Chapter XVI: Section 1: The fiscal year shall commence on the first day of October in

each year, unless otherwise provided by law.

SEC. 2. The General Assembly shall provide by law for an annual tax sufficient, with other resources, to defray the estimated expenses of the State government for each fiscal year.

SEC. 3. All taxes 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, which shall prescribe such regulations as shall secure a just valuation for taxation of all property, real and personal: _Provided_, That mines and mining claims bearing gold, silver, and other precious metals (except the net proceeds and surface improvements thereof), shall be exempt from taxation for the period of ten years from the date of the adoption of this Constitution, and thereafter may be taxed as provided by law. Ditches, canals, and flumes owned and used by individuals or corporations for irrigating lands owned by such individuals or corporations, or the individual members thereof, shall not be separately taxed, so long as they shall be owned and used exclusively for such purpose.

SEC. 4. The property, real and personal, of the State, counties, cities, towns and other municipal corporations, and public libraries shall be exempt from taxation.

SEC. 5. Lots, with the buildings thereon, if said buildings are used solely and exclusively for religious worship, for schools, or for strictly charitable purposes, also cemeteries not used or held for private or corporate profit, shall be exempt from taxation, unless otherwise provided by general law.

SEC. 6. All laws exempting from taxation property other than that hereinbefore mentioned, shall be void.

SEC. 7. The General Assembly shall not impose taxes for the purposes of any county, city, town, or other municipal corporation, but may, by law, vest in the corporate authorities thereof respectively the power to assess and collect taxes for all purposes of such corporation.

SEC. 8. No county, city, town, or other municipal corporation, the inhabitants thereof, nor the property therein, shall be released or discharged from their or its proportionate share of taxes to be levied for State purposes.

SEC. 9. The power to tax corporations and corporate property, real and personal, shall never be relinquished or suspended.

SEC. 10. All corporations in this State, or doing business therein, shall be subject to taxation for State, county, school, municipal, and other purposes, on the real and personal property owned or used by them within the territorial limits of the authority levying the tax.

SEC. 11. The rate of taxation on property, for State purposes, shall never exceed six mills on each dollar of valuation; and whenever the taxable property within the State shall amount to one hundred million dollars, the rate shall not exceed four mills on each dollar of valuation; and whenever the taxable property within the State shall amount to three hundred million dollars, the rate shall never thereafter exceed two mills on each dollar of valuation, unless a proposition to increase such rate, specifying the rate proposed, and the time during which the same shall be levied, be first submitted to a vote of such of the qualified electors of the State as, in the year next preceding such election, shall have paid a property tax assessed to them within the State, and a majority of those voting thereon shall vote in favor thereof, in such manner as may be provided by law.

SEC. 12. The Treasurer shall keep a separate account of each fund in his hands; and shall, at the end of each quarter of the fiscal year, report to the Governor in writing, under oath, the amount of all moneys in his hands to the credit of every such fund, and the place where the same are kept or deposited, and the number and amount of every warrant received, and the number and amount of every warrant paid therefrom during the quarter. Swearing falsely to any such report shall be deemed perjury. The Governor shall cause every such report to be immediately published in at least one newspaper printed at the seat of government, and otherwise as the General Assembly may require. The General Assembly may provide by law further regulations for the safe-keeping and management of the public funds in the hands of the Treasurer; but, notwithstanding any such regulation, the Treasurer and his sureties shall in all cases be held responsible therefor.

SEC. 13. The making of profit, directly or indirectly, out of State, county, city, town or school district money, or using the same for any purpose not authorized by law, by any public officer, shall be deemed a felony, and shall be punished as provided by law.

SEC. 14. Private property shall not be taken or sold for the payment of the corporate debt of municipal corporations.

SEC. 15. There shall be a State Board of Equalization, consisting of the Governor, State Auditor, State Treasurer, Secretary of State, and Attorney General; also, in each county of this State, a County Board of Equalization, consisting of the Board of County Commissioners of said county. The duty of the State Board of Equalization shall be to adjust and equalize the valuation of real and personal property among the several counties of the State. The duty of the County Board of Equalization shall be to adjust and equalize the valuation of real and personal property within their respective counties. Each board shall also perform such other duties as may be prescribed by law.

SEC. 16. No appropriation shall be made, nor any expenditure authorized by the General Assembly, whereby the expenditure of the State, during any fiscal year, shall exceed the total tax then provided for by law and applicable for such appropriation or expenditure, unless the General Assembly making such appropriation shall provide for levying a sufficient tax, not exceeding the rates allowed in section eleven of this article, to pay such appropriation or expenditure within such fiscal year. This provision shall not apply to appropriations or expenditures to suppress insurrection, defend the State, or assist in defending the United States in time of war.

ARTICLE XI.

PUBLIC INDEBTEDNESS.