applicable to local officers, it is so closely related to their duties that it has been thought best to include it in this compilation. Chapter 474 of the Laws of 1905, authorizing appeals from the equalizations made by county boards is also included as bearing upon the remedies available to aggrieved assessment districts. The duties of the office of county supervisor of assessments were transferred to assessors of incomes by the income tax act, and the provisions defining their powers and duties are retained. Except as to certain provisions in the statute relating to the selection, term of office and compensation of assessors, and the levy and apportionment of taxes which are included in the first chapter, the order of the statutes as heretofore published has been preserved. Where sections have been renumbered in the process of revision the old section numbers are given in parentheses as an aid in identifying them with court decisions and former instructions pertaining thereto. Long and involved statutes and the more important notes and instructions have been divided into paragraphs under black faced headings for greater clearness and convenience. As local officers derive their authority from the statutes and must be governed by them, explanatory notes and court decisions are inserted immediately after the sections to which they relate. These notes are based on the letter of the statutes as construed by the Supreme Court and interpreted by the tax commission from time to time. The aim has been to present under the several sections of the statutes cited such comments and instructions as are deemed necessary to enable taxing officers to apply the law with definiteness and certainty. Citations from court decisions have been freely made under the leading sections. of the statutes as an aid to a better understanding of the law. It is hoped that the compilation may prove helpful to taxing officers and will aid them in securing fuller and more equitable assessments. Dated at Madison, Wisconsin, this 10th day of January, 1920. Commissioners. CONSTITUTIONAL PROVISION SECTION 1, ARTICLE VIII. "THE RULE OF TAXATION SHALL BE UNIFORM, AND TAXES SHALL BE LEVIED UPON SUCH PROPERTY AS THE LEGISLATURE SHALL PRESCRIBE. TAXES MAY ALSO BE IMPOSED ON INCOMES, PRIVILEGES AND OCCUPATIONS, WHICH TAXES MAY BE GRADUATED AND PROGRESSIVE, AND REASONABLE EXEMPTIONS MAY BE PROVIDED." The provision that "the rule of taxation shall be uniform" relates to the property tax only, but does not limit the exercise of the taxing power to property alone. C. & N. W. Ry. Co. vs. State, 128 Wis. 553; Nunnemacher vs. State, 129 Wis. 190; Income Tax Cases, 148 Wis. 456. This section empowers the legislature to prescribe or specify the property which shall be taxed, making all such property one class and ordains that the rule of taxation shall be uniform in respect thereto. For that purpose the legislature may divide property into appropriate classes, but each class must be uniformly taxed or wholly exempted. The rule of uniformity requires uniformity of burden, but not necessarily of subject matter or procedure. C. & N. W. Ry. Co. vs. State, 128 Wis. 553. The uniformity rule requires that statutory exemptions must be based upon legal classification. The rule does not relate to rates alone. It may be violated as effectively by arbitrary exemptions as by unequal rates, and it is so violated when exemptions are given to one chartered college greater than to other colleges of the same class. Lawrence University vs. Outagamie Co., 150 Wis. 244. Inheritance, income and occupation taxes are not subject to the uniformity rule, but all taxes imposed by the state are subject to the equality clauses of the state constitution and to the fourteenth amendment of the federal constitution. Black vs. State, 113 Wis. 205; Nunnemacher vs. State, 129 Wis. 190; Income Tax Cases, 148 Wis. 456; Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Company vs. State, 163 Wis. 484. Taxes can only be levied or raised for a public purpose "such as subserves the common interest and well being of the people of the state," State v. Froehlich, 118 Wis. 129, 141. Bonus tax cases decided December, 1919. Where there is no public purpose in the sense of carrying on some part of the machinery of government, there is no power to tax. State ex rel. Owen vs. Donald, 160 Wis. 125 of opinion; I Cooley on Taxation, 22-24 (3rd Edition). The taxing power of a state does not extend beyond its territorial limits, but within such limits it may tax persons, property, incomes, or business. If an interest in property is taxed, the situs of either the property or interest must be found within the state. If an income be taxed, the recipient thereof must have a domicile within the state or the property or business out of which the income issues must be situated within the state so that the income may be said to have a situs therein. State ex rel. Manitowoc Gas Co. v. Wis. Tax Commission, 161 Wis. 111. CHAPTER I ASSESSORS-ELECTION, TERM OF OFFICE AND COMPENSA TION; TAX LEVIES; REPORTS AND STATISTICS At the Election of town officers. SECTION 60.19 (808, 808a). annual town meeting there shall be elected in each town the following officers, viz.: Three supervisors, one of whom shall be designated on the ballots as chairman, unless changed by section 663 of the statutes, a town clerk, a treasurer, an assessor (either two or three, if the town board at their last meeting before such an election shall have so ordered), one justice of the peace, and in towns containing a village, or city of the fourth class, wholly within its limits a justice of the peace residing within such village or city who shall have jurisdiction throughout the county, so many constables, not exceeding three, as shall have been ordered by the last preceding annual town meeting. In all counties which contain a population of not less than one hundred thousand, such election shall be held biennially in the even-numbered years, and town officers shall hold office for two years. No person not an elector of the town shall hold any town office, and no person shall hold the offices of treasurer and assessor at the same time. Sections 808 and 808a consolidated and renumbered by chap. 551, 1919. Village officers; elections. SECTION 61.19 (875, 875m). At the annual election in each village there shall be chosen the following officers, viz.: A president, a clerk, a treasurer, an assessor, a supervisor, a constable, and a justice of the peace. In villages in counties having a population of at least two hundred and fifty thousand no supervisor shall be elected and the other officers named shall be elected for a term of two years on the first Tuesday of April of each year in which is to be held a general election for state officers. All other