taxation are
with few exceptions found in Article X.! Section 1 provides
that “the taxing power may be exercised by the general
assembly for State purposes, and by counties and other
municipal corporations under authority granted to them by
the General Assembly, for county and other corporate purposes.”
 The obvious implication of this section is that the
power to tax is inherent in the general assembly or legislature.
 This section, as construed by court decisions, does not
grant the taxing power to the legislature.
Section 2 provides that the general assembly shall have
no power to surrender or suspend the power to tax corporations
 and corporate property.
Section 3 provides that taxes may be levied and collected
for public purposes only. A second part of the same section
contains the uniformity rule, that 1s, that “taxes shall be
uniform upon the same class of subjects within the territorial
 limits of the authority levying the tax.” The intent
of this provision is to prevent discrimination in any jurisdiction
 among the taxpayers who are taxed on the same
object of taxation.
Section 4 provides that “all property subject to taxation
shall be taxed in proportion to its value.” This provision
imposes a definite restriction that precludes the possibility
of levying special low-rate taxes on intangibles or levying
taxes on the several classes of property at different rates.
The provision that taxes must be in proportion to value
has frequently been subjected to interpretation by the courts.
In one case it was specifically pointed out that this section
is not intended to secure equality of taxation throughout
the state, but that it does require that taxes must be in proportion
 to values in the territory in which they are levied.”
All that is required is that the property taxes raised by a
given county, for example, shall be levied on all subjects
forming a part of the taxable proverty in the countv ac-1

 In the remainder of this section, Article X is not repeated. All section numbers
refer to Article X unless otherwise noted.
2 State ex rel. v. Field, 119 Mo. 593, 24 S. W. 752,