Civil Government of Virginia
by
William F. Fox
Part 4 out of 5
The counties of Chesterfield, Powhatan, Dinwiddie, Nottoway, and
Amelia, and the city of Petersburg, shall constitute the fourth
circuit.
The counties of Prince Edward, Cumberland, Buckingham, Appomattox,
and Charlotte, shall constitute the fifth circuit.
The counties of Lunenburg, Mecklenburg, Halifax, Campbell, and the
city of Lynchburg, shall constitute the sixth circuit.
The counties of Pittsylvania, Franklin, Henry, and Patrick, and
the city of Danville, shall constitute the seventh circuit.
The counties of Amherst, Nelson, Albemarle, Fluvanna, and
Coochland, shall constitute the eighth circuit.
The counties of Rappahannock, Culpeper, Madison, Greene, Orange,
and Louisa, shall constitute the ninth circuit.
The county of Henrico and the city of Richmond, shall constitute
the tenth circuit.
The counties of Accomac, Northampton, Elizabeth City, and the city
of Newport News, shall constitute the eleventh circuit.
The counties of Richmond, Northumberland, Westmoreland, Lancaster,
and Essex, shall constitute the twelfth circuit.
The counties of Gloucester, Mathews, King and Queen, King William,
and Middlesex, shall constitute the thirteenth circuit.
The counties of New Kent, Charles City, York, Warwick, James City,
and the city of Williamsburg, shall constitute the fourteenth
circuit.
The counties of King George, Stafford, Spotsylvania, Caroline, and
Hanover, shall constitute the fifteenth circuit.
The counties of Fauquier, Loudoun, Prince William, Fairfax, and
Alexandria, and the city of Alexandria, shall constitute the
sixteenth circuit.
The counties of Frederick, Clarke, Warren, Shenandoah, and Page,
shall constitute the seventeenth circuit.
The counties of Rockingham, Augusta, and Rockbridge, shall
constitute the eighteenth circuit.
The counties of Highland, Bath, Alleghany, Craig, and Botecourt,
shall constitute the nineteenth circuit.
The counties of Bedford, Roanoke, Montgomery, and Floyd, and the
city of Roanoke, shall constitute the twentieth circuit.
The counties of Pulaski, Carroll, Wythe, and Grayson, shall
constitute the twenty-first circuit.
The counties of Bland, Tazewell, Giles, and Buchanan, shall
constitute the twenty-second circuit.
The counties of Washington, Russell, and Smyth, shall constitute
the twenty-third circuit.
The counties of Scott, Lee, Wise, and Dickenson, shall constitute
the twenty-fourth circuit.
SEC. 95. After the first day of January, nineteen hundred and six,
as the public interest requires, the General Assembly may
rearrange the said circuits and increase or diminish the number
thereof. But no new circuit shall be created containing, by the
last United States census or other census provided by law, less
than forty thousand inhabitants, nor when the effect of creating
it will be to reduce the number of inhabitants in any existing
circuit below forty thousand according to such census.
SEC. 96. For each circuit a judge shall be chosen by the joint
vote of the two houses of the General Assembly. He shall when
chosen, possess the same qualifications as judges of the Supreme
Court of Appeals, and during his continuance in office shall
reside in the circuit of which he is judge. At the first election
under this Constitution, the General Assembly shall elect, as
nearly as practicable, one fourth of the entire number of judges
for terms of two years, one fourth for four years, one fourth for
six years, and the remaining fourth for eight years, respectively,
and thereafter they shall be elected for terms of eight years.
SEC 97 The number of terms of the circuit courts to be held for
each county and city, shall be prescribed by law. But no separate
circuit court shall be held for any city of the second class,
until the city shall abolish its existing city court. The judge of
one circuit may be required or authorized to hold court in any
other circuit or city.
SEC 98 For the purposes of a judicial system, the cities of the
State shall be divided into two classes. All cities shall belong
to the first class which contain, as shown by the last United
States census or other census provided by law, ten thousand
inhabitants or more, and all cities shall belong to the second
class which contain, as thus shown, less than ten thousand
inhabitants. In each city of the first class, there shall be, in
addition to the circuit court, a corporation court. In any city
containing thirty thousand inhabitants or more, the General
Assembly may provide for such additional courts as the public
interest may require, and in every such city the city courts, as
they now exist, shall continue until otherwise provided by law. In
every city of the second class, the corporation or hustings court
existing, at the time this Constitution goes into effect, shall
continue hereafter under the name of the corporation court of such
city, but it may be abolished by a vote of a majority of the
qualified electors of such city, at an election held for the
purpose, and whenever the office of judge of a corporation or
hustings court of a city of the second class, whose salary is less
than eight hundred dollars, shall become and remain vacant for
ninety days consecutively, such court shall thereby cease to
exist. In case of the abolition of the corporation or hustings
court of any city of the second class, such city shall thereupon
come in every respect within the jurisdiction of the circuit court
of the county wherein it is situated, until otherwise provided by
law, and the records of such corporation or hustings court shall
thereupon become a part of the records of such circuit court, and
be transferred thereto, and remain therein until otherwise
provided by law, and during the existence of the corporation or
hustings court, the circuit court of the county in which such city
is situated, shall have concurrent jurisdiction with said
corporation or hustings court in all actions at law and suits in
equity.
SEC 99 For each city court of record a judge shall be chosen by
the joint vote of the two houses of the General Assembly. He
shall, when chosen, possess the same qualifications as judges of
the Supreme Court of Appeals, and during his continuance in office
shall reside within the jurisdiction of the court over which he
presides, but the judge of the corporation court of any
corporation having a city charter, and less than five thousand
inhabitants, may reside outside its corporate limits; and the same
person may be judge of such corporation court and judge of the
corporation court of some other city having less than ten thousand
inhabitants. At the first election of said judges under this
Constitution, the General Assembly shall elect, as nearly as
practicable, one-fourth of the entire number for terms of two
years, one-fourth for four years, one-fourth for six years, and
the remaining fourth for eight years; and thereafter they shall be
elected for terms of eight years. The judges of city courts in
cities of the first class may be required or authorized to hold
the circuit courts of any county and the circuit courts of any
city.
SEC. 100. The General Assembly shall have power to establish such
court or courts of land registration as it may deem proper for the
administration of any law it may adopt for the purpose of the
settlement, registration, transfer, or assurance of titles to land
in the State, or any part thereof.
SEC. 101. The General Assembly shall have power to confer upon the
clerks of the several circuit courts jurisdiction, to be exercised
in the manner and under the regulations to be prescribed by law,
in the matter of the admission of wills to probate, and of the
appointment and qualification of guardians, personal
representatives, curators, appraisers, and committees of the
estates of persons who have been adjudged insane or convicted of
felony, and in the matter of the substitution of trustees.
SEC. 102. All the judges shall be commissioned by the Governor.
They shall receive such salaries and allowances as may be
determined by law within the limitations fixed by this
Constitution, the amount of which shall not be increased or
diminished during their terms of office. Their terms of office
shall commence on the first day of February next following their
election, and whenever a vacancy occurs in the office of judge,
his successor shall be elected for the unexpired term.
SEC. 103. The salaries of the judges of the Supreme Court of
Appeals shall be not less than four thousand dollars per annum,
and shall be paid by the State.
The salary of the judge of each circuit court shall be not less
than two thousand dollars per annum, one-half of which shall be
paid by the State, the other half by the counties and cities
composing the circuit, according to their respective population;
except that of the salary of the judge of the circuit court of the
city of Richmond, the State shall pay the proportion which would
otherwise fall to the city of Richmond. The salary of a judge of a
city court in a city of the first class shall be not less than two
thousand dollars per annum, one-half of which shall be paid by the
State, the other half by the city. The whole of the aforesaid
salaries of said judges shall be paid out of the state treasury,
the State to be reimbursed by the respective counties and cities.
Any city may, by an ordinance, increase the salaries of its city
or circuit judges, or any one or more of them as it may deem
proper, and the increase shall be paid wholly by the city, but
shall not be enlarged or diminished during the term of office of
the judge. Each city containing less than ten thousand inhabitants
shall pay the salary of the judge of its corporation or hustings
court.
SEC. 104. Judges may be removed from office for cause, by a
concurrent vote of both houses of the General Assembly; but a
majority of all the members elected to each house must concur in
such vote, and the cause of removal shall be entered on the
journal of each house. The judge against whom the General Assembly
may be about to proceed shall have notice thereof, accompanied by
a copy of the causes alleged for his removal, at least twenty days
before the day on which either house of the General Assembly shall
act thereon.
SEC. 105. No judge of the Supreme Court of Appeals, of the circuit
court, or of any city court of record shall practice law, within
or without this State, nor shall he hold any other office of
public-trust during his continuance in office; except that the
judge of a corporation or hustings court in a city of the second
class, may hold the office of commissioner in chancery of the
circuit court for the county in which the city is located.
SEC. 106. Writs shall run in the name of the "Commonwealth of
Virginia," and be attested by the clerks of the several courts.
Indictments shall conclude "against the peace and dignity of the
Commonwealth."
SEC. 107. An Attorney-General shall be elected by the qualified
voters of the State at the same time and for the same term as the
Governor; and the fact of his election shall be ascertained in the
same manner. He shall be commissioned by the Governor, perform
such duties and receive such compensation as may be prescribed by
law, and shall be removable in the manner prescribed for the
removal of judges.
SEC 108. The General Assembly shall provide for the appointment or
election and for the jurisdiction of such justices of the peace as
the public interest may require.
SEC. 109. The General Assembly shall provide by whom, and in what
manner, applications for bail shall be heard and determined.
ARTICLE VII.
ORGANIZATION AND GOVERNMENT OF COUNTIES.
SEC. 110. There shall be elected by the qualified voters of each
county, one county treasurer,--who shall not be elected or serve
for more than two consecutive terms, nor act as deputy of his
immediate successor; one sheriff, one attorney for the
Commonwealth, and one county clerk, who shall be the clerk of the
circuit court. There shall be elected or appointed, for four
years, as the General Assembly may provide commissioners of the
revenue, for each county, the number, duties and compensation of
whom shall be prescribed by law; but should such commissioners of
the revenue be chosen by election by the people then they shall be
ineligibile for re-election to the office for the next succeeding
term.
There shall be appointed for each county, in such manner as may be
provided by law, one superintendent of the poor, and one county
surveyor.
