(dissenting).
The majority opinion deals solely with the issue as to what constitutes “ordinary' and necessary expenses” within the proviso clause of Idaho Const, art. 8, § 3. It concludes that “the funds to be expended by the City of Pocatello for the repair arid improvement of its airport facility are ‘ordinary and necessary expenses’ incurred by the municipality, falling within the proviso to Article 8, § 3 of the Idaho Constitution. Furthermore the repair and improvement of the Pocatello airport facility is essential for the proper growth and development of the area.”
At the outset it is to be noted that the issue here is whether the rental payments of $6,000 per month for twenty years violate the constitutional provision, and not whether “the repair and improvement of the airport facility were ‘ordinary and necessary expenses’ incurred by the municipality” fall within the proviso clause of the constitutional provision. This case does riot deal with “repair and improvement” of existing ' facilities, but does deal with rental payments for a wholly new terminal building.
Inasmuch -as I disagree with -the conclusion reached by the majority opinion, an additional issue must be discussed". This additional issue, which I will first discuss, is whether the-rental payments provided in the twenty-year lease before this court *780create a “debt or liability” within the prohibition of Idaho Const, art. 8 § 3.
Respondent, citing the cases set out in the footnote (1) below, contends that the plan whereby the city sells the land to appellants who construct the airport terminal facility and lease it back to the city is one that has generally been accepted in other jurisdictions. Throughout these cases runs the thought that where the lease is in fact a lease and the rentals are intended as rentals, rather than as a subterfuge for installment payments on the purchase price under a conditional sales contract, the lease, even if it contains an option to purchase the property, does not create an indebtedness within the meaning of a constitutional limitation on indebtedness.1 See 71 A.L.R. 1318 at 1321; 145 A.L.R. 1364; 15 MeQuillin, Municipal Corporations § 41.38, pp. 392-393 (3d ed.). The reasoning used to support this result is that a lease calling for periodic rentals does not create any indebtedness for the aggregate of future rentals, but rather only creates indebtedness for the installment of rent currently owing, because rent is not a current obligation until it has accrued under the terms of the lease. See City of Los Angeles v. Offner, 19 Cal.2d 483, 122 P.2d 14 (1942) ; Heberer v. Board of Com’rs of Chaffee County, 88 Colo. 159, 293 P. 349 (1930); Bair v. Layton City Corp., 6 Utah 2d 138, 307 P.2d 895 (1957); Ambrozich v. City of Eveleth, 200 Minn. 473, 274 N.W. 635 (1937). But see Magnusson, “Lease Financing by Municipal Corporations as a Way Around Debt Limitations,” 25 Geo.Wash.L.Rev. 377 (1957) at 391 where it is stated that
“The duty to pay future rent in a long term lease is just as ‘present’ as the duty to pay each installment of debt service on the bonds back of the rent. The lease could not be terminated without the payment of damages or without being subject to injunction or mandamus to keep on paying. Breaches of agreements or failure to perform would be subject to having a trustee take possession and carry out the required performance.”
Although the mere fact that a lease contains an option to purchase the property upon expiration of the lease will not inevitably transform the lease into a conditional sales agreement, where the option *781purchase price decreases with the rentals paid, or where the rentals are sufficient to cover the purchase price so that at the termination of the lease the city acquires the property without any additional payment,2 or payment of only a nominal sum, the authorities indicate that the lease does create an indebtedness for the aggregate amount of the rentals. See 71 A.L.R. 1318, at p. 1323; 145 A.L.R. 1362 at p. 1374; Brewster v. Deschutes County, 137 Or. 100, 1 P.2d 607 (1931); Iron Products Invest. Co. v. City of Picher, 83 F.2d 443 (10th Cir. 1936); City of Phoenix v. Phoenix Civic Auditorium and Convention Center Ass’n, 99 Ariz. 270, 408 P.2d 818 (1965). See also Williams v. City of Emmett, 51 Idaho 500, 6 P.2d 475 (1931).
