Exemption from taxation.

for the safe keeping, education, employment, and reformation of all children under the age of sixteen years, who, for want of proper parental care, or other cause, are growing up in mendicancy, or crime.

ARTICLE IX.-REVENUE AND FINANCE.

SECTION 1. The legislature shall provide such revenue as may be needful, by levying a tax by valuation, so that every person or corporation shall pay a tax in proportion to the value of his, her, or its property and franchises, the value to be ascertained in such manner as the legislature shall direct, and it shall have power to tax peddlers, auctioneers, brokers, hawkers, commission merchants, showmen, jugglers, inn-keepers, liquor dealers, toll bridges, ferries, insurance, telegraph and express interests or business, venders of patents, in such manner as it shall direct by general law, uniform as to the class upon which it operates. (4 Neb. 301, 537; 5 Neb. 564; 7 Neb. 230; 9 Neb. 509; 12 Neb. 201, 364; 15 Neb. 6.)

SEC. 2. The property of the state, counties and municipal corporations, both real and personal, shall be exempt from taxation, and such other property as may be used exclusively for agricultural and horticultural societies, for school, religious, cemetery and charitable purposes, may be exempted from taxation, but such exemptions shall be only by general law. In the assessment of all real estate encumbered by public easement, any depreciation occasioned by such easement may be deducted in the valuation of such property. The legislature may provide that

the increased value of lands, by reason of live fences, fruit and forest trees grown and cultivated thereon, shall not be taken into account in the assessment thereof. (7 Neb. 230.)

from sales of

SEC. 3. The right of redemption from all sales Redemption of real estate, for the non-payment of taxes or land for taxes. special assessments of any character whatever, shall exist in favor of owners and persons interested in such real estate for a period of not less than two years from such sales thereof; Provided, That occupants shall in all cases be served with personal notice before the time of redemption expires. (14 Neb., 45; 15 Neb., 471.) SEC. The legislature shall have no power to Taxes not to be release or discharge any county, city, township, town, or district whatever, or the inhabitants thereof, or any corporation, or the property therein, from their or its proportionate share of taxes to be levied for state purposes, or due any municipal corporation, nor shall commutation for such taxes be authorized in any form whatever. (12 Neb. 364.)

SEC. 5. County authorities shall never assess taxes the aggregate of which shall exceed one and a half dollars per hundred dollars valuation, except for the payment of indebtedness existing at the adoption of this constitution, unless authorized by a vote of the people of the county. (12 Neb., 256; 14 Neb., 23.)

released.

County taxes.

nicipal corpo

SEC. 6. The legislature may vest the cor- Taxes of muporate authorities of cities, towns, and villages, rations. with power to make local improvements by special assessments, or by special taxation of property benefited. For all other corporate

Property exempt from payment of debts.

Funding indebtedness.

Claims upon

purposes, all municipal corporations may be vested with authority to assess and collect taxes, but such taxes shall be uniform in respect to persons and property within the jurisdiction of the body imposing the same. (4 Neb., 346; 7 Neb., 271, 8 Neb., 125.)

SEC. 7. Private property shall not be liable to be taken or sold for the payment of the corporate debts of municipal corporations. The legislature shall not impose taxes upon municipal corporations, or the inhabitants or property thereof, for corporate purposes.

SEC. 8. The legislature at its first session shall provide by law for the funding of all outstanding warrants and other indebtedness of the state, at a rate of interest not exceeding eight per cent per annum. (6 Neb., 512.)

SEC. 9. The legislature shall provide by law state treasury. that all claims upon the treasury shall be examined and adjusted by the auditor and approved by the secretary of state before any warrant for the amount allowed shall be drawn; Provided, That a party aggrieved by the decision of the auditor and secretary of state may appeal to [the] district court. (7 Neb., 106 112.)

Area of counties.

Division of counties.

ARTICLE [X.] COUNTIES.

SECTION 1. No new county shall be formed or established by the legislature which will reduce the county or counties, or either of them, to a less area than four hundred square miles, nor shall any county be formed of a less area. SEC. 2. No county shall be divided, or have any part stricken therefrom without first sub

mitting the question to a vote of the people of the county, nor unless a majority of all the legal voters of the county voting on the question shall vote for the same.

SEC. 3. There shall be no territory stricken same. from any organized county unless a majority of the voters living in such territory shall petition. for such division, and no territory shall be added to any organized county without the consent of the majority of the voters of the county to which it is proposed to be added; but the portion so stricken off and added to another county, or formed in whole or in part into a new county, shall be holden for and obliged to pay its proportion of the indebtedness of the counties from which it has been taken.

officers.

SEC. 4. The legislature shall provide by law Election of for the election of such county and township officers as may be necessary.

SEC. 5. The legislature shall provide by gen- Township eral law for township organization, under which organization. any county may organize whenever a majority of the legal voters of such county, voting at any general election, shall so determine; and in any county that shall have adopted a township organization, the question of continuing the same may be submitted to a vote of the electors of such county at a general election in the manner that shall be provided by law. (6 Neb., 482.)

ARTICLE [XI.] -RAILROAD CORPORATIONS.

Public office to

SECTION 1. Every railroad corporation organ- be established. ized or doing business in this state, under the laws or authority thereof, or of any other state,

Property of railroad liable

cution.

or of the United States, shall have and maintain a public office or place in this state for the transaction of its business, where transfers of stock shall be made, and in which shall be kept, for public inspection, books in which shall recorded the amount of capital stock subscribed, and by whom, the names of the owners of its stock, and the amounts owned by them respectively, the amount of stock paid in and by whom, the transfers of said stock, the amount of its assets and liabilities, and the names and places of residence of its officers. The directors of every railroad corporation, or other parties having control of its road, shall annually make a report, under oath, to the auditor of public accounts, or some officer to be designated by law, of the amount received from passengers and freight, and such other matters relating to railroads as may be prescribed by law. And the legislature shall pass laws enforcing by suitable penalties the provisions of this section.

SEC. 2. The rolling stock and all other movto sale on exe- able property belonging to any railroad company or corporation in this state shall be liable to execution and sale in the same manner as the personal property of individuals, and the legislature shall pass no law exempting any such property from execution and sale.

Consolidation

of stock, etc., prohibited.

SEC. 3. No railroad corporation or telegraph company shall consolidate its stock, property, franchises, or earnings, in whole or in part, with any other railroad corporation or telegraph company owning a parallel or competing line;