SEC. 111. The magisterial districts shall, until changed by law,
remain as now constituted: provided, that hereafter no additional
districts shall be made containing less than thirty square miles.
In each district there shall be elected by the qualified voters
thereof, one supervisor. The supervisors of the districts shall
constitute the board of supervisors of the county, which shall
meet at stated periods and at other times as often as may be
necessary, lay the county and district levies, pass upon all
claims against the county, subject to such appeal as may be
provided by law, and perform such duties as may be required by
law.
SEC. 112. All regular elections for county and district officers
shall be held on Tuesday after the first Monday in November, and
all of said officers shall enter upon the duties of their offices
on the first day of January next succeeding their election, and
shall hold their respective offices for the term of four years,
except that the county clerk shall hold office for eight years;
provided that the term of the clerks first elected under this
Constitution shall begin on the first of February, nineteen
hundred and four, and end on the first of January, nineteen
hundred and twelve.
SEC. 113. No person shall at the same time hold more than one of
the offices mentioned in this article. Any officer required by law
to give bond may be required to give additional security thereon,
or to execute a new bond, and in default of so doing his office
shall be declared vacant.
SEC. 114, Counties shall not be made responsible for the acts of
the sheriffs.
SEC. 115. The General Assembly shall provide for the examination
of the books, accounts and settlements of county and city officers
who are charged with the collection and disbursement of public
funds.
ARTICLE VIII.
ORGANIZATION AND GOVERNMENT OF CITIES AND TOWNS.
SEC. 116. As used in this article the words "incorporated
communities" shall be construed to relate only to cities and
towns. All incorporated communities, having within defined
boundaries a population of five thousand or more, shall be known
as cities; and all incorporated communities having within defined
boundaries a population of less than five thousand, shall be known
as towns. In determining the population of such cities and towns
the General Assembly shall be governed by the last United States
census, or such other enumeration as may be made by authority of
the General Assembly; but nothing in this section shall be
construed to repeal the charter of any incorporated community of
less than five thousand inhabitants having a city charter at the
time of the adoption of this Constitution, or to prevent the
abolition by such incorporated communities of the corporation or
hustings court thereof.
SEC. 117. General laws for the organization and government of
cities and towns shall be enacted by the General Assembly, and no
special act shall be passed in relation thereto, except in the
manner provided in Article Four of this Constitution, and then
only by a recorded vote of two-thirds of the members elected to
each house. But each of the cities and towns of the State having
at the time of the adoption of this Constitution a municipal
charter may retain the same, except so far as it shall be repealed
or amended by the General Assembly: provided, that every such
charter is hereby amended so as to conform to all the provisions,
restrictions, limitations and powers set forth in this article, or
otherwise provided in this Constitution.
SEC. 118. In each city which has a court in whose office deeds are
admitted to record, there shall be elected for a term of eight
years by the qualified voters of such city a clerk of said court,
who shall perform such other duties as may be required by law.
There shall be elected in like manner and for a like term all such
additional clerks of courts for cities as the General Assembly may
prescribe, or as are now authorized by law, so long as such courts
shall continue in existence. But in no city of less than thirty
thousand inhabitants shall there be more than one clerk of the
court, who shall be clerk of all the courts of record in such
city.
SEC. 119. In every city, so long as it has a corporation court, or
a separate circuit court, there shall be elected for a term of
four years by the qualified voters of such city, one attorney for
the Commonwealth, who shall also, in those cities having a
separate circuit court, be the attorney for the Commonwealth, for
such circuit court.
In every city there shall be elected, or appointed, for a term of
four years, in a manner to be provided by law, one commissioner of
revenue, whose duties and compensation shall be prescribed by law;
but should he be elected by the people, he shall be ineligible for
reelection to the office for the next succeeding term.
SEC. 120. In every city there shall be elected by the qualified
voters thereof one city treasurer, for a term of four years, but
he shall not be eligible for more than two consecutive terms, nor
act as deputy for his immediate successor; one city sergeant, for
a term of four years, whose duties shall be prescribed by law;
and, a mayor, for a term of four years, who shall be the chief
executive officer of such city. All city and town officers, whose
election or appointment is not provided for by this Constitution,
shall be elected by the electors of such cities and towns, or of
some division thereof, or appointed by such authorities thereof as
the General Assembly shall designate.
The mayor shall see that the duties of the various city officers,
members of the police and fire departments, whether elected or
appointed, in and for such city, are faithfully performed. He
shall have power to investigate their acts, have access to all
books and documents in their offices, and may examine them and
their subordinates on oath. The evidence given by persons so
examined shall not be used against them in any criminal
proceedings. He shall also have power to suspend such officers and
the members of the police and fire departments, and to remove such
officers, and also such members of said departments when
authorized by the General Assembly, for misconduct in office or
neglect of duty, to be specified in the order of suspension or
removal; but no such removal shall be made without reasonable
notice to the officer complained of, and an opportunity afforded
him to be heard in person, or by counsel, and to present testimony
in his defense. From such order of suspension or removal, the city
officer so suspended or removed shall have an appeal of right to
the corporation court, or, if there be no such court, to the
circuit court of such city, in which court the case shall be heard
de novo by the judge thereof, whose decision shall be final. He
shall have all other powers and duties which may be conferred and
imposed upon him by general laws.
SEC. 121. There shall be in every city a council, composed of two
branches having a different number of members, whose powers and
terms of office shall be prescribed by law, and whose members
shall be elected by the qualified voters of such city, in the
manner prescribed by law, but so as to give as far as practicable,
to each ward of such city, equal representation in each branch of
said council in proportion to the population of such ward; but in
cities of under ten thousand population the General Assembly may
permit the council to consist of one branch. No member of the
council shall be eligible during his tenure of office as such
member, or for one year thereafter, to any office to be filled by
the council by election or appointment. The council of every city
may, in a manner prescribed by law, increase or diminish the
number, and change the boundaries, of the wards thereof, and
shall, in the year nineteen hundred and three, and in every tenth
year thereafter, and also whenever the boundaries of such wards
are changed, re-apportion the representation in the council among
the wards in a manner prescribed by law; and whenever the council
of any such city shall fail to perform the duty so prescribed, a
mandamus shall lie on behalf of any citizen thereof to compel its
performance.
SEC. 122. The mayors and councils of cities shall be elected on
the second Tuesday in June, and their terms of office shall begin
on the first day of September succeeding. All other elective
officers, provided for by this article, or hereafter authorized by
law, shall be elected on the Tuesday after the first Monday in
November, and their terms of office shall begin on the first day
of January succeeding, except that the terms of office of clerks
of the city courts shall begin coincidently with that of the
judges of said courts: provided, that the General Assembly may
change the time of election of all or any of the said officers,
except that the election and the beginning of the terms of mayors
and councils of cities shall not be made by the General Assembly
to occur at the same time with the election and beginning of the
terms of office of the other elective officers provided for by
this Constitution.
SEC. 123. Every ordinance, or resolution having the effect of an
ordinance, shall, before it becomes operative, be presented to the
mayor. If he approve he shall sign it, but if not, if the council
consist of two branches, he may return it, with his objections in
writing, to the clerk, or other recording officer, of that branch
in which it originated; which branch shall enter the objections at
length on its journal and proceed to reconsider it. If after such
consideration two thirds of all the members elected thereto shall
agree to pass the ordinance or resolution it shall be sent,
together with the objections, to the other branch, by which it
shall likewise be considered, and if approved by two thirds of all
the members elected thereto, it shall become operative
notwithstanding the objections of the mayor. But in all such cases
the votes of both branches of the council shall be determined by
yeas and nays, and the names of the members voting for and against
the ordinance or resolution shall be entered on the journal of
each branch. If the council consist of a single branch, the
mayor's objections in wilting to any ordinance, or resolution
having the effect of an ordinance, shall be returned to the clerk,
or other recording officer of the council, and be entered at
length on its journal, whereupon the council shall proceed to
reconsider the same. Upon such consideration the vote shall be
taken in the same manner as where the council consists of two
branches, and if the ordinance or resolution be approved by two
thirds of all the members elected to the council, it shall become
operative notwithstanding the objections of the mayor. If any
ordnance or resolution shall not be returned by the major within
five days (Sunday excepted), after it shall have been presented to
him, it shall become operative in like manner as if he had signed
it, unless his term of office, or that of the council, shall
expire within said five days.
The mayor shall have the power to veto any particular item or
items of an appropriation, ordnance or resolution, but the veto
shall not affect any item or items to which he does not object.
The item or items objected to shall not take effect except in the
manner provided in this section as to ordnances or resolutions not
approved by the mayor. No ordinance or resolution appropriating
money exceeding the sum of one hundred dollars, imposing taxes, or
authorizing the borrowing of money, shall be passed, except by a
recorded affirmative vote of a majority of all the members elected
to the council or to each branch thereof where there are two, and
in case of the veto by the mayor of such ordnance or resolution,
it shall require a recorded affirmative vote of two thirds of all
the members elected to the council, or to each branch thereof
where there are two, to pass the same over such veto in the manner
provided in this section. Nothing contained in this section shall
operate to repeal or amend any provision in any existing city
charter requiring a two thirds vote for the passage of any
ordinance as to the appropriation of money, imposing taxes or
authorizing the borrowing of money.
SEC. 124. No street, railway, gas, water, steam, or electric
heating, electric light or power, cold storage, compressed air,
viaduct, conduct telephone, or bridge, company, nor any
corporation, association, person or partnership, engaged in these
or like enterprises, shall be permitted to use the streets,
alleys, or public grounds of a city or town without the previous
consent of the corporate authorities of such city or town.
