income of the Normal School Fund should be paid into the School Fund until the latter should amount to $200,000. Still other sources are the five per cent penalty for the non-payment when due of interest on school land certificates and loans from the School Fund, moneys accruing from forfeiture or escheat and from trespass penalties having reference to school lands. At the time of the Civil War, money paid for exemptions from military duty went into this fund. In 1901 the legislature attempted to create a new source by providing that persons, companies, or corporations cutting ice from meandered lakes in Wisconsin and shipping it out of the state should pay a license fee of ten cents a ton and that the proceeds of this tax or fee charge should go into the common school fund. The question of the validity of this law came before the Supreme Court of the State the next year in the case of Rossmiller vs. the State. The Court held the law to be in contravention of the fourteenth amendment to the Constitution of the United States guaranteeing to all persons within the jurisdiction of a state equal protection of the laws. A state has no right to appropriate ice formed on waters within its borders. The extent of its interference with such ice cannot exceed what may be necessary to the insuring to all a common enjoyment of such ice. The state can exercise only police power over such waters. Accordingly the law was repealed in 1903.32 C. The University Fund. The University Fund arises from the sale of university lands and the five per cent penalty for non-payment when due of interest on university land certificates and loans from the University Fund. The Agricultural College Fund consists of the proceeds of the sales of the 240,000 acre grant for the support of an institution in which the science and practice of agriculture shall be taught. d. The Normal School Fund. In 1857 it was enacted that twenty-five per cent of the net proceeds of the sale of swamp and overflowed lands should go into a Normal School Fund. (General Laws, 1857, ch. 82.) A law of 1859 provided that the Normal School Regents should Laws of 1901, ch. 470; Laws of 1903, ch. 11; 114 Wisconsin, 169. distribute the income of the fund among the following institutions which maintained or should establish and maintain a normal department; colleges, universities and girls' seminaries, owning a certain amount of property, and union or high schools. In 1889 it was provided that the Normal School Fund should receive one-half of the income from the sale of swamp and overflowed lands and lands granted in lieu of such lands. of 1889, ch. 340.) e. The Swamp Land Fund. (Laws This was created in 1856 and arose from the sale of lands granted to the state by an Act of Congress approved September 28, 1850, entitled "an act to enable the state of Arkansas and other States to reclaim swamp and overflowed lands within their limits." The state dedicated seventy-five per cent of the proceeds of the sale of these lands to schools; and in 1857, twentyfive per cent, to the normal schools. (ch. 82.) In 1865 it was enacted that one-half should go to the Normal School Fund and one-half to the Drainage Fund. (Laws of 1865, ch. 537); in 1889 the same disposition was made of the proceeds derived and to be derived from the sale of lands granted in lieu of swamp and overflowed lands. Prior to the Swamp Land Grant Congress had issued warrants to soldiers of the Mexican War to locate on any public lands and as some of these locations had been made on Wisconsin swamp or overflowed lands, the two acts were in conflict. In 1855 therefore Congress made an adjustment of the difficulty through an act entitled "an act for the relief of purchasers or locators of swamp and overflowed lands." (Laws of 1889, ch. 340.) f. The Drainage Fund. Prior to 1865, this fund received twenty-five per cent of the proceeds of the sales of swamp and overflowed lands; after that year, fifty per cent. g. The Whitewater Normal School Building Fund. $25,000 was given by Whitewater for a normal school building at that place and $18,000 was appropriated from the Normal School Fund. (Laws of 1866, 1867.) h. The Platteville Normal School Building Fund. $15,000 was appropriated from the Normal School Fund for the completion of the normal school buildings at Platteville. i. The Oshkosh Normal School Building Fund. In 1869, the city of Oshkosh gave $30,000 for a normal school building. j. The Capitol Fund. This fund arose from the sale in 1857 of the ten sections of land granted to the state by Congress for the completion of public buildings. In 1860 this fund was merged with the general fund. k. The War Fund. The War Fund arose from the sale of War bonds and from appropriations for war purposes. In 1868 this fund was closed and covered into the general fund. 1. The State Insurance Fund. In 1903 Wisconsin made provision for insuring its buildings itself. The state buildings are insured at ninety per cent of their value and at the average rate charged by reliable companies. Sixty per cent of the premiums so determined is covered into the insurance fund. (Laws of 1903, ch. 68.) m. The Railroad Farm Mortgage Fund. A law of 1862 provided that every railroad company that had taken payment for any or all of its capital stock or bonds in notes or bonds secured by mortgages on the real estate of the purchasers and had sold, hypothecated or otherwise disposed of such notes or bonds for the purpose of securing money for the payment of its debts should pay annually into the Railroad Farm Mortgage Fund twelve per cent of the amount of such mortgages and should continue to make such payments until the amount of the mortgages with interest at six per cent had been paid. The liens upon the fund were not to exceed the amount that the bona-fide holders of the stock or bonds had paid for them. It was provided that certain railway bonds should have a lien of ninety per cent; others of seventy; still others, of fifty. No railroad, however, was obliged to make the above described payments unless it had assented to the law providing for the fund. (Laws of 1862, ch. 330.) There have been several other funds in addition to those de Vide Chapter on Public Debt and State Credit. scribed above. Some of these are found in the following list of funds now obtaining: 1. The General Fund. 2. The School Fund. 3. The University Fund. 4. The Agricultural College Fund. 5. The Normal School Fund. 6. The Drainage Fund. 7. Delinquent Tax Fund. (This arises from taxes collected on state lands.) 8. Indemnity Swamp Land Fund. This arose from the conflict between the Swamp Land grant and the grant to the soldiers of the Mexican War. 9. The Calumet and Manitowoc Counties' Idemnity Fund. 10. The Redemption Fund. Money for the redemption of forfeited state lands is paid into this fund. 11. The Deposit Fund. Into this fund go surpluses from the resale of forfeited state lands over and above the amount owed the state, interest, costs and penalty. 12. The Menominee Indian Reservation Trespass Fund. 13. The Allotment Fund. General Laws, 1862, Sec. 3, ch. 190, reads, "The State Treasurer is hereby authorized and directed to receive such sums of money as may be placed in his hands by a volunteer making an allotment and shall dispose of the same according to the order and direction of such volunteer." 14. The Medical Examiner's Fund. 16. The Memorial Hall Fund. CHAPTER VII THE GENERAL PROPERTY TAX I. THE GENERAL PROPERTY TAX IN THE TERRITORIAL PERIOD, 1836 TO 1848 The Act providing for the organization of the Territory of Wisconsin placed two specific limitations upon the taxing power of the Territorial Legislature. No tax was to be imposed upon the property of the United States. The lands or other property of non-residents were not to be taxed at a higher rate than the lands or other property of residents. Of course, any tax legislation, just as any other legislation, was null and void if disapproved by Congress. The first law providing for a Territorial revenue was enacted in 1838. It provided that the counties should retain from the taxes collectable each year five per cent thereof to be taken from the first moneys received. This five per cent was to be kept by the county treasurers and paid out on drafts issued by the Territorial Treasurer.1 The tax due for 1838 was remitted in 1839.2 In 1843 it was provided that there should be levied in the several counties and towns a tax of such a percentage as the Legislature might from year to year prescribe. The tax for the year 1843 was to be three-eighths of one mill in the counties of Milwaukee, Racine, Jefferson, and Crawford, and five-eighths of one mill in all the other counties. Taxes were to be paid in gold or silver coin or in warrants drawn by the auditor on the treasurer of the Territory. Through an oversight, however, the bill of Laws of 1838, No. 93. 2 Laws of 1839, No. 14. 3 Laws of 1842-43, 65. |