Examination of the constitutions of those states from which opinions are cited by respondent (supra 1) reveals that their constitutions do not contain a phrase “shall incur any indebtedness, or liability" (emphasis added) as used in Idaho Const, art. 8, § 3. Rather, most of those constitutions only prohibit governmental bodies from incurring “debts” or “indebtedness.”3 Only the California, Missouri and New Jersey constitutions contain the word “liability.”4 The New Jersey prohibition is applicable only against the state and does not mention counties or municipalities.
It is also noteworthy that Los Angeles County v. Byram, 36 Cal.2d 694, 227 P.2d 4 (1951), cited by respondent as sustaining a lease arrangement as not in violation of the constitutional debt limitation, dealt with a case in which the city was under a mandatory statutory duty to "provide a court building, and for that reason the court held that the cost of leasing such a building was not within the constitutional prohibition against incurring a debt or liability.
The Missouri constitution originally contained a reference to both “debt” and “liability,” but was later amended to delete the reference to “debt,” leaving only the word “liability.” The Missouri case cited by respondent, Petition of Bd. of Public Bldgs. v. Crowe, 363 S.W.2d 598 (Mo.1962), discussed in detail the difference between “debt” and “liability” and upheld a revenue bond issue. The factual situation in that case, however, was quite different from the case before this court.
The Minnesota case cited by respondent, Ambrozich v. City of Eveleth, 200 Minn. 473, 274 N.W. 635 (1937), upholds a lease arrangement such as is involved here, stating that rent is not a “debt” or “liability,” but it does not involve the interpretation of a constitutional debt limitation. That case dealt only with a debt limitation contained in a city charter.
This court has previously had occasion to consider the use of the terms “indebtedness” and “liability” in Idaho Const, art. 8, § 3. Williams v. City of Emmett, supra, dealt with an agreement under which the city had the use of street sprinklers for which it contracted to make annual payments. The agreement gave the city an option to purchase the equipment and provided that these payments, which in the aggregate amounted to approximately the option price, would be applied to the option *782price. Recognizing that numerous other states had held that a lease of property did not create a present indebtedness for the aggregate amount of the rentals, this court held that while there may have been no present indebtedness within the meaning of the constitution, there was a liability for the aggregate payment and that the agreement therefore violated the constitutional provision. The court thus gave a broader definition to the term “liability” than to “indebtedness.”
In Boise Development Co., Ltd. v. Boise City, 26 Idaho 347, 143 P. 531 (1914), this court first considered the distinction between “indebtedness” and “liability” as used in our constitution. In that case the city had agreed, in consideration of agreements from the Boise Development Company for the use of the land, to expend at least $5,000 annually for five years to improve the channel of the Boise River. This court considered art. 8, § 3, of the Idaho Constitution and held that although there was not a "present indebtedness” created by the agreement, there was a “present liability” for the total expenditures over the five year period. In reaching this conclusion the court discussed a California case indistinguishable in principle from the case at bar. McBean v. City of Fresno, 112 Cal. 159, 44 P. 358 (1896), involved a contract between the city and McBean under which McBean agreed to dispose of the city’s sewage for five years for $4,900 per year. The California court upheld the contract on the grounds that only the annual payment of $4,900 was a present debt or liability. This court, however, severely criticized that holding, stating that although there was not a present debt for the aggregate payments, there was a present liability for them. This court set forth a hypothetical case and stated:
“If A. by a valid contract employs B. to work for him for the term of one year at $50 per month, payable at the end of each and every month, would this contract not be a liability on A. as soon as executed? A debt of $50 would accrue thereon at the end of each month, but the liability would be incurred at the time the contract was entered into.” 26 Idaho at 363, 143 P. at 535.