SEC. 125. The rights of no city or town in and to its water front,
wharf property, public landings, wharves, docks, streets, avenues,
parks, budges, and other public places, and its gas, water, and
electric works shall be sold except by an ordinance or resolution
passed by a recorded affirmative vote of three fourths of all the
members elected to the council, or to each branch thereof where
there are two, and under such other restrictions as may be imposed
by law, and in case of the veto by the mayor of such an ordinance
or resolution, it shall require a recorded affirmative vote of
three fourths of all the members elected to the council, or to
each branch thereof--where there are two, had in the manner
heretofore provided for in this article, to pass the same over the
veto. So franchise, lease or light of any kind to use any such
public property or any other public property or easement of any
description, in a manner not permitted to the general public,
shall be granted for a longer period than thirty years. Before
planting any such franchise or privilege for a term of years,
except for a trunk railway, the municipality shall first, after
due advertisement, reserve bids therefor publicly, in such manner
as may be provided by law, and shall then act as may be required
by law. Such grant, and any contract in pursuance thereof, may
provide that upon the termination of the grant the plant as well
as the property, if any, of the grantee in the streets, avenues,
and other public places shall thereupon, without compensation to
the grantee, or upon the payment of a fair valuation therefor, be
and become the property of the said city or town, but the grantee
shall be entitled to no payment by reason of the value of the
franchise, and any such plant or property acquired by a city or
town may be sold or leased, or, if authorized by law, maintained,
controlled and operated, by such city or town. Every such grant
shall specify the mode of determining any valuation therein
provided for, and shall make adequate provision by way of
forfeiture of the grant, or otherwise, to secure efficiency of
public service at reasonable rates, and the maintenance of the
property in good order throughout the term of the grant. Nothing
herein contained shall be construed as preventing the General
Assembly from prescribing additional restrictions on the powers of
cities and towns in granting franchises or in selling or leasing
any of their property, or as repealing any additional restriction
now required in relation thereto in any existing municipal
charter.
SEC. 126. The General Assembly shall provide by general laws for
the extension and the contraction, from time to time, of the
corporate limits of cities and towns, and no special act for such
purpose shall be valid.
SEC. 127. No city or town shall issue any bonds or other interest
bearing obligations for any purpose, or in any manner, to an
amount which, including existing indebtedness, shall, at any time,
exceed eighteen per centum of the assessed valuation of the real
estate in the city or town subject to taxation, as shown by the
last preceding assessment for taxes provided, however that nothing
above contained in this section shall apply to those cities and
towns whose charters existing at the adoption of this Constitution
authorize a larger percentage of indebtedness than is authorized
by this section and provided further, that in determining the
limitation of the power of a city or town to incur indebtedness
there shall not be included the following classes of indebtedness
(a.) Certificates of indebtedness, revenue bonds or other
obligations issued in anticipation of the collection of the
revenue of such city or town for the then current year; provided
that such certificates, bonds or other obligations mature within
one year from the date of their issue, and be not past due, and do
not exceed the revenue for such year;
(b.) Bonds authorized by an ordinance enacted in accordance with
section One Hundred and Twenty-three, and approved by the
affirmative vote of the majority of the qualified voters of the
city or town voting upon the question of their issuance, at the
general election next succeeding the enactment of the ordinance,
or at a special election held for that purpose, for a supply of
water or other specific undertaking from which the city or town
may derive a revenue; but from and after a period to be determined
by the council, not exceeding five years from the date of such
election, whenever and for so long as such undertaking fails to
produce sufficient revenue to pay for cost of operation and
administration (including interest on bonds issued therefor, and
the cost of insurance against loss by injury to persons or
property), and an annual amount to be covered into a sinking fund
sufficient to pay, at or before maturity, all bonds issued on
account of said undertaking, all such bonds outstanding shall be
included in determining the limitation of the power to incur
indebtedness, unless the principal and interest thereof be made
payable exclusively from the receipts of the undertaking.
SEC. 128. In cities and towns the assessment of real estate and
personal property for the purpose of muicipal taxation, shall be
the same as the assessment thereof for the purpose of state
taxation, whenever there shall be a state assessment of such
property.
ARTICLE IX.
EDUCATION AND PUBLIC INSTRUCTION.
SEC. 129. The General Assembly shall establish and maintain an
efficient system of public free schools throughout the State.
SEC. 130. The general supervision of the school system shall be
vested in a State Board of Education, composed of the Governor,
Attorney-General, Superintendent of Public Instruction, and three
experienced educators to be elected quadrennially by the Senate,
from a list of eligibles, consisting of one from each of the
faculties, and nominated by the respective boards of visitors or
trustees, of the University of Virginia, the Virginia Military
Institute, the Virginia Polytechnic Institute, the State Female
Normal School at Farmville, the School for the Deaf and Blind, and
also of the College of William and Mary, so long as the State
continue its annual appropriation to the last named institution.
The board thus constituted shall select and associate with itself
two division superintendents of schools, one from a county and the
other from a city, who shall hold office for two years, and whose
powers and duties shall be identical with those of other members,
except that they shall not participate in the appointment of any
public school official.
Any vacancy occurring during the term of any member of the board
shall be filled for the unexpired term by said board.
SEC. 131. The Superintendent of Public Instruction, who shall be
an experienced educator, shall be elected by the qualified voters
of the State at the same time and for the same term as the
Governor. Any vacancy in said office shall be filled for the
unexpired term by the said board.
His duties shall be prescribed by the State Board of Education, of
which he shall be ex-officio president; and his compensation shall
be fixed by law.
SEC. 132. The duties and powers of the State Board of Education
shall be as follows:
First. It may, in its discretion, divide the State into
appropriate school divisions, comprising not less than one county
or city each, but no county or city shall be divided in the
formation of such divisions. It shall, subject to the confirmation
of the Senate, appoint, for each of such divisions, one
superintendent of schools, who shall hold office for four years,
and shall prescribe his duties, and may remove him for cause and
upon notice.
Second. It shall have, regulated by law, the management and
investment of the school fund.
Third. It shall have authority to make all needful rules and
regulations for the management and conduct of the schools, which,
when published and distributed, shall have the force and effect of
law, subject to the authority of the General Assembly to revise,
amend, or repeal the same.
Fourth. It shall select text books and educational appliances for
vise in the schools of the State, exercising such discretion as it
may see fit in the selection of books suitable for the schools in
the cities and counties respectively.
Fifth. It shall appoint a board of directors, consisting of five
members, to serve without compensation, which shall have the
management of the State Library, and the appointment of a
librarian and other employees thereof, subject to such rules and
regulations as the General Assembly snail prescribe; but the
Supreme Court of Appeals shall have the management of the law
library and the appointment of the librarian and other employees
thereof.
SEC. 133. Each magisterial district shall constitute a separate
school district, unless otherwise provided by law. In each school
district there shall be three trustees selected, in the manner and
for the term of office prescribed by law.
SEC. 134. The General Assembly shall set apart as a permanent and
perpetual literary fund, the present literary fund of the State;
the proceeds of all public lands donated by Congress for public
free school purposes; of all escheated property; of all waste and
unappropriated lands; of all property accruing to the State by
forfeiture, and all fines collected for offences committed against
the State, and such other sums as the General Assembly may
apppropriate.
SEC. 135. The General Assembly shall apply the annual interest on
the literary fund; that portion of the capitation tax provided for
in the Constitution to be paid into the state treasury, and not
returnable to the counties and cities; and an annual tax on
property of not less than one nor more than five mills on the
dollar to the schools of the primary and grammar grades, for the
equal benefit of all of the people of the State, to be apportioned
on a basis of school population; the number of children between
the ages of seven and twenty years in each school district to be
the basis of such apportionment: but if at any time the several
kinds or classes of property shall be segregated for the purposes
of taxation, so as to specify and determine upon what subjects
state taxes and upon what subjects local taxes may be levied, then
the General Assembly may otherwise provide for a fixed
appropriation of state revenue to the support of the schools not
less than that provided in this section.
SEC. 136. Each county, city, town if the same be a separate school
district, and school district is authorized to raise additional
sums by a tax on property, not to exceed in the aggregate five
mills on the dollar in any one year, to be apportioned and
expended by the local school authorities of said counties, cities,
towns and district in establishing and maintaining such schools as
in their judgment the public welfare may require: provided, that
such primary schools as may be established in any school year,
shall be maintained at least four months of that school year,
before any part of the fund assessed and collected may be devoted
to the establishment of schools of higher grade. The boards of
supervisors of the several counties, and the councils of the
several cities, and towns if the same be separate schools
districts, shall provide for the levy and collection of such local
school taxes.
SEC. 137. The General Assembly may establish agricultural, normal,
manual training and technical schools, and such grades of schools
as shall be for the public good.
SEC. 138. The General Assembly may, in its discretion, provide for
the compulsory education of children between the ages of eight and
twelve years, except such as are weak in body or mind, or can read
and write, or are attending private schools, or are excused for
cause by the district school trustees.
SEC. 139. Provision shall be made to supply children attending the
public schools with necessary text-books in cases where the parent
or guardian is unable, by reason of poverty, to furnish them.
SEC. 140. White and colored children shall not be taught in the
same school.
SEC. 141. No appropriation of public funds shall be made to any
school or institution of learning not owned or exclusively
controlled by the State or some political subdivision thereof:
provided, first, that the General Assembly may, in its discretion,
continue the appropriations to the College of William and Mary;
second, that this section shall not be construed as requiring or
prohibiting the continuance or discontinuance by the General
Assembly of the payment of interest on certain bonds held by
certain schools and colleges as provided by an act of the General
Assembly, approved February twenty-third, eighteen hundred and
ninety-two, relating to bonds held by schools and colleges; third,
that counties, cities, towns, and districts may make
appropriations to non-sectarian schools of manual, industrial, or
technical training, and also to any school or institution of
learning owned or exclusively controlled by such county, city,
town, or school district.
SEC. 142. Members of the boards of visitors or trustees of
educational institutions shall be appointed as may be provided by
law, and shall hold for the term of four years: provided, that at
the first appointment, if the board be of an even number, one-half
of them, or, if of an odd number, the least majority of them,
shall be appointed for two years.
ARTICLE X.
AGRICULTURE AND IMMIGRATION.
SEC. 143. There shall be a Department of Agriculture and
Immigration, which shall be permanently maintained at the capital
of the State, and which shall be under the management and control
of a Board of Agriculture and Immigration, composed of one member
from each congressional district, who shall be a practical farmer,
appointed by the Governor for a term of four years, subject to
confirmation by the Senate, and the president of the Virginia
Polytechnic Institute, who shall be ex-officio a member of the
board: provided, that members of the board first appointed under
this Constitution from the congressional districts bearing odd
numbers shall hold office for two years.
SEC. 144. The powers and duties of the board shall be prescribed
by law: provided, that it shall have power to elect and remove its
officers, and establish elsewhere in the State subordinate
branches of said department.
SEC. 145. There shall be a Commissioner of Agriculture and
Immigration, whose term of office shall be four years, and who
shall be elected by the qualified voters of the State, and whose
powers and duties shall be prescribed by the Board of Agriculture
and Immigration until otherwise provided by law.
SEC. 146. The president of the Board of Agriculture and
Immigration shall be ex-officio a member of the Board of Visitors
of the Virginia Polytechnic Institute.
ARTICLE XII
PUBLIC INSTITUTIONS AND PRISONS.
SEC. 147. There shall be a state penitentiary,--with such branch
prisons and prison farms as may be provided by law.
SEC. 148. There shall be appointed by the Governor, subject to
confirmation by the Senate, a board of five directors which,
subject to such regulations and requirements as may be prescribed
by law, shall have the government and control of the penitentiary,
branch prisons, and prison farms, and shall appoint the
superintendents and surgeons thereof. The respective
superintendents shall appoint, and may remove, all other officers
and employees of the penitentiary, branch prisons, and prison
farms, subject to the approval of the board of directors. The
superintendents and surgeons shall be appointed for a term of four
years, and be removable by the board of directors for misbehavior,
incapacity, neglect of official duty, or acts performed without
authority of law. The terms of the directors first appointed shall
be one, two, three, four, and five years respectively; and
thereafter, upon the expiration of the term of a director, his
successor shall be appointed for a term of five years.
SEC. 149. For each state hospital for the insane now existing, or
hereafter established, there shall be a special board of
directors, consisting of three members, who shall be appointed by
the Governor, subject to confirmation by the Senate; such board
shall have the management of the hospital for which it is
appointed, under the supervision and control of the general board
of directors hereinafter constituted. The terms of the directors
first appointed shall be two, four, and six years, respectively,
and thereafter, upon the expiration of the term of a member, his
successor shall be appointed for a term of six years.
SEC. 150. There shall be a general board of directors for the
control and management of all the state hospitals for the insane
now existing or hereafter established, which shall consist of all
the directors appointed members of the several special boards. The
general board of directors shall be subject to such regulations
and requirements as the General Assembly may from time to time
prescribe, and shall have full power and control over the special
boards of directors and all of the officers and employees of the
said hospitals.
SEC. 151. The general board of directors shall appoint for a term
of four years a superintendent for each hospital, who shall be
removable by said board for misbehavior, incapacity, neglect of
official duty, or acts performed without authority of law. The
special board of each hospital, shall, subject to the approval of
the general board, appoint for a term of four years all other
resident officers. The superintendent of each hospital shall
appoint, and may remove, with the approval of the special board,
all other employees of such hospital.
SEC. 152. There shall be a Commissioner of State Hospitals for the
Insane, who shall be appointed by the Governor, subject to
confirmation by the Senate, for a term of four years. He shall be
ex-officio chairman of the general and of each of the special
boards of directors, and shall be responsible for the proper
disbursement of all moneys appropriated or received from any
source for the maintenance of such hospitals; he shall cause to be
established and maintained at all of the hospitals a uniform
system of keeping the records and the accounts of money received
and disbursed and of making reports thereof. He shall perform such
other duties and shall execute such bond and receive such salary
as may be prescribed by law.
ARTICLE XII.
CORPORATIONS.
SEC. 153. As used in this article, the term "corporation" or
"company" shall include all trusts, associations and joint stock
companies having any powers or privileges not possessed by
individuals or unlimited partnerships, and exclude all municipal
corporations and public institutions owned or controlled by the
State; the term "charter" shall be construed to mean the charter
of incorporation by, or under, which any such corporation is
formed; the term "transportation company" shall include any
company, trustee, or other person owning, leasing or operating for
hire a railroad, street railway, canal, steamboat or steamship
line, and also any freight car company, car association, or car
trust, express company, or company, trustee or person in any way
engaged in business as a common carrier over a route acquired in
whole or in part under the right of eminent domain; the term
"rate" shall be construed to mean "rate of charge for any service
rendered or to be rendered"; the terms "rate," "charge" and
"regulation," shall include joint rates, joint charges, and joint
regulations, respectively; the term "transmission company" shall
include any company owning, leasing, or operating for hire, any
telegraph or telephone line; the term "freight" shall be construed
to mean any property transported, or received for transportation,
by any transportation company; the term "public service
corporation" shall include all transportation and transmission
companies, all gas, electric light, heat and power companies, and
all persons authorized to exercise the right of eminent domain, or
to use or occupy any street, alley or public highway, whether
along, over, or under the same, in a manner not permitted to the
general public; the term "person," as used in this article, shall
include individuals, partnerships and corporations, in the
singular as well as plural number; the term "bond" shall mean all
certificates, or written evidences, of indebtedness issued by any
corporation and secured by mortgage or trust deed; the term
"frank" shall be construed to mean any writing or token, issued
by, or under authority of, a transmission company, entitling the
holder to any service from such company free of charge. The
provisions of this article shall always be so restricted in their
application as not to conflict with any of the provisions of the
Constitution of the United States, and as if the necessary
limitations upon their interpretation had been herein expressed in
each case.
SEC. 154. The creation of corporations, and the extension and
amendment of charters (whether heretofore or hereafter granted),
shall be provided for by general laws, and no charter shall be
granted, amended or extended by special act, nor shall authority
in such matters be conferred upon any tribunal or officer, except
to ascertain whether the applicants have, by complying with the
requirements of the law, entitled themselves to the charier,
amendment or extension applied for, and to issue, or refuse, the
same accordingly. Such general laws may be amended or repealed by
the General Assembly; and all charters and amendments of charters,
now existing and revocable, or hereafter granted or extended, may
be repealed at any time by special act. Provision shall be made,
by general laws, for the voluntary surrender of its charter by any
corporation, and for the forfeiture thereof for non-user or mis-
user. The General Assembly shall not, by special act, regulate the
affairs of any corporation, nor, by such act, give it any rights,
powers or privileges.
SEC. 155. A permanent commission, to consist of three members, is
hereby created, which shall be known as the State Corporation
Commission. The commissioners shall be appointed by the Governor,
subject to confirmation by the General Assembly in joint session,
and their regular terms of office shall be six years,
respectively, except those first appointed under this
Constitution, of whom, one shall be appointed to hold office until
the first day of February, nineteen hundred and four, one, until
the first day of February, nineteen hundred and six, and one,
until the first day of February, nineteen hundred and eight.
Whenever a vacancy in the commission shall occur, the Governor
shall forthwith appoint a qualified person to fill the same for
the unexpired term, subject to confirmation by the General
Assembly as aforesaid Commissioners appointed for regular terms
shall, at the beginning of the terms for which appointed, and
those appointed to fill vacancies shall, immediately upon their
appointments, enter upon the duties of their office, but no person
so appointed, either for a regular term, or to fill a vacancy,
shall enter upon, or continue in, office after the General
Assembly shall have refused to confirm his appointment, or
adjourned sine die without confirming the same, nor shall he be
eligible for reappointment to fill the vacancy caused by such
refusal or failure to confirm. No person while employed by, or
holding any office in relation to, any transportation or
transmission company, or while in any wise financially interested
therein, or while engaged in practicing law, shall hold office as
a member of said commission, or perform any of the duties thereof.
At least one of the commissioners shall have the qualifications
prescribed for judges of the Supreme Court of Appeals, and any
commissioner may be impeached or removed in the manner provided
for the impeachment or removal of a judge of said court. The
commission shall annually elect one of their members chairman of
the same, and shall have one clerk, one bailiff and such other
clerks, officers, assistants and subordinates as may be provided
by law, all of whom shall be appointed, and subject to removal, by
the commission. It shall prescribe its own rules of order and
procedure, except so far as the same are specified in this
Constitution or any amendment thereof. The General Assembly may
establish within the department, and subject to the supervision
and control, of the commission, subordinate divisions, or bureaus,
of insurance, banking or other special branches of the business of
that department. All sessions of the commission shall be public,
and a permanent record shall be kept of all its judgments, rules,
orders, findings and decisions, and of all reports made to, or by,
it. Two of the commissioners shall constitute a quorum for the
transaction of business, whether there be a vacancy in the
commission or not. The commission shall keep its office open for
business on every day except Sundays and legal holidays.
Transportation companies shall at all times transport, free of
charge, within this State, the members of said commission and its
officers, or any of them, when engaged on their official duties.
