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;
Sixth. For the legal or taxable fees of any public officer or
officer of a court.
SEC. 191. The said exemption shall not be claimed or held in a
shifting stock of merchandise, or in any property, the conveyance
of which by the homestead claimant has been set aside on the
ground of fraud or want of consideration.
SEC. 192. The General Assembly shall prescribe the manner and the
conditions on which a householder or head of a family shall set
apart and hold for himself and family a homestead in any of the
property hereinbefore mentioned. But this section shall not be
construed as authorizing the General Assembly to defeat or impair
the benefits intended to be conferred by the provisions of this
article.
SEC. 193. Nothing contained in this article shall invalidate any
homestead exemption heretofore claimed under the provisions of the
former Constitution; or impair in any manner the right of any
householder or head of a family existing at the time that this
Constitution goes into effect, to select the exemption, or any
part thereof, to which he was entitled under the former
Constitution; provided that such right, if hereafter exercised, be
not in conflict with the exemptions set forth in sections One
Hundred and Ninety and One Hundred and Ninety-one. But no person
who has selected and received the full exemption allowed by the
former Constitution shall be entitled to select an additional
exemption under this Constitution; and no person who has selected
and received part of the exemption allowed by the former
Constitution shall be entitled to select an additional exemption
beyond the difference between the value of such part and a total
valuation of two thousand dollars. So far as necessary to
accomplish the purposes of this section the provisions of chapter
One Hundred and Seventy-eight of the Code of Virginia, and the
acts amendatory thereof, shall remain in force until repealed by
the General Assembly. The provisions of this article shall be
liberally construed.
SEC. 194. The General Assembly is hereby prohibited from passing
any law staying the collection of debts, commonly known as "stay
laws"; but this section shall not be construed as prohibiting any
legislation which the General Assembly may deem necessary to fully
carry out the provisions of this article.
HEIRS OF PROPERTY.
SEC. 195. The children of parents, one or both of whom were slaves
at and during the period of cohabitation, and who were recognized
by the father as his children, and whose mother was recognized by
such father as his wife, and was cohabited with as such, shall be
as capable of inheriting any estate whereof such father may have
died seized, or possessed, or to which he was entitled, as though
they had been born in lawful wedlock.
ARTICLE XV.
FUTURE CHANGES IN THE CONSTITUTION.
SEC. 196. Any amendment or amendments to the Constitution may be
proposed in the Senate or House of Delegates, and if the same
shall be agreed it by a majority of the members elected to each of
the two houses, such proposed amendment or amendments shall be
entered on their journals, with the ayes and noes taken thereon,
and referred to the General Assembly at its first regular session
held after the next general election of members of the House of
Delegates, and shall be published for three months previous to the
time of such election. If, at such regular session the proposed
amendment or amendments shall be agreed to by a majority of all
the members elected to each house, then it shall be the duty of
the General Assembly to submit such proposed amendment or
amendments to the people, in such manner and at such times as it
shall prescribe; and if the people shall approve and ratify such
amendment or amendments by a majority of the electors, qualified
to vote for members of the General Assembly, noting thereon, such
Amendment or amendments shall become part of the Constitution.
SEC. 197. At such time as the General Assembly may provide, a
majority of the members elected to each house being recorded in
the affirmative, the question, "shall there be a convention to
revise the Constitution and amend the same?" shall be submitted to
the electors qualified to vote for members of the General
Assembly; and in case a majority of the electors so qualified,
voting thereon, shall vote in favor of a convention for such
purpose, the General Assembly, at its next session, shall provide
for the election of delegates to such convention; and no
convention for such purpose shall be otherwise called.
SCHEDULE.
That no inconvenience may arise from the adoption of this
Constitution, and in order to provide for carrying it into
complete operation, it is hereby ordained that:
SECTION 1. The common law and the statute laws in force at the
time this Constitution goes into effect, so far as not repugnant
thereto or repealed thereby, shall remain in force until they
expire by their own limitation, or are altered or repealed by the
General Assembly.
SEC. 2. All ordinances adopted by this Contention and appended to
the official original draft of the Constitution delivered to the
Secretary of the Commonwealth shall have the same force and
effect, as if they were parts of this Constitution.
SEC. 3. Except as modified by this Constitution, all writs,
actions and causes of action, prosecutions, lights of individuals,
of bodies corporate or politic, and of the State, shall continue.
All legal proceedings, civil and criminal, pending at the time
this Constitution goes into effect, or instituted prior to the
first day of February, nineteen hundred and four, in any county or
circuit court as now existing, shall be prosecuted therein:
provided, that all such matters, which are not finally terminated
before the day last above mentioned, shall, on that date, by
operation of this Constitution and Schedule, be transferred to the
circuit court of the county or city created under this
Constitution, and shall be proceeded with therein. All such
matters pending in the city courts, preserved by this
Constitution, when the same goes into effect, or thereafter
instituted therein, shall continue in said courts, and be therein
proceeded with, until otherwise provided by law. All matters
before justices of the peace or police justices at the time this
Constitution goes into effect, shall be proceeded with before
them, until otherwise provided by law. All legal proceedings
prosecuted after this Constitution goes into effect, whether in
any of the courts now existing, or in those created by this
Constitution, shall be proceeded with in the manner now or
hereafter provided by law, except as otherwise required by this
Constitution.
SEC. 4. All taxes, fines, penalties, forfeitures and escheats,
accrued or accruing to the Commonwealth, or to any political
subdivision thereof, under the present Constitution, or under the
laws now in force, shall, under this Constitution, enure to the
use of the Commonwealth, or of such subdivision thereof
SEC 5 All recognizances, and other obligations, and all other
instruments entered into or executed before the adoption of this
Constitution, or before the complete organization of the
departments thereunder, to the Commonwealth, or to any county, or
political subdivision thereof, city, town board, or other public
corporation, or institution therein, or to any public officer,
shall remain binding and valid, and rights and liabilities
thereunder shall continue and may be enforced or prosecuted in the
courts of this State as now or here after provided by law