Highway Taxation and Assessment. Highway Law (1890, Chap. 568, as amended to January 1, 1897). Section 4. General powers of commissioners. 5. Mile-stones and guide-boards. 7. Stone-crushers and materials. 9. Additional tax. 10. Extraordinary repairs of highways or bridges. 11. Auditing expense thereof. 20. General duties of overseers. 31. Lists of inhabitants. 32. Nonresident lands. 33. Assessments of highway labor, how made. 34. Copies of lists delivered to overseers. 35. Names omitted. 36. Appeals by nonresidents. 37. Credit on private roads. 38. Certain assessments to be separate. 43. Sidewalks and trees. 44. Abatement of tax for shade trees. 45. Sidewalk tax anticipated. 46. Certificate of anticipation. 47. Transfer of certificate. 48. Abatement of tax for watering trough. 49. System of taxation defined. 50. Town may change its system. 51. Vote thereon. 52. When change to take effect. 53. Money system. 54. Adoption of county road system. 55. County engineer. 56. Apportionment of expenditures. 57. Binding county for county roads. Section 61. Notice to nonresidents. 62. Commutation. 63. Teams and implements. 64. Substitutes. 65. Penalties for neglect to work or commute. 66. Assessment for unperformed labor. 67. Penalty for refusal of overseer to provide list. 68. Collection of arrearages for unperformed labor. 72. Abatement of tax for removal of fence. 73. Abatement of tax for street lamps. 74. Rebate for wagon tire. 130. When bridge is town or county expense. 132. Statement of expenses. 133. Supervisor to levy tax. § 4. General powers of commissioner-The commissioners of highways in the several towns, shall have the care and superintendence of the highways and bridges therein, except as otherwise specially provided in relation to incorporated villages, cities and other localities; and they shall * 4. Assign to each of the highway districts such of the inhabitants and corporations liable to work on highways, as they shall think proper, having regard to proximity of residence as much as may be; # * 6. Require overseers of highways to warn all persons and corporations assessed to work on highways, to come and work thereon, with such teams and implements, and at such times as the said commissioners, or any one of them shall direct; 7. Expend all moneys raised and collected from the town at large for highway purposes, upon the highways and bridges situated in, or upon the borders of the town, or highway districts assigned to the town in which such moneys were raised and collected, in such proportion as they may deem just and proper. See Forms Nos. 45, 46, 46a. § 5. Mile post and guide boards. This section, as amended by Laws 1895, chap. 330, authorizes commissioners to erect milepost, etc., and makes the expense a town charge. § 6. Road machines. This section, as amended by Laws 1896, chap. 987, provides for the purchase of road machines. Expense payable from highway moneys. § 7. Stone crushers and materials. This section, as amended by Laws 1895, chap. 411, provides for purchase of stone crushers and materials, which are made a town charge. § 9. Additional tax. Whenever the commissioners of highways of any town shall determine, that the sum of five hundred dollars will be insufficient to pay the expenses actually necessary for the improvement of highways and bridges, they may cause a vote to be taken by ballot a any town-meeting, to be duly calied, authorizing such additional sum to be raised as they may deen necessary for such purpose, not exceeding one-third of one per centum upon the taxable property of the town, as shown by the last assessment-roll thereof. See Laws 1890, chap. 291, for additional tax of $300 for removing fences and replacing with wire fences to prevent snow blockades. § 10. Extraordinary repairs of highways or bridges.- If any highway or bridge shall at any time be damaged or destroyed by the elements or otherwise, or become unsafe, the commissioner of highways of the town in which such highway or bridge may, be situated, may, with the consent of the town board, cause the same to be immediately repaired or rebuilt, although the expenditure of money required may exceed the sum raised for such purposes as herein before provided; and the commissioners of highways shall present the proper vouchers for the expense thereof to the town board, at their next annual meeting, and the same shall be audited by them and collected in the same manner as amounts voted at town meetings. [Thus amended by Laws 1895, chap. 606.] § 11. Auditing expense thereof.- The town board may be convened in special sessions by the supervisor, or in his absence, by the town clerk, upon the written request of any commissioners of highways, and the bills and expenses incurred in the erection or repairs of any such highways or bridges, may then be presented to, and audited by the town board; and the supervisor and town clerk shall issue a certificate, to be subscribed by them, setting forth the amount so audited and allowed, and in whose favor, and the nature of the work done and material furnished, and such certificate shall bear interest from its date, and the amount thereof, with interest, shall be levied and collected in the same manner as other town expenses. See People ex rel. Slater v. Smith, 83 Hun, 432. § 20. General duties of overseers. Each overseer of highways in every town, shall 1. Repair and keep in order the highways within his district. 2. Warn all persons and corporations assessed to work on the highways in his district, to come and work thereon. 4. Collect all fines and commutation money, and execute all lawful orders of the commissioners. § 31. Lists of inhabitants.- Each of the overseers of highways shall deliver to the clerk of the town, within sixteen days after his appointment, a list subscribed by him, of the names of all the inhabitants in his highway district, who are liable to work on the highways; and the town clerk shall deliver such lists to the commissioners of highways. See Form No. 47. § 32. Nonresident lands.-The commissioners of highways in each town, before making the assessment of highway labor, shall make out a list and statement, of the contents of all unoc'cupied lots, pieces or parcels of lands within the town, owned by nonresidents; every lot so designated, shall be described in the same manner as is required from assessors, and its value shall be set down opposite to the description; such value shall be the same as was affixed to the lot in the last assessment-roll of the town; and if such lot was not separately valued in such roll, then in proportion to the valuation which shall have been affixed to the whole tract, of which such lot shall be a part. See Colman v. Shattuck, 2 Hun, 500; Fowler v. Westervelt, 17 Abb. Pr. 65; Ensign v. Barse, 107 N. Y. 329. See Form No. 48. § 33. Assessments of highway labor, how made.- The commissioners of highways shall, at their first or some subsequent meeting, ascertain, assess and apportion the highway labor to be performed in their town, in the then ensuing year, as follows: 1. The whole number of days work to be assessed in each year, shall be ascertained, and shall be at least three times the number of taxable inhabitants in the town. 2. Every male inhabitant being above the age of twenty-one years (excepting all honorably discharged soldiers and sailors who lost an arm or a leg in the service of the United States, during the late war, or who are unable to perform manual labor by reason of injuries received, or disabilities incurred in such service, persons seventy years of age, clergymen and priests of every denomination, paupers, idiots and lunatics), shall be assessed at least one day. 3. The residue of such days work, shall be apportioned and assessed upon the estate, real and personal, of every inhabitant of the town, including corporations liable to taxation therein, as the same shall appear by the last assessment-roll of the town, and upon each tract or parcel of land owned by nonresidents of the town contained in the list made by the commissioners, excepting such as are occupied by an inhabitant of the town, which |