Wilkinson

This is an original application for a writ of mandate to compel the tax collector of Butte County to accept, in full payment of petitioner’s taxes for the current fiscal year, a sum of money tendered by the petitioner and to issue an official receipt in full for such taxes. The. sum so tendered is the amount of the petitioner’s taxes, according to his contention, computed at the rate of "two dollars per hundred of the assessed valuation’’ of his property. The rate fixed by the board of supervisors is $3.15 on each $100 of the assessed value. The county is operating under a charter adopted pursuant to the provi sions of section 7%, article XI, of the Constitution. Article VIII, section 12, of the charter reads as follows:

No part of the taxes in question was levied to meet an emergency. The resolution of the board of supervisors fixing the tax rate reads as follows:

Respondents contend that the tax limitation quoted is not applicable to these mandatory taxes, but only to such taxes as are discretionary with the board of supervisors. The limitation appears to be too plain and certain in its terms to admit of such interpretation. (Josselyn v. San Francisco, 168 Cal. 436, 443 [ 143…