Chap. 18.—An ACT to amend an act entitled an act to provide a charter and
special form of government for the city of Hampton, approved March 16,
1920. [H B 27]

Approved February 13, 1624.

1. Be it enacted by the general assembly of Virginia, That sec-
tions two, nineteen, twenty-two, twenty-three and twenty-four of the
charter of the city of Hampton, approved March sixteenth, ninteen
hundred and twenty, be amended and re-enacted so as to read as
follows, and that the said charter be further amended by adding thereto
section twenty-three and one-half, making Hampton a separate school
district and providing for the support of the schools therein.

Section 2. The said city shall be a separate magisterial district in,
and a separate election district of Elizabeth City county; and the
voting place of said election district shall be at the courthouse of
Elizabeth City county, in the said city; and the elections provided for
in this act shall be conducted by the same officers that are now or may
hereafter be provided by law to conduct the elections for county, dis-
trict and city officers.

The council shall make all necessary rules for receiving and de-
positing the ballots cast for city officers, providing separate ballot
boxes for the same, on which boxes the words “city of Hampton”’ shall
be painted or printed in letters not less than one-half inches in length.

Section 19. Revenue.—The revenue shall be under the control
of the council, and shall be derived from the following sources: Taxes
upon all property, real, personal and mixed, owned or taxable within
the corporate limits, except such as may be exempted from city taxa-
tion; provided that the rate of city taxation for all purposes shall not
exceed two dollars and thirty-five cents ($2.35) on each one hundred
dollars ($100.00) valuation on all real and tangible property, and not to
exceed the limit imposed by the State on other property, for all city
purposes. It may impose and collect license taxes for the city; license
for the sale of merchandise, upon manufacturers, traders, lawyers,
physicians, dentists, brokers, pawn-brokers, hotels, boarding house-
keepers, keeper of drinking or eating houses, keepers of livery stables,
photograph artists of all kinds, agents of all kinds, vendors or medicine,
theatrical and circus companies or other performances or shows, mena-
geries, jugglers, itinerant salesmen, and all shows and exhibitions for
which an entrance fee is required; upon keepers of pool and billard
tables, tenpin alleys, shooting galleries, hawkers, peddlers, sample-
merchants; upon the business of fire or bankrupt sales; upon the busi-
ness of commission merchants living within or without the city and
buying or selling therein; upon any and all business occupations, pro-
fessions and pursuits; and upon all persons, firms, corporations or
employments, whether of like kind with any of the foregoing or not,
which it may deem proper, and whether any such person, firm, cor-
poration or employment be herein specifically enumerated or not, and
whether any tax be imposed thereon by the State or not; upon the
wagons, drays, carts, hacks, automobiles, motorcycles and other wheeled
vehicles and delivery wagons, used for business within the city, whether
the owners reside, or their place of business is within or without the
limits thereof; upon dogs and other animals; and upon all moneys
owned by or credits due to any person living in the city; all capital of
persons having a place of business in the city and doing business therein
and employed in said business, though the said business may be conduct-
ed beyond the city; provided that so much of said capital as is invested
in real estate, or employed in the manufacture of articles outside the
limits of the city, shall not be taxed as capital; all stocks in incorporat-
ed joint stock companies doing business in the city and by whomsoever
owned and not exempt by law from taxation; income, interest on money,
dividends of banks or other corporations; provided that no capital,
interest, income, or dividend shall be taxed when a license or other
tax is imposed upon the business in which said capital is employed,
or upon the principal money, credit or stocks from which the interest,
income or dividend is derived; nor shall a tax be imposed at the same
time upon stock of corporation and upon dividends thereof.

Assessment upon stocks and bonds shall be according to the market
value thereof. |

As to all such business, firms, corporations or employments the
council may lay a direct tax, or may require a license tax therefor,
under such regulations as it may prescribe; and from fines, penalties
and costs imposed for violation or non-observance of the ordinances,
by-laws and resolutions adopted pursuant to this act.