Although the discussion of McBean v. City of Fresno, supra, was dictum, it is in accord with the statements later made in 1931 by this court in Williams v. City of Emmett, supra, in which this court stated:
“Judge Dietrich, in Dexter Horton T. & Sav. Bank v. Clearwater County (D.C.) 235 F. 743, 754, in discussing this, provision of the Constitution, said:
“ ‘The Idaho Constitution is imbued with the spirit of economy, and in so far as possible it imposes upon the political' subdivisions of the state a pay-as-you-go-system of finance. The rule is that,, without the express assent of the qualified electors, municipal officers are not to incur debts for which they have not the funds to pay. Such policy entails a measure of crudity and inefficiency in local government, but doubtless the men who drafted the Constitution, having in mind disastrous examples of optimism and extravagance on the part of public officials, thought best to sacrifice a measure of efficiency for a degree of safety. The careful, thrifty citizen sometimes gets along with a crude instrumentality until he is able to purchase and pay for something better. And likewise, under the Constitution, county officers must use the means they have for making fair and equitable assessments until they are able to pay for something more efficient, or obtain the consent of those in whose interests they are supposed to-act.’ ” 51 Idaho at 505, 6 P.2d at 476.
See also Feil v. City of Coeur d’Alene, 23 Idaho 32, 129 P. 643 (1912); School Dist No. 8 v. Twin Falls County Mut. Fire Ins.. Co., 30 Idaho 400, 164 P. 1174 (1917). Regardless of whether this lease agreement created an indebtedness for the aggregate rentals, it is evident that upon execution of the agreement there was created within the meaning of the Idaho constitution a “liability” for the aggregate rentals to become due.
*783This court is conversant with the many decisions from other jurisdictions which have upheld long term leases of courthouses, jails and other buildings on the theory that only current rent as opposed to the aggregate or future rents is a present debt or liability. See City of Los Angeles v. Offner, 19 Cal.2d 483, 122 P.2d 14 (1942); Heberer v. Board of Com’rs of Chaffee County, 88 Colo. 159, 293 P. 349 (1930) ; Bair v. Layton City Corp., 6 Utah 2d 138, 307 P.2d 895 (1957) ; Ambrozich v. City of Eveleth, 200 Minn. 473, 274 N.W. 635 (1937); Hall v. City of Baltimore, 252 Md. 416, 250 A.2d 233 (1969). However, as previously pointed out, the constitutional provisions under which those cases were decided in many instances differ from the Idaho constitution. It is my conclusion that a “liability” as opposed to a “debt” was created on the part of the city upon execution of this agreement.
The next issue for consideration is the one which is the rationale of the majority opinion which accepts the contention of both parties, as well as amicus curiae, that the expenditures in this case are to be considered “ordinary and necessary expenses” within the meaning of the constitutional proviso which states:
“provided, that this section shall not be construed to apply to the ordinary and necessary expenses authorized by the general laws of the state.” Idaho Const, art. 8, § 3.
Counsel cite in support of this contention Thomas v. Glindeman, 33 Idaho 394, 195 P. 92 (1921), and Hanson v. City of Idaho Falls, 92 Idaho 512, 446 P.2d 634 (1968).
Thomas v. Glindeman, supra, was an application to this court for a writ of mandate to compel the mayor of Coeur d’Alene to sign a city warrant in payment of a claim authorized by the counsel for work done on the city streets. The claim had not been paid because funds previously appropriated had been expended. A petition signed by a majority of the legal voters of the city requesting an additional appropriation to be made had been filed. The issue before the court involved the provisions of C.S.1919, § 4053 (I.C. § 50-1003) which provided in part:
“No further appropriation shall be made at any other time within such fiscal year unless the proposition to make each appropriation has been first sanctioned by a majority of the legal voters of such city or village, either by a petition signed by them or at a general election duly called therefor, and all appropriations shall end with the fiscal year for which they were made.”
Thomas v. Glindeman, supra, in my opinion, limited as it was to the issues there, is hardly to be considered authoritative for the position taken by counsel.
In Hanson v. City of Idaho Falls, supra, this court held that future payments to be made under a policeman’s retirement fund, while a liability, were ordinary and necessary expenses of city government. Therein it is stated:
“ ‘An expense is ordinary if in the ordinary course of municipal business, or the maintenance of mimicipal property, it may be and is likely to become necessary.’ Thomas v. Glindeman, 33 Idaho 394, 195 P. 92 (1921). One of the most fundamental and necessary expenses of municipal government is that which is incurