"May valuable property purchased with funds restricted to transportation purposes by Const 1963, art 9, Sec. 9, be conveyed to another entity for a nominal price, e.g., $1.00, where that property will then be used for other than transportation purposes?

"This question arises in a variety of contexts. For example, the Michigan Department of Transportation is presently reviewing how to dispose of a parcel of excess highway property valued in excess of one million dollars. A municipality has requested that the department convey the property to it for use as a park at a price of $1.00. Additionally, there have been past and present legislative initiatives to transfer excess highway property to local public agencies or units of government by enacting a public act to require the conveyance without payment for the value of the property. In each instance, the constitutional concern arises because the property, once conveyed, is to be used for a nontransportation purpose."

"All specific taxes, except general sales and use taxes and regulatory fees, imposed directly or indirectly on fuels sold or used to propel motor vehicles upon highways and to propel aircraft and on registered motor vehicles and aircraft shall, after the payment of necessary collection expenses, be used exclusively for transportation purposes as set forth in this section."

" 'The Highway Funds involved are moneys received from various motor vehicle and gasoline taxes. Section 3 of Article IX of the Constitution requires that the "proceeds" of these taxes must be spent for highway purposes. The problem here is to decide if "proceeds" includes the interest that these moneys earn while in the custody of the Treasurer.

"....

"It is recognized that the people's approval of the amendment to Article IX Section 3 provides no actual expression of a will and intent that interest that may be earned by the accumulated revenues controlled by the amendment should accrue to the highway fund. There is a strong inference, however, that the clear intent of the people to compel the specific revenues to be used for one purpose implies that it would include all of the interest that would accrue during the State Treasurer's holding of the revenues for their eventual use. We so hold.' " 400 P2d at 232-233.

"This problem has not been considered in Missouri. It is clear however that the people of Missouri ... intended that no money be diverted from the state road fund and no other use be permitted of the fund except for the enumerated state highway purposes.... With the state road fund so restricted against transfer or use for any other purpose, interest or income from such fund must be credited to that fund under Article IV, Section 15, and held against withdrawal or use for any purpose other than state highway purposes, including diversion to the general revenue fund."

"While the fees collected by the Motor Vehicle Unit for a copy thereof may not be received directly from highway users, they are traceable to and obtained mediately from the initial highway user. This is especially true when considered in light of the fact that the operations of the Motor Vehicle Unit are financed almost exclusively by appropriations from the SHD Fund. Accordingly, the fees are 'derived from highway users.' "

"This appeal is presented to review a judgment of the Oklahoma Court of Tax Review sustaining a tax protest.... This money had been derived during the fiscal year from the sale of condemned equipment, the rental of county road machinery and from the Grand River Dam Authority for work performed on highways in the area of the Grand River Dam. All of the receipts were connected with the county highway fund of Craig County.

"....

"Our attention is also directed to article 10, sec. 19 of the Oklahoma State Constitution, which contains the following provision: ' no tax levied and collected for one purpose shall ever be devoted to another purpose.'

"The provision of the constitution above quoted has been held applicable to excise taxes such as the gasoline excise tax....

"....

"We therefore conclude that the prohibition upon the diversion of funds credited by taxes levied for a specified purpose into another and foreign purpose extends to money in restoration or reimbursement to such fund for moneys expended therefrom."

"There is hereby established the Michigan natural resources trust fund. The trust fund shall consist of all bonuses, rentals, delayed rentals, and royalties collected or reserved by the state under provisions of leases for the extraction of nonrenewable resources from state owned lands, except such revenues accruing under leases of state owned lands acquired with money from state or federal game and fish protection funds or revenues accruing from lands purchased with such revenues...."

"The primary rule is the rule of 'common understanding' described by Justice Cooley:

" 'A constitution is made for the people and by the people. The interpretation that should be given it is that which reasonable minds, the great mass of the people themselves, would give it. "For as the Constitution does not derive its force from the convention which framed, but from the people who ratified it, the intent to be arrived at is that of the people, and it is not to be supposed that they have looked for any dark or abstruse meaning in the words employed, but rather that they have accepted them in the sense most obvious to the common understanding, and ratified the instrument in the belief that that was the sense designed to be conveyed." (Cooley's Const Lim 81)....'

"A second rule is that to clarify meaning, the circumstances surrounding the adoption of a constitutional provision and the purpose sought to be accomplished may be considered. On this point this Court said the following:

" 'In construing constitutional provisions where the meaning may be questioned, the court should have regard to the circumstances leading to their adoption and the purpose sought to be accomplished.' Kearney v. Board of State Auditors (1915), 189 Mich 666, 673." (Emphasis by court.)

"81A C.J.S. States Sec. 228, pp. 799-800 (1977), speaks to the issue of transfer or diversion of special funds to other purposes:

" ' "Disposition of special funds. Where a special fund is created or set aside by statute for a particular purpose or use, it must be administered and expended in accordance with the statute, and may be applied only to the purpose for which it was created or set aside, and not diverted to any other purpose, or transferred from such authorized fund to any other fund." '

"....

"Therefore, answering your second question, in order to avoid a direct conflict with a constitutional provision, there may not be any transfer, loan, diversion, or appropriation of those funds designated for use in road programs to some other use not contemplated by the Constitution...."