The General Assembly shall provide suitable quarters for the
commission and funds for its lawful expenses, including pay for
witnesses summoned, and costs of executing processes issued, by
the commission of its own motion, and shall fix the salaries of
the members, clerks, assistants and subordinates of the commission
and provide for the payment thereof, but the salary of each
commissioner shall not be less than four thousand dollars per
annum After the first day of January, nineteen hundred and eight,
the General Assembly may provide for the election of the members
of the commission by the qualified voters of the State, in which
event, vacancies thereafter occurring shall be filled as here
inbefore provided, until the expiration of twenty days after the
next general election, held not less than sixty days after the
vacancy occurs, at which election the vacancy shall be filled for
the residue of the unexpired term
SEC 156 (a) Subject to the provisions of this Constitution and to
such requirements, rules and regulations as may be prescribed by
law, the State Corporation Commission shall be the department of
government through which shall be issued all charters and
amendments or extensions thereof, for domestic corporations, and
all licenses to do business in this State to foreign corporations,
and through which shall be carried out all the provisions of this
Constitution, and of the laws made in pursuance thereof, for the
creation, visitation, supervision, regulation and control of
corporations chartered by, or doing business in, this State The
commission shall prescribe the forms of all reports which may be
required of such corporations by this Constitution or by law, it
shall collect, receive, and preserve such reports, and annually
tabulate and publish them in statistical form, it shall have all
the rights and powers of, and perform all the duties devolving
upon, the Railroad Commissioner and the Board of Public Works, at
the time this Constitution goes into effect, except so far as they
are inconsistent with this Constitution, or may be hereafter
abolished or changed by law
(b) The commission shall have the power, and be charged with the
duty, of supervising, regulating and controlling all
transportation and transmission companies doing business in this
State, in all matters relating to the performance of their public
duties and their charges therefor, and of correcting abuses
therein by such companies, and to that end the commission shall,
from time to time prescribe, and enforce against such companies,
in the manner hereinafter authorized, such rates, charges,
classifications of traffic, and rules and regulations, and shall
require them to establish and maintain all such public service,
facilities and conveniences, as may be reasonable and just, which
said rates, charges, classifications, rules, regulations and
requirements, the commission may, from time to time, alter or
amend. All rates, charges, classifications, rules and regulations
adopted, or acted upon, by any such company, inconsistent with
those prescribed by the commission, within the scope of its
authority, shall be unlawful and void. The commission shall also
have the right at all times to inspect the books and papers of all
transportation and transmission companies doing business in this
State, and to require from such companies, from time to time,
special reports and statements under oath concerning their
business, it shall keep itself fully informed of the physical
condition of all the railroads of the State, as to the manner in
which they are operated, with reference to the security and
accommodation of the public, and shall, from time to time, make
and enforce such requirements, rules and regulations as may be
necessary to prevent unjust or unreasonable discriminations by any
transportation or transmission company in favor of, or against,
any person, locality, community, connecting line, or kind of
traffic, in the matter of car service, train or boat schedule,
efficiency of transportation or otherwise, in connection with the
public duties of such company Before the commission shall
prescribe or fix any rate, charge, or classification of traffic,
and before it shall make any order, rule, regulation or
requirement directed against any one or more companies by name,
the company or companies to be affected by such rate, charge,
classification, order, rule, regulation or requirement, shall
first be given, by the commission, at least ten days' notice of
the time and place, when and where the contemplated action in the
premises will be considered and disposed of, and shall be afforded
a reasonable opportunity to introduce evidence and to be heard
thereon, to the end that justice may be done, and shall have
process to enforce the attendance of witnesses, and before the
commission shall make or prescribe any general order, rule,
regulation or requirement, not directed against any specific
company or companies by name, the contemplated general order,
rule, regulation or requirement shall first be published in
substance, not less than once a week for four consecutive weeks in
one or more of the newspapers of general circulation published in
the city of Richmond, Virginia, together with notice of the time
and place, when and where the commission will hear any objections
which may be urged by any person interested, against the proposed
order, rule, regulation or requirement, and every such general
order, rule, regulation or requirement, made by the commission
shall be published at length, for the time and in the manner above
specified, before it shall go into effect, and shall also, as long
as it remains in force, be published in each subsequent annual
report of the commission. The authority of the commission (subject
to review on appeal as hereinafter provided) to prescribe rates,
charges and classifications of traffic, for transportation and
transmission companies, shall be paramount, but its authority to
prescribe any other rules, regulations or requirements for
corporations or other persons shall be subject to the superior
authority of the General Assembly to legislate thereon by general
laws provided, however, that nothing in this section shall impair
the right which has heretofore been, or may hereafter be,
conferred by law upon the authorities of any city, town or county
to prescribe rules, regulations or rates of charge to be observed
by any public service corporation in connection with any services
performed by it under a municipal or county franchise granted by
such city, town or county, so far as such services may be wholly
within the limits of the city, town or county granting the
franchise. Upon the request of the parties interested, it shall be
the duty of the commission, as far as possible, to effect, by
mediation, the adjustment of claims, and the settlement of
controversies, between transportation or transmission companies
and their patrons
(c) In all matters pertaining to the public visitation, regulation
or control of corporations, and within the jurisdiction of the
commission, it shall have the powers and authority of a court of
record, to administer oaths, to compel the attendance of witnesses
and the production of papers, to punish for contempt any person
guilty of disrespectful or disorderly conduct in the presence of
the commission while in session, and to enforce compliance with
any of its lawful orders or requirements by adjudging and
enforcing by its own appropriate process, against the delinquent
or offending company (after it shall have been first duly cited,
proceeded against by due process of law before the commission
sitting as a court, and afforded opportunity to introduce evidence
and to be heard, as well against the validity, justness or
reasonableness of the order or requirement alleged to have been
violated, as against the liability of the company for the alleged
violation), such fines or other penalties as may be prescribed or
authorized by this Constitution or by law. The commission may be
vested with such additional powers, and charged with such other
duties (not inconsistent with this Constitution) as may be
prescribed by law, in connection with the visitation, regulation
or control of corporations, or with the prescribing and enforcing
of rates and charges to be observed in the conduct of any business
where the State has the right to prescribe the rates and charges
in connection therewith, or with the assessment of the property of
corporations or the appraisement of their franchises, for
taxation, or with the investigation of the subject of taxation
generally. Any corporation failing or refusing to obey any valid
order or requirement of the commission, within such reasonable
time, not less than ten days, as shall be fixed in the order, may
be fined by the commission (proceeding by due process of law as
aforesaid) such sum, not exceeding five hundred dollars, as the
commission may deem proper, or such sum in excess of five hundred
dollars, as may be prescribed, or authorized, by law; and each
day's continuance of such failure or refusal, after due service
upon such corporation of the older or requirement of the
commission, shall be a separate offence provided that should the
operation of such order or requirement be suspended pending an
appeal therefrom, the period of such suspension shall not be
computed against the company in the matter of its liability to
fines or penalties
(d) From any action of the commission prescribing rates, charges
or classifications of traffic, or affecting the train schedule of
any transportation company, or requiring additional facilities,
conveniences or public service of any transportation or
transmission company, or refusing to approve a suspending bond, or
requiring additional security thereon or an increase thereof, as
provided for in sub-section e of this section, an appeal (subject
to such reasonable limitations as to time, regulations as to
procedure and provisions as to costs, as may be prescribed by law)
may be taken by the corporation whose rates, charges or
classifications of traffic, schedule, facilities, conveniences or
service, are affected, or by any person deeming himself aggrieved
by such action, or (if allowed by law) by the Commonwealth. Until
otherwise provided by law, such appeal shall be taken in the
manner in which appeals may be taken to the Supreme Court of
Appeals from the inferior courts, except that such an appeal shall
be of right, and the Supreme Court of Appeals may provide by rule
for proceedings in the matter of appeals in any particular in
which the existing rules of law are inapplicable. If such appeal
be taken by the corporation whose rates, charges or
classifications of traffic, schedules, facilities, conveniences or
service are affected, the Commonwealth shall be made the appellee,
but, in the other cases mentioned the corporation so affected
shall be made the appellee. The General Assembly may also, by
general laws, provide for appeals from any other action of the
commission, by the Commonwealth or by any person interested,
irrespective of the amount involved. All appeals from the
commission shall be to the Supreme Court of Appeals only, aid in
all appeals to which the Commonwealth is a party, it shall be
represented by the Attorney General or his legally appointed
representative. No court of this Commonwealth (except the Supreme
Court of Appeals, by way of appeals as herein authorized) shall
have jurisdiction to review, reverse, correct or annul any action
of the commission, within the scope of its authority, or to
suspend or delay the execution or operation thereof, or to enjoin,
restrain or interfere with the commission in the performance of
its official duties, provided, however, that the writs of mandamus
and prohibition shall lie from the Supreme Court of Appeals to the
commission in all cases where such writs, respectively, would lie
to any inferior tribunal or officer.
(e) Upon the granting of an appeal, a writ of supersedeas may be
awarded by the appellate court, suspending the operation of the
action appealed from until the final disposition of the appeal,
but, prior to the final reversal thereof by the appellate court,
no action of the commission prescribing or affecting the rates,
charges or classifications of traffic of any transportation or
transmission company shall be delayed, or suspended, in its
operation, by reason of any appeal by such corporation, or by
reason of any proceedings resulting from such appeal, until a
suspending bond shall first have been executed and filed with, and
approved by, the commission (or approved on review by the Supreme
Court of Appeals), payable to the Commonwealth, and sufficient in
amount and security to insure the prompt refunding, by the
appealing corporation to the parties entitled thereto of all
charges which such company may collect or receive, pending the
appeal, in excess of those fixed, or authorized, by the final
decision of the court on appeal. The commission, upon the
execution of such bond, shall forthwith require the appealing
company, under penalty of the immediate enforcement (pending the
appeal and notwithstanding any supersedeas), of the order or
requirement appealed from, to keep such accounts, and to make to
the commission, from time to time, such reports, verified by oath,
as may, in the judgment of the commission, suffice to show the
amounts being charged or received by the company pending the
appeal, in excess of the charge allowed by the action of the
commission appealed from, together with the names and addresses of
the persons to whom such overcharges will be refundable in case
the charges made by the company pending the appeal, be not
sustained on such appeal, and the commission shall also, from time
to time, require such company, under like penalty, to give
additional security on, or to increase, the said suspending bond,
whenever, in the opinion of the commission, the same may be
necessary to insure the prompt refunding of the overcharges
aforesaid. Upon the final decision of such appeal, all amounts
which the appealing company may have collected, pending the
appeal, in excess of that authorized by such final decision, shall
be promptly refunded by the company to the parties entitled
thereto, in such manner, and through such methods of distribution,
as may be prescribed by the commission, or by law. All such
appeals affecting rates, charges or classifications of traffic,
shall have precedence upon the docket of the appellate court, and
shall be heard and disposed of promptly by the court, irrespective
of its place of session, next after the habeas corpus, and
Commonwealth's cases already on the docket of the court.
(a) In no case of appeal from the commission shall any new or
additional evidence be introduced in the appellate court, but the
chairman of the commission, under the seal of the commission,
shall certify to the appellate court all the facts upon which the
action appealed from was based and which may be essential for the
proper decision of the appeal, together with such of the evidence
introduced before, or considered by, the commission as may be
selected, specified and required to be certified, by any party in
interest, as well as such other evidence, so introduced or
considered, as the commission may deem proper to certify. The
commission shall, whenever an appeal is taken therefrom, file with
the record of the case, and as a part thereof, a written statement
of the reasons upon which the action appealed from was based, and
such statement shall be lead and considered by the appellate
court, upon disposing of the appeal. The appellate court shall
have jurisdiction, on such appeal, to consider and determine the
reasonableness and justness of the action of the commission
appealed from, as well as any other matter arising under such
appeal provided, however, that the action of the commission
appealed from shall be regarded as prima facie just, reasonable
and correct, but the court may, when it deems necessary, in the
interest of justice, demand to the commission any case pending on
appeal, and require the same to be further investigated by the
commission, and reported upon to the court (together with a
certificate of such additional evidence as may be tendered before
the commission by any party in interest), before the appeal is
finally decided.
(b) Whenever the court, upon appeal, shall reverse an order of the
commission affecting the rates, charges or the classification of
traffic of any transportation or transmission company, it shall,
at the same time, substitute therefor such order as in its
opinion, the commission should have made at the time of entering
the order appealed from, otherwise the reversal order shall not be
valid. Such substituted order shall have the same force and effect
(and none other) as if it had been entered by the commission at
the time the original order appealed from was entered. The right
of the commission to prescribe and enforce rates, charges,
classifications, rules and regulations, affecting any or all
actions of the commission theretofore entered by it and appealed
from, but based upon circumstances or conditions different from
those existing at the time the order appealed from was made, shall
not be suspended or impaired by reason of the pendency of such
appeal; but no order of the commission, prescribing or altering
such rates, charges, classifications, rules or regulations, shall
be retroactive.
