Do these license fees stand as an equivalent for property taxes so that a stipulation in respect to them relieves the property from liability to ordinary taxation? This certainly would not be the general rule. A license fee is understood to be a charge for the privilege of carrying on a business or occupation, and is not the equivalent or in lieu of a property tax. Take the vast volume of occupations which are subject to licenses from either the nation or the states. Who supposes that, in the absence of some express stipulation, the fees charged for those licenses operate to relieve the property employed in the business from the ordinary burdens of property taxation? The precise question as to the effect of an ordinance imposing a license fee for cars used on a street railroad was before the court of appeals in New York v. Broadway & S. Ave. R. Co. 97 N. Y. 275, in which, on page 282, the court said:
'The contract of the defendant arises from the provisions of its charter by which it agrees to pay a certain sum reserved therein in consideration of the privileges conferred thereby. It is neither a tax nor is it a penalty; and hence the technical rules as to penal actions or suits to recover a tax which are invoked by the appellant have no application.'
Further, in the statute modifying the license fees, which was accepted by the relator, it was expressly stated that they should 'be taken in full satisfaction for the use of the streets or avenues.' Clearly, therefore, the fees being imposed for a specific purpose, they cannot exempt the relator's property from the tax imposed by the special franchise tax law.
It is further objected that there was a failure of due process of law in that the special franchise tax law did not indicate any principle or method for ascertaining the value of the intangible property included in the special franchise, and that the state board did not make any separate valuation of the tangible property, and did not adopt or proceed upon any principle or method in valuing the totality of the tangible and intangible property, but necessarily indulged in mere speculation and guesswork instead of exercising judgment in making the valuation.