officers, except trustees, shall be appointed by the village board at their first meeting after the annual election unless such board shall otherwise provide. No person not a resident elector in such village shall be eligible to any office therein. The village clerk may appoint a deputy clerk for whom he shall be responsible, and who shall take and file the oath of office, and in case of the absence, sickness or other disability of the clerk, may perform his duties and receive the same compensation unless the village board shall appoint a person to act as such clerk. Sections 875 and 875m revised, consolidated and renumbered by chap. 691, 1919. Under the constitution (Sec. 9, Art. 13) it is not competent for the legislature to provide that the officers of the town within which a village is situated shall be the officers of the village. The latter must elect or appoint its own officers. Cole v. Black River Falls, 57 Wis. 110, State v. Krez, 88 id. 135. This section was not amended or repealed by the enactment of section 875a, which only applies to villages incorporated under special charters. State v. Thomas, 150 Wis. 190, 136 N. W. 623. Section 875m. A failure to divide the six trustees into classes, as provided by this section was held a mere irregularity and that all trustees were elected and entitled to hold for at least one year. State ex rel v. Thomas, 150 Wis. 190. Cities of first class; officers. SECTION 925-22. Officers of cities of the first class shall be a mayor, two aldermen from each ward, constituting a common council, a treasurer, comptroller, attorney, clerk, engineer, tax commissioner, an assessor for each ward, a board of public works, a school board, a board of commissioners of the public debt, a board of health, one or more city physicians, a chief of police, a chief engineer of the fire department, one or more harbor masters where required, a supervisor for each ward, a justice of the peace and one constable for each ward, policemen, bridge tenders, firemen, street commissioners and such other officers as the council shall from time to time deem necessary. This section was amended by Chap. 327, 1917, and a referendum held thereunder in the City of Milwaukee by substituting 25 ward aldermen and fixing the term of office at four years. See note to section 925-23, pages 9 and 10. Officers of cities-second, third and fourth class. SECTION 925-23. The officers of cities of the second, third and fourth classes shall be a mayor, treasurer, clerk, comptroller, attorney, assessor or one or more assessors, three or more justices of the peace, one or more constables as the common council may determine by ordinance, a physician, street commissioner, chief of the fire department, a board of public works, a board of school commissioners, one or more policemen, two aldermen and one supervisor from each ward, and such other officers or boards as the common council may deem necessary; provided, that the council, by a two-thirds vote, may dispense with the offices of street commissioner, engineer, comptroller and board of public works, and provide that the duties thereof be performed by other officers or boards, by the council or a committee thereof. In case the whole number of justices of the peace provided for by this act shall not have been elected the mayor of such city may appoint the remaining number of justices who shall hold their offices until the first of May following the next succeeding judicial election. The common council may create such minor offices as it may deem necessary to promote trade and commerce at any time, and fix the salaries for the incumbents. State vs. Kelley, 154 Wis. 482. A person who was an alien when elected to office may yet hold it if otherwise qualified and his disability is removed before the commencement of his term. The same rule applies to a minor, or one who had State v. Murray, 28 not resided one year in the state when elected. Wis. 96. State v. Trumpf, 50 Wis. 103. State v. Marcus, 160 Wis. 354, 391. City officers; methods of choosing. SECTION 925-25. 1. The mayor, treasurer, comptroller, aldermen, justices of the peace and supervisors shall be elected by the people. The other officers shall be elected or otherwise selected as provided by ordinance approved by the electors of the city; provided, that in case any such officer, except policemen, shall be appointed by the mayor, such appointment shall be subject to confirmation by the council. In cities where the clerk performs the duties of comptroller, the clerk shall be elected by the people. Elections under general charter. 2. In all cities operating under the general law, officers, except as herein specified, shall continue to be elected or appointed in the manner now provided by law. In cities adopting the general law all officers shall continue to be elected or appointed in the manner prevailing in such cities at the time of the adoption of the general law, until changed in the manner herein provided, except as herein otherwise provided. Change of method by initiative and referendum. 3. Upon petition of fifteen per centum of the electors voting at the last preceding election the council shall submit the question of changing the manner of election of any city official to the method specified in such petition except as to those officials enumerated in section 1 of this act who are to be elected by the people. Thereafter such officers shall be elected or appointed in the manner determined by the electors at such election. Cities of fourth class; optional. 4. In cities of the fourth class the clerk and other officers, may be elected by the electors at the same time and in the same manner as other officers are elected, upon a petition asking therefor being filed in the office of the city clerk fifteen days prior to any regular municipal election, signed by thirty per cent of the electors of such city who voted at the last general election then next preceding as appears from the poll list. Notice of election when petitioners determine. 5. It shall be the duty of the council and the proper officers of any city of the fourth class to give notice of, call for and order the election at the next election and thereafter at each succeeding election, the officer or officers whose title of office is specified in such petition. Petitioners may choose either method; exceptions. 6. Such petition may include one or more or all of the officers of such city, and the notice of and the order for the election shall follow and include the officer or officers named in the petition, and upon like petition, signed by a majority of the electors asking therefor, any common council, of any city of the fourth class by ordinance duly passed may provide for the appointment by the mayor with the concurrence of the council of any |