DRAINAGE DISTRICT ASSESSMENTS. 
cable to all kinds of assessments, including those made by insurance 
companies and other organizations, as well as those made for local 
improvements. In Taxation by Assessment, by Page and Jones, 
the following precise definition of assessments for local improve- 
ments is found : 
A local assessment levied upon the theory of benefits may then be defined 
as an enforced involuntary charge, generally in money, though sometimes in 
the alternative in work or materials, imposed by competent political authority 
in order to raise funds to pay for part or all of an improvement of a public 
character whereby an especial local benefit has, in the contemplation of the 
law, been conferred upon certain property, in most cases, realty, but in some 
rare cases, personalty ; imposed generally upon the property, but in some cases 
upon the owner thereof ; and imposed in the contemplation of the law, in re- 
turn for such special benefits, and in an amount not exceeding such special 
benefits, and apportioned according to the amount of such special benefits. 
Confining ourselves to assessments for drainage improvements, we 
may define an assessment as a burden laid upon real estate to secure 
a special benefit thereto and a general benefit to the public, levied 
and collected by either regular or special governmental agencies, 
limited in amount, so that it may not exceed the special benefit de- 
rived, and proportional to the amount of such special benefit. 
In the past a great deal of confusion has resulted from the tend- 
ency to conclude that an assessment and a tax are identical. It is 
true that they are similar in many respects, but in recent years there 
have been court decisions in most of the States interested in drain- 
age work which establish the principle that a special assessment is 
not a tax in the generally accepted sense of the word as it is used 
in our constitutions and statutes. Since this is true, it follows that 
certain regulatory provisions in the Federal and State Constitutions 
in regard to taxes do not apply to special assessments. Almost 
every State constitution has placed some limitation upon the amount 
of taxes which may be levied in any one year, and has provided that 
taxes shall be uniform and levied upon an ad valorem basis, but 
the courts have held that these and similar provisions have no bear- 
ing on special assessments. 
THE UNDERLYING PRINCIPLES OF SPECIAL ASSESSMENTS. 
There is no basic principle of law which authorizes a group of 
persons to force an individual against his will to contribute money 
for his own good or for the benefit of the public. Most of those 
who seek to overthrow local assessments plead that such assessments 
are in fact the taking of private property for public use without 
just compensation or due process of law, and since such assessments 
are imposed by State enactments they are, therefore, in violation 
of the fourteenth amendment to the Federal Constitution. How- 
ever, it was realized, early in the history of English law (and this 
is particularity true of drainage assessments), that the right to 
levy assessments for local improvements was an element of govern- 
ment, and it has come to be recognized that an individual consents 
to share in assessments for local improvements of public benefit 
in the same way that he consents to share in the expenses of gov- 
ernment, in the maintenance of highways, to aid in the common 
defense against the public enemy, in the maintenance of order, and 
in the prevention of crime. The Constitution protects the individual 
