1906-1908 Ind. Op. Att'y Gen. p. 119

2. I do not think that trust companies have any other banking powers than those above indicated. 3. A trust company may issue drafts to third parties to the extent that it amounts to issuing its check upon a bank holding a deposit of such trust company, in payment of a check drawn on the account of a depositor in such trust company. 4. A trust company may loan its moneys and funds on per- sonal securities, and buy commercial paper, as above indicated. LIBRARIES-APPOINTMENT OF LIBRARY BOARD IN TOWN. March 16, 1907. Hon. Chalmers Hadley, Secretary and State Organizer of Public Library Commission, Indianapolis, Indiana: Dear Sir-You have submitted to me the following statement of facts and question based thereon: "A city council has passed the following resolution: 'Resolved by the common council of the cit of Kendallville, That in order to establish, increase and maintain a public library in the city of Kendallville, Ind., open to and for the use and benefit of all the inhabitants thereof, that there shall be levied a tax annually of not to exceed one mill on each dollar of taxable property assessed for taxation in the city of Kendallville, which tax shall be placed on the tax dupli- cate and collected in the same manner as other taxes are levied and collected.' "Does the passage of this resolution make the levy so that a library board can be appointed as provided in section 3 of acts 1901, page 81, Acts 1903, page 301, and proceed with its duties?" The statute authorizing the establishment of public libraries and the appointment of public library boards reads in part as fol- lows, acts 1903, pages 301 and 302: "The common council of any city or the town board of any incorporated town within this state desiring to estab- lish, increase and maintain a public library in such city or town, open to and for the use and benefit of all the inhab- itants thereof, may levy a tax annually of not to exceed one mill on each dollar of all the taxable property assessed for taxation in such city or town, as shown by the tax duplicate 120 for the year immediately preceding the fixing of such levy, which tax shall be placed on the tax .duplicate of such city or town and collected in the same manner as other taxes are levied and collected, and such levy shall be certified to the clerk of the circuit court within ten days after such judge of the circuit court shall have been notified * 11 that the common council has certified to the clerk that the levy as provided for herein has been made, and it shall be the duty of the judge to °*, " appoint three persons, residents of said city or town, as members of such public hbrary board," etc. A levy has been thus defined: "The levy of taxes is a legislative function, and declares the subjects and rate of taxation." Perry v. Railroad Co., 58 Ala., at page 559. As said in Cooley on Taxation, Vol. 1, page 547: "The term levy will be used in this chapter as meaning the legislative act, whether state or local, which determines that a tax shall be laid." It is evident that the resolution set forth in your letter does not amount to a levy in the sense in which that term is used by the legislature in the public library statute; it is no more than a resolution that at some future time a levy shall be made. It purports to provide for future levies to be made annually. It does not state the rate of taxation but only provides that the annual tax shall not exceed one mill on each dollar of taxable property. It is void for uncertainty and is wholly inoperative as a present levy under the statute. A further objection to its validity is that the common council is only empowered to levy these taxes annually, which means that the levy shall be made for each respective year. The statute does not intend to authorize councils to make a levy for an indefinite number of years in the future. This, however, is the purport of the resolution adopted by the common council of Kendallville. As their act is not authorized by statute it cannot be inferred that they intended to make a levy for any particular year. Inasmuch as a library board cannot be appointed under section 3 of the acts of 1901 and 1903 until a levy has been made, my opinion is that in the present case a library board cannot be ap- pointed and cannot proceed with its duties by virtue of the resolu- tion set forth in your communication.