The council may subject any person who, without having obtained
a license therefor, shall do any act, or follow any employment, business
or profession in the city for which a license is required by ordinance to
such fine, penalty or imprisonment as it is authorized to impose for any
violation of its laws; provided that nothing in this section or elsewhere
in this act, shall be construed as authorizing the imposition of taxes or
license fees in any case where the imposition of said taxes or license
fees by cities and towns is prohibited by general law.

Section 22. County and district officers.—All county, district and
court officers, and all notaries public of Elizabeth City county, of which
the city is a part, whether heretofore or hereafter elected or appointed,
shall, except as otherwise herein provided, continue to exercise and
have the same rights and privileges, and perform the same duties, and
have the same jurisdiction, and receive the same fees in the city as
they would receive were the city a magisterial district only of said
county; and the qualified voters residing within the city of Hampton,
shall be entitled to vote for county and district officers at the general
election for county officers of the county of Elizabeth City as if such
city were not a city of the second class.
The electoral board for the said city of Hampton shall be appointed
by the circuit court of the county of Elizabeth City, or the judge thereof,
in vacation, in conformity with the provisions of section thirty-one of
the Constitution of Virginia.

The poor of said city shall continue to be supported and maintained
in the same way, and in the same manner and with the same class of
funds, as before the town of Hampton became a city.

Section 23. Magisterial district: Levies.—The city of Hampton
shall constitute one separate magisterial district of the county of Eliza-
beth City, in which it is located; and it shall continue to elect all dis-
trict officers for such magisterial district in the manner provided by
law. The supervisor elected from Hampton as a magisterial district
of the county of Elizabeth City shall be a member of the board of super-
visors of Elizabeth City county. The board of supervisors of Eliza-
beth City county shall have the power and authority to levy a tax in
the city of Hampton on all real and tangible personal property and on
corporations solely for the maintenance of the county government,
exclusive of road and school purposes.

Section 2314. School district: School levies or appropriation, and
city treasurer’s commissions on school levies.—The city of Hampton
shall constitute a single school district and shall have a school board
known as the school board of the city of Hampton, composed of three
members elected by the city council in the manner provided by law,
and the present school trustees shall continue to constitute the said
board until their respective terms shall terminate and their successors
shall be elected or appointed.

The said school board shall have and exercise the powers and duties
of school trustees as in other cities of the second class, under the general
laws of the State. There shall be but one superintendent of schools
for the city of Hampton and the county of Elizabeth City.

The council of the city of Hampton shall, at the same time that it
lays its levy on the property owned or taxable within the corporate limits,
include in the said levy a proper amount for the maintenance and sup-
port of the public schools of the city, or the said council, instead of
making a specific levy for the support and maintenance of said schools
may from the levy made for all purposes, make an appropriation speci-
fically for the schools. The city treasurer in computing his commis-
sions on the school levies, shall compute the same on the amount of
school levies collected by him at a rate to be fixed by the council not in
excess of one per centum.

Section 24. When the city may borrow money; bonds.—The
council of the city, whenever in the opinion of a majority of all the
members elected to the council, ascertained by a recorded affirmative
majority vote of all such members, deem it to the interest of the muni-
cipality to do so, may borrow money for the uses and purposes of the
municipality, should the voters so elect, in the manner prescribed by
the Constitution and the general laws of the State.

The city is hereby authorized and empowered to borrow any such
sum or sums, not exceeding the aggregate of eighteen (18) per centum
of the assessed valuation of the real estate in the municipality, subject
to taxation as shown by the last preceding assessment of taxes upon the
faith, credit and property thereof, and to issue bonds therefor signed by
the mayor and attested by the clerk; provided that such bonds shall not
be sold at less than their par value, nor bear interest at a rate exceeding
six (6) per centum per annum; and shall become due and payable not
exceeding forty years from the date of their issue. And the council
acting hereunder, shall make proper provision for the payment of the
annual interest upon such bonds as may be issued under this act, and
shall provide a sinking fund for the retirement thereof at or before
maturity. The coupons thereof shall be receivable for city taxes.

2. An emergency existing this act shall be in force from its pas-
sage.