(h) The right of any person to institute and prosecute in the
ordinary courts of justice, any action, suit or motion against any
transportation or transmission company, for any claim or cause of
action against such company, shall not be extinguished or
impaired, by reason of any fine or other penalty which the
commission may impose, or be authorized to impose, upon such
company because of its breach of any public duty, or because of
its failure to comply with any order or requirement of the
commission; but, in no such proceeding by any person against such
corporation, nor in any collateral proceeding, shall the
reasonableness, justness or validity of any rate, charge,
classification or traffic, rule, regulation or requirement,
theretofore prescribed by the commission, within the scope of its
authority, and then in force, be questioned: provided, however,
that no ease based upon or involving any order of the commission
shall be heard, or disposed of, against the objection of either
party, so long as such order is suspended in its operation by an
order of the Supreme Court of Appeals as authorized by this
Constitution or by any law passed in pursuance thereof.
(i) The commission shall make annual reports to the Governor of
its proceedings, in which reports it shall recommend, from time to
time, such new or additional legislation in reference to its
powers or duties, or to the creation, supervision, regulation or
control of corporations, or to the subject of taxation, as it may
deem wise or expedient, or as may be required by law.
(k) Upon the organization of the State Corporation Commission, the
Board of Public Works and the office of Railroad Commissioner,
shall cease to exist; and all books, papers and documents
pertaining thereto, shall be transferred to, and become a part of
the records of, the office of the State Corporation Commission.
(l) After the first day of January, nineteen hundred and five, in
addition to the modes of amendment provided for in Article fifteen
of this Constitution, the General Assembly, upon the
recommendation of the State Corporation Commission, may, by law,
from time to time, amend sub-sections a to i, inclusive, of this
section, or any of them, or any such amendment thereof: provided,
that no amendment made under authority of this sub-section shall
contravene the provisions of any part of this Constitution other
than the sub-sections last above referred to or any such amendment
thereof.
SEC. 157. Provision shall be made by general laws for the payment
of a fee to the Commonwealth by every domestic corporation, upon
the granting, amendment or extension of its charter, and by every
foreign corporation upon obtaining a license to do business in
this State as specified in this section; and also for the payment,
by every domestic corporation, and foreign corporation doing
business in this State, of an annual registration fee of not less
than five dollars nor more than twenty-five dollars, which shall
be irrespective of any specific license, or other, tax imposed by
law upon such company for the privilege of carrying on its
business in this State, or upon its franchise or property; and for
the making, by every such corporation (at the time of paying such
annual registration fee), of such report to the State Corporation
Commission, of the status, business or condition of such
corporation, as the General Assembly may prescribe. No foreign
corporation shall have authority to do business in this State,
until it shall have first obtained from the commission a license
to do business in this State, upon such terms and conditions as
may be prescribed by law. The failure by any corporation for two
successive years to pay its annual registration fee, or to make
its said annual reports, shall, when such failure shall have
continued for ninety days after the expiration of such two years,
operate as a revocation and annulment of the charter of such
corporation if it be a domestic company, or, of its license to do
business in this State if it be a foreign company; and the General
Assembly shall provide additional and suitable penalties for the
failure of any corporation to comply promptly with the
requirements of this section, or of any laws passed in pursuance
thereof. The commission shall compel all corporations to comply
promptly with such requirements, by enforcing, in the manner
hereinbefore authorized, such fines and penalties against the
delinquent company as may be provided for, or authorized by, this
article; but the General Assembly may relieve from the payment of
the said registration fee any purely charitable institution or
institutions.
SEC. 158. Every corporation heretofore chartered in this State,
which shall hereafter accept, or effect, any amendment or
extension of its charter, shall be conclusively presumed to have
thereby surrendered every exemption from taxation, and every non-
repealable feature of its charter and of the amendments thereof,
and also all exclusive rights or privileges theretofore granted to
it by the General Assembly and not enjoyed by other corporations
of a similar general character; and to have thereby agreed to
thereafter hold its charter and franchises, and all amendments
thereof, under the provisions and subject to all the requirements,
terms and conditions of this Constitution and of any laws passed
in pursuance thereof, so far as the same may be applicable to such
corporation.
SEC. 159. The exercise of the right of eminent domain shall never
be abridged, nor so construed as to prevent the General Assembly
from taking the property and franchises of corporations and
subjecting them to public use, the same as the property of
individuals; and the exercise of the police power of the State
shall never be abridged, nor so construed as to permit
corporations to conduct their business in such manner as to
infringe the equal rights of individuals or the general well-being
of the State.
SEC. 160. No transportation or transmission company shall charge
or receive any greater compensation, in the aggregate, for
transporting the same class of passengers or property, or for
transmitting the same class of messages, over a shorter than over
a longer distance, along the same line and in the same direction--
the shorter being included in the longer distance, but this
section shall not be construed as authoring any such company to
charge or reserve as great compensation for a shorter as for a
longer distance the State Corporation Commission may, from time to
time, authorize any such company to disregard the foregoing
provisions of this section, by charging such rates as the
commission may prescribe as just and equitable between such
company and the public, to or from any junctional or competitive
points or localities, or where the competition of points located
without this State may make necessary the prescribing of special
rates for the protection of the commerce of this State, but this
section shall not apply to mileage tickets, or to any special
excursion, or commutation, rates, or to special rates for services
rendered to the government of this State, or of the United States,
or in the interest of some public object, when such tickets or
rates shall have been prescribed or authorized by the commission
SEC. 161. No transportation or transmission company doing business
in this State shall grant to any member of the General Assembly,
or to any state, county, district or municipal officer, except to
members and officers of the State Corporation Commission for then
personal use while in office, any frank, free pass, free
transportation or any rebate or reduction in the rates charged by
such company to the general public for like services. For
violation of the provisions of this section the offending company
shall be liable to such penalties as may be prescribed by law, and
any member of the General Assembly, or any such officer, who
shall, while in office, accept any gift, privilege or benefit as
is prohibited by this section, shall thereby forfeit his office,
and be subject to such further penalties as may be prescribed by
law, but this section shall not prevent a street railway company
from transporting free of charge any member of the police force or
fire department while in the discharge of his official duties, nor
prohibit the acceptance by any such policeman or fireman of such
free transportation.
SEC 102. The doctrine of fellow servant, so far as it affects the
liability of the master for injuries to his servant resulting from
the acts or omissions of any other servant or servants of the
common master, is, to the extent hereinafter stated, abolished as
to every employee of a railroad company, engaged in the physical
construction, repair or maintenance of its roadway, track or any
of the structures connected therewith, or in any work in or upon a
car or engine standing upon a track, or in the physical operation
of a train, car, engine, or switch, or in any service requiring
his presence upon a train, car or engine, and every such employee
shall have the same right to recovery for every injury suffered by
him from the acts or omissions of any other employee or employees
of the common master, that a servant would have (at the time when
this Constitution goes into effect), if such acts or omissions
were those of the master himself in the performance of a non-
assignable duty provided, that the injury, so suffered by such
railroad employee, result from the negligence of an officer, or
agent, of the company of a higher grade of service than himself,
or from that of a person, employed by the company, having the
right, or charged with the duty, to control or direct the general
services or the immediate work of the party injured, or the
general services or the immediate work of the co employee through,
or by whose act or omission he is injured, or that it result from
the negligence of a co employee engaged in another department of
labor, or engaged upon, or in charge of, any car upon which, or
upon the train of which it is a part, the injured employee is not
at the time of receiving the injury, or who is in charge of any
switch, signal point, or locomotive engine, or is charged with
dispatching trains or transmitting telegraphic or telephonic
orders therefore, and whether such negligence be in the
performance of an assignable or non assignable duty. The physical
construction, repair or maintenance of the roadway, track or any
of the structures connected therewith, and the physical
construction, repair, maintenance, cleaning or operation of
trains, cars or engines, shall be regarded as different
departments of labor within the meaning of this section.
Knowledge, by any such railroad employee injured, of the defective
or unsafe character or condition of any machinery, ways,
appliances or structures, shall be no defence to an action for
injury caused thereby. When death, whether instantaneous or not,
results to such an employee from any injury for which he could
have recovered, under the above provisions, had death not
occurred, then his legal or personal representative, surviving
consort, and relatives (and any trustee, curator committee or
guardian of such consort or relatives) shall, respectively, have
the same rights and remedies with respect thereto as if his death
had been caused by the negligence of a co employee while in the
performance, as vice-principal, of a non assignable duty of the
master. Every contract or agreement, express or implied, made by
an employee, to waive the benefit of this section, shall be null
and void This section shall not be construed to deprive any
employee, or his legal or personal representative, surviving
consort or relatives (or any trustee, curator, committee or
guardian of such consort or relatives), of an\ rights or remedies
that he or they may have by the law of the land, at the time this
Constitution goes into effect Nothing contained in this section
shall restrict the power of the General Assembly to further
enlarge, for the above named class of employees, the rights and
remedies hereinbefore provided for, or to extend such rights and
remedies to, or otherwise enlarge the present rights and remedies
of, any other class of employees of railroads or of employees of
any person, firm or corporation
SEC 163 No foreign corporation shall be authored to carry on, m
this State, the business, or to exercise any of the powers or
functions, of a public service corporation, or be permitted to do
anything which domestic corporations are prohibited from doing or
be relieved from compliance with any of the requirements made of
similar domestic corporations by the Constitution and laws of this
State, where the same can be made applicable to such foreign
corporation without discriminating against it But this section
shall not affect any public service corporation whose line or
route extends across the boundary of this Commonwealth, nor
prevent any foreign corporation from continuing in such lawful
business as it may be actually engaged in within this State, when
this Constitution goes into effect; but any such foreign public
service corporation, so engaged, shall not, without first becoming
incorporated under the laws of this State, be authorized to
acquire, lease, use or operate, within this State, any public or
municipal franchise or franchises in addition to such as it may
own, lease, use or operate when this Constitution goes into
effect. The property, within this State, of foreign corporations
shall always be subject to attachment, the same as that of non-
resident individuals; and nothing in this section shall restrict
the power of the General Assembly to discriminate against foreign
corporations whenever, and in whatsoever respect, it may deem wise
or expedient.
SEC. 164. The right of the Commonwealth, through such
instrumentalities as it may select, to prescribe and define the
public duties of all common carriers and public service
corporations, to regulate and control them in the performance of
their public duties, and to fix and limit their charges therefor,
shall never be surrendered nor abridged.
SEC. 165. The General Assembly shall enact laws preventing all
trusts, combinations and monopolies, inimical to the public
welfare.
SEC. 166. The exclusive right to build or operate railroads
parallel to its own, or any other, line of railroad, shall not be
granted to any company; but every railroad company shall have the
right, subject to such reasonable regulations as may be prescribed
by law, to parallel, intersect, connect with or cross, with its
roadway, any other railroad or railroads; but no railroad company
shall build or operate any line of railroad not specified in its
charter, or in some amendment thereof. All railroad companies,
whose lines of railroad connect, shall receive and transport each
other's passengers, freight, loaded or empty cars, without delay
or discrimination. Nothing in this section shall deprive the
General Assembly of the right to prevent by statute, repealable at
pleasure, any railroad from being built parallel to the present
line of the Richmond, Fredericksburg and Potomac railroad.
SEC. 167. The General Assembly shall enact general laws regulating
and controlling all issues of stock and bonds by corporations.
Whenever stock or bonds are to be issued by a corporation, it
shall, before issuing the same, file with the State Corporation
Commission a statement (verified by the oath of the president or
secretary of the corporation, and in such form as may be
prescribed or permitted by the commission) setting forth fully and
accurately the basis, or financial plan, upon which such stock or
bonds are to be issued; and where such basis or plan includes
services or property (other than money), received or to be
received by the company, such statement shall accurately specify
and describe, in the manner prescribed, or permitted, by the
commission, the services and property, together with the valuation
at which the same are received or to be received; and such
corporation shall comply with any other requirements or
restrictions which may be imposed by law. The General Assembly
shall provide adequate penalties for the violation of this
section, or of any laws passed in pursuance thereof; and it shall
be the duty of the commission to adjudge, and enforce (in the
manner hereinbefore provided), against any corporation refusing or
failing to comply with the provisions of this section, or of any
laws passed in prey nuance thereof, such fines and penalties as
are authorized by this Constitution, or may be prescribed by law.
ARTICLE XIII.
TAXATION AND FINANCE.
SEC. 168. All property, except as hereinafter provided, shall be
taxed; all taxes, whether state, local, or municipal, shall be
uniform upon the same class of subjects within the territorial
limits of the authority levying the tax, and shall be levied and
collected under general laws.
SEC. 169. Except as hereinafter provided, all assessments of real
estate and tangible personal property shall be at their fair
market value, to be ascertained as prescribed by law. The General
Assembly may allow a lower rate of taxation to be imposed for a
period of years by a city or town upon land added to its corporate
limits, than is imposed on similar property within its limits at
the time such land is added. Nothing in this Constitution shall
prevent the General Assembly, after the first day of January,
nineteen hundred and thirteen, from segregating for the purposes
of taxation, the several kinds or classes of property, so as to
specify and determine upon what subjects, state taxes, and upon
what subjects, local taxes may be levied.
SEC. 170. The General Assembly may levy a tax on incomes in excess
of six hundred dollars per annum; may levy a license tax upon any
business which cannot be reached by the ad valorem system; and may
impose state franchise taxes, and in imposing a franchise tax,
may, in its discretion, make the same in lieu of taxes upon other
property, in whole or in part, of a transportation, industrial, or
commercial corporation. Whenever a franchise tax shall be imposed
upon a corporation doing business in this State, or whenever all
the capital, however invested, of a corporation chartered under
the laws of this State, shall be taxed, the shares of stock issued
by any such corporation, shall not be further taxed. No city or
town shall impose any tax or assessment upon abutting land owners
for street or other public local improvements, except for making
and improving the walkways upon then existing streets, and
improving and paving then existing alleys, and for either the
construction, or for the use of sewers; and the same when imposed,
shall not be in excess of the peculiar benefits resulting
therefrom to such abutting land owners. Except in cities and
towns, no such taxes or assessments, for local public improvements
shall be imposed on abutting land owners.
SEC. 171. The General Assembly shall provide for a re-assessment
of real estate, in the year nineteen, hundred and five, and every
fifth year thereafter, except that of railway and canal
corporations, which, after the January the first, nineteen hundred
and thirteen, may be assessed as the General Assembly may provide
SEC 172 The General Assembly shall provide for the special and
separate assessment of all coal and other mineral land, but until
such special assessment is made, such land shall be assessed under
existing laws
SEC 173 The General Assembly shall levy a state capitation tax of,
and not exceeding, one dollar and fifty cents per annum on every
male resident of the State not less than twenty one years of age,
except those pensioned by this State for military services, one
dollar of which shall be applied exclusively in aid of the public
free schools, in proportion to the school population, and the
residue shall be returned and paid by the State into the treasury
of the county or city in which it was collected, to be
appropriated by the proper county or city authorities to such
county or city purposes as they shall respectively determine, but
said state capitation tax shall not be a lien upon, nor collected
by legal process from, the personal property which may be exempt
from levy or distress under the poor debtor's law. The General
Assembly may authorize the board of supervisors of any county, or
the council of any city or town, to levy an additional capitation
tax not exceeding one dollar per annum on every such resident
within its limits, which shall be applied in aid of the public
schools of such county, city or town, or for such other county,
city or town purposes as they shall determine
SEC 174 After this Constitution shall be in force, no statute of
limitation shall run against any claim of the State for taxes upon
any property, nor shall the failure to assess property for
taxation defeat a subsequent assessment for and collection of
taxes for any preceding year or years, unless such property shall
have passed to a bona fide purchaser of value, without notice, in
which latter case the property shall be assessed for taxation
against such purchaser from the date of his purchase
SEC 175 The natural oyster beds, rocks and shoals, in the waters
of this State, shall not be leased, rented or sold, but shall be
held in trust for the benefit of the people of this State, subject
to such regulations and restrictions as the General Assembly may
prescribe, but the General Assembly may, from time to time, define
and determine such natural beds, rocks or shoals, by surveys or
otherwise
SEC 176 The State Corporation Commission shall annually ascertain
and assess, at the time hereinafter mentioned, and in the manner
required of the Board of Public Works, by the law in force on
January the first nineteen hundred and two, the value of the
roadbed, and other real estate, rolling stock, and all other
personal property whatsoever (except its franchise and the non
taxable shares of stock issued by other corporations) in this
State, of each railway corporation, whatever its motive power, now
or hereafter liable for taxation upon such property, the canal bed
and other real estate, the boats and all other personal property
whatsoever (except its franchise and the non taxable shares of
stock issued by other corporations) in this State, of each canal
corporation, empowered to conduct transportation, and such
property shall be taxed for state, county, city, town and district
purposes in the same manner as authorized by said law, at such
rates of taxation as may be imposed by them, respectively, from
time to time, upon the real estate and personal property of
natural persons provided, that no tax shall be laid upon the net
income of such corporations.
SEC. 177. Each such railway or canal corporation, including also
any such as is exempt from taxation as to its works, visible
property, or profits, shall also pay an annual state franchise tax
equal to one per centum upon the gross receipts hereinafter
specified in section One Hundred and Seventy eight for the
privilege of exercising its franchise in this State, which, with
the taxes provided for in section One Hundred and Seventy six,
shall be in lieu of all other taxes or license charges whatsoever
upon the franchises of such corporation, the shares of stock
issued by it, and upon its property assessed under section One
Hundred and Seventy six provided, that nothing herein contained
shall exempt such corporation from the annual fee required by
section One Hundred and fifty seven of this Constitution, or from
assessments for street and other public local improvements
authorized by section One Hundred and Seventy, and provided,
further, that nothing herein contained shall annul or interfere
with, or prevent any contract or agreement by ordinance between
street railway corporations and municipalities, as to compensation
for the use of the streets or alleys of such municipalities by
such railway corporations.
SEC 178 The amount of such franchise tax shall be equal to one per
centum of the gross transportation receipts of such corporation,
for the year ending June the thirtieth of each year, to be
ascertained by the State Corporation Commission, in the following
manner:
(a) When the road or canal of the corporation lies wholly within
this State, the tax shall be equal to one per centum of the entire
gross transportation receipts of such corporation
(b) When the road or canal of the corporation lies partly within
and partly without this State or is operated as a part of a line
or system extending beyond this State, the tax shall be equal to
one per centum of the gross transportation receipts earned within
this State, to be determined as follows: By ascertaining the
average gross transportation receipts per mile over its whole
extent within and without this State, and multiplying the result
by the number of miles operated within this State provided, that
from the sum so ascertained there may be a reasonable deduction
because of any excess of value of the terminal facilities or other
similar advantages in other states over similar facilities or
advantages in this State.
SEC 179 Each corporation mentioned in sections One Hundred and
Seventy six and One Hundred and Seventy seven shall annually, on
the first day of September, make to the State Corporation
Commission the report which the law, in force January the first,
nineteen hundred and two, required to be made annually to the
Board of Public Works by every railroad and canal company in this
State, not exempt from taxation by virtue of its charter, which
report shall also show the property taxable in this State
belonging to the corporation on the thirtieth day of June
preceding, and its total gross transportation receipts for the
year ending on that date. Upon receiving such report the State
Corporation Commission shall, after thirty days' notice previously
given, as provided by said law, assess the value of the property
not exempt from taxation, of the corporation, and ascertain the
amount of the franchise tax and other state taxes chargeable
against it. All taxes for which the corporation is liable shall be
paid on or before the first day of December following the
provisions of said law, except as changed by this article shall
apply to the ascertainment and collection of the franchise, as
well as other taxes of such corporations. Said taxes, until paid,
shall be a lien upon the property within this State of the
corporation owning the same, and take precedence of all other
liens or incumbrances.
SEC. 180 Any corporation aggrieved by the assessment and
ascertainment made under sections One Hundred and Seventy six and
One Hundred and Seventy eight may, within thirty days after
receiving a certified copy thereof, apply for relief to the
circuit court of the city of Richmond Justice of the application,
setting forth the grounds of complaint, verified by affidavit,
shall be served on the State Corporation Commission, and on the
Attorney General whose duty it shall be to represent the State.
The court, if of opinion that the assessment or tax is excessive
shall reduce the same, but if of opinion that it is insufficient,
shall increase the same. Unless the applicant paid the taxes under
protest, when due, the court, if it disallow the application,
shall give judgment against it for a sum, by way of damages, equal
to interest at the rate of one per centum per month upon the
amount of taxes from the time the same were payable. If the
application be allowed, in whole or in part, appropriate relief
shall be granted, including the right to recover any excess of
taxes that may have been paid, with legal interest thereon, and
costs, from the State or local authorities, or both, as the case
may be, the judgment to be enforceable by mandamus or other proper
process issuing from the court finally adjudicating the
application. Subject to the provisions of Article Six of this
Constitution, the Supreme Court of Appeals may allow a court of
error to either party.
SEC. 181. As of January the first, nineteen hundred and three, the
system of taxation, as to the corporations mentioned in sections
One Hundred and Seventy six and One Hundred and Seventy seven,
shall be as set forth in sections One Hundred and Seventy six to
One Hundred and Eighty, inclusive, and for that year the franchise
tax shall be based upon such gross receipts for the year ending
the thirtieth day of June, nineteen hundred and three, and such
system shall so remain until the first day of January, nineteen
hundred and thirteen, and thereafter until modified or changed, as
may be prescribed by law provided, that, if the said system shall
for any reason become inoperative, the General Assembly shall have
power to adopt some other system.
SEC. 182. Until otherwise prescribed by law, the shares of stock
issued by trust or security companies chartered by this State, and
by incorporated banks, shall be taxed in the same manner in which
the shares of stock issued by incorporated banks were taxed, by
the law in force January the first, nineteen hundred and two, but
from the total assessed value of the shares of stock of any such
company or bank, there shall be deducted the assessed value of its
real estate otherwise taxed in this State, and the value of each
share of stock shall be its proportion of the remainder.
SEC. 183. Except as otherwise provided in this Constitution, the
following property and no other, shall be exempt from taxation,
state and local, but the General Assembly may hereafter tax any of
the property hereby exempted save that mentioned in sub-section
(a)
(a) Property directly or indirectly owned by the State, however
held, and property lawfully owned and held by counties, cities,
towns, or school districts, used wholly and exclusively for
county, city, town, or public school purposes, and obligations
issued by the State since the fourteenth day of February, eighteen
hundred and eighty two or hereafter exempted by law. (b) Buildings
with land they actually occupy, and the furniture and furnishings
therein lawfully owned and held by churches or religious bodies,
and wholly and exclusively used for religious worship, or for the
residence of the minister of any such church or religious body,
together with the additional adjacent land reasonably necessary
for the convenient use of any such building.
(c) Private family burying grounds not exceeding one acre in area,
reserved as such by will or deed or shown by other sufficient
evidence to be reserved as such, and so exclusively used, and
public burying grounds and lots therein exclusively used for
burial purposes, and not conducted for profit, whether owned or
managed by local authorities or by private corporations.
(d) Buildings with the land they actually occupy and the
furniture, furnishings, books and instruments therein, wholly
devoted to educational purposes, belonging to, and actually and
exclusively occupied and used by churches, public libraries,
incorporated colleges, academies, industrial schools, seminaries,
or other incorporated institutions of learning, including the
Virginia Historical Society, which are not corporations having
shares of stock or otherwise owned by individuals or other
corporations, together with such additional adjacent land owned by
such churches, libraries and educational institutions as may be
reasonably necessary for the convenient use of such buildings,
respectively, and also the buildings thereon used as residences by
the officers or instructors of such educational institutions, and
also the permanent endowment funds held by such libraries and
educational institutions directly or in trust, and not invested in
real estate provided, that such libraries and educational
institutions are not conducted for profit of any person or
persons, natural or corporate directly or under any guise or
pretence whatsoever. But the exemption mentioned in this sub
section shall not apply to any industrial school, individual or
corporate, not the property of the State, which does work for
compensation, or manufactures and sells articles, in the community
in which such school is located; provided, that nothing herein
contained shall restrict any such school from doing work for or
selling its own products or any other articles to any of its
students or employees.
(e) Real estate belonging to, actually and exclusively occupied,
and used by, and personal property, including endowment funds,
belonging to Young Men's Christian Associations, and other similar
religious associations, orphan or other asylums, reformatories,
hospitals and nunneries, which are not conducted for profit, but
purely and completely as charities.
(f) Buildings with the land they actually occupy, and the
furniture and furnishings therein, belonging to any benevolent or
charitable association and used exclusively for lodge purposes or
meeting rooms by such association, together with such additional
adjacent land as may be necessary for the convenient rise of the
buildings for such purposes; and
(g) Property belonging to the Association for the Preservation of
Virginia Antiquities, the Confederate Memorial Literary Society,
and the Mount Vernon Ladies' Association of the Union.
No inheritance tax shall be charged, directly or indirectly,
against any legacy or devise made according to law for the benefit
of any institution or other body or any natural or corporate
person whose property is exempt from taxation as hereinbefore
mentioned in this section.
Nothing contained in this section shall be construed to exempt
from taxation the property of any person, firm, association or
corporation, who shall, expressly or impliedly, directly or
indirectly, contract or promise to pay any sum of money or other
benefit, on account of death, sickness, or accident to any of its
members or any other person; and whenever any building or land, or
part thereof, mentioned in this section and not belonging to the
State, shall be leased or shall be a source of revenue or profit,
all of such buildings and land shall be liable to taxation as
other land and buildings in the same county, city, or town; and
nothing herein contained shall be construed as authorizing or
requiring any county, city, or town to tax for county, city or
town purposes, in violation of the rights of the lessees thereof
existing under any lawful contract heretofore made, any real
estate owned by such county, city or town, and heretofore leased
by it.
Obligations issued by counties, cities, or towns may be exempted
by the authorities of such localities from local taxation.
SEC. 184. No debt shall be contracted by the State except to meet
casual deficits in the revenue, to redeem a previous liability of
the State, to suppress insurrection, repel invasion, or defend the
State in time of war. No scrip, certificate, or other evidence of
state indebtedness, shall be issued except for the transfer or
redemption of stock previously issued, or for such debts as are
expressly authorized in this Constitution.
SEC. 185. Neither the credit of the State, nor of any county,
city, or town, shall be, directly or indirectly, under any device
or pretence whatsoever, granted to or in aid of any person,
association, or corporation; nor shall the State, or any county,
city, or town subscribe to or become interested in the stock or
obligations of any company, association, or corporation, for the
purpose of aiding in the construction or maintenance of its work;
nor shall the State become a party to or become interested in any
work of internal improvement, except public roads, or engaged in
carrying on any such work; nor assume any indebtedness of any
county, city, or town, nor lend its credit to the same; but this
section shall not prevent a county, city or town from perfecting a
subscription to the capital stock of a railroad company authorized
by existing charter conditioned upon the affirmative vote of the
voters and freeholders of such county, city or town in favor of
such subscription: provided, that such vote be had prior to July
first, nineteen hundred and three.
SEC. 186. All taxes, licenses, and other revenue of the State,
shall be collected by its proper officers and paid into the state
treasury. No money shall be paid out of the state treasury except
in pursuance of appropriations made by law; and no such
appropriation shall be made which is payable more than two years
after the end of the session of the General Assembly, at which the
law is enacted authorizing the same; and no appropriation shall be
made for the payment of any debt or obligation created in the name
of the State during the war between the Confederate States and the
United States. Nor shall any county, city, or town pay any debt or
obligation created by such county, city, or town in aid of said
war.
SEC. 187. The General Assembly shall provide and maintain a
sinking fund in accordance with the provisions of section Ten of
the act, approved February the twentieth, eighteen hundred and
ninety-two, entitled "an act to provide for the settlement of the
public debt of Virginia not funded under the provisions of an act
entitled an act to ascertain and declare Virginia's equitable
share of the debt created before, and actually existing at the
time of the partition of her territory and resources, and to
provide for the issuance of bonds covering the same, and the
regular and prompt payment of the interest theron, approved
February the fourteenth, eighteen hundred and eighty-two." Every
law hereafter enacted by the General Assembly, creating a debt or
authorizing a loan, shall provide for the creation and maintenance
of a sinking fund for the payment or redemption of the same.
SEC. 188. No other or greater amount of tax or revenue shall, at
any time, be levied than may be required for the necessary
expenses of the government, or to pay the indebtedness of the
State.
SEC. 189. On all lands and the improvements thereon, and on all
tangible personal property, not exempt from taxation by the
provision of this article, the rate of state taxation shall be
twenty cents on every hundred dollars of the assessed value
thereof, the proceeds of which shall be applied to the expenses of
the government and the indebtedness of the State, and a further
tax of ten cents on every hundred dollars of the assessed value
thereof, which shall be applied to the support of the public free
schools of the State: provided, that after the first day of
January, nineteen hundred and seven, the tax rate upon said real
and personal property, for such purposes shall be prescribed by
law. But the General Assembly during such period of four years, in
addition to making annually an appropriation for pensions not to
exceed the last appropriation made for such purpose prior to
September the thirtieth, nineteen hundred and one, may levy
annually, a special tax for pensions, on such real and personal
property of not exceeding five cents on the hundred dollars of the
assessed value therof.
ARTICLE XIV.
MISCELLANEOUS PROVISIONS.
HOMESTEAD AND OTHER EXEMPTIONS.
SEC. 190. Every householder or head of a family shall be entitled,
in addition to the articles now exempt from levy or distress for
rent, to hold exempt from levy, seizure, garnishment, or sale
under any execution, order, or other process issued on any demand
for a debt hereafter contracted, his real and personal property,
or either, including money and debts due him, to the value of not
exceeding two thousand dollars, to be selected by him: provided,
that such exemption shall not extend to any execution, order, or
other process issued on any demand in the following cases:
First. For the purchase price of said property, or any part
thereof. If the property purchased, and not paid for, be exchanged
for, or converted into, other property by the debtor, such last-
named property shall not be exempted from the payment of such
unpaid purchase money under the provisions of this article;
Second. For services rendered by a laboring person or mechanic;
Third. For liabilities incurred by any public officer, or officer
of a court, or any fiduciary, or any attorney-at-law for money
collected;
Fourth. For a lawful claim for any taxes, levies, or assessments
accruing after the first day of June, eighteen hundred and sixty-
six;
Fifth. For rent;
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