Special Assessment.—A special assessment is not discriminatory because apportioned on an ad valorem basis, nor does its validity depend upon the receipt of some special benefit as distinguished from the general benefit to the community.1445 Railroad property may not be burdened for local improvements upon a basis so wholly different from that used for ascertaining the contribution demanded of individual owners as necessarily to produce manifest inequality.1446 A special highway assessment against railroads based on real property, rolling stock, and other personal property is unjustly discriminatory when other assessments for the same improvement are based on real property alone.1447 A law requiring the franchise of a railroad to be considered in valuing its property for apportionment of a special assessment is not invalid where the franchises were not added as a separate personal property value to the assessment of the real property.1448 In taxing railroads within a levee district on a mileage basis, it is not necessarily arbitrary to fix a lower rate per mile for those having less than 25 miles of main line within the district than for those having more.1449
1445 Memphis & Charleston Ry. v. Pace, 282 U.S. 241 (1931).
1446 Kansas City So. Ry. v. Road Imp. Dist. No. 6, 256 U.S. 658 (1921); Thomas v. Kansas City So. Ry., 261 U.S. 481 (1923).
1447 Road Imp. Dist. v. Missouri Pac. R.R., 274 U.S. 188 (1927).
1448 Branson v. Bush, 251 U.S. 182 (1919).
1449 Columbus & Greenville Ry. v. Miller, 283 U.S. 96 (1931).
Last modified: June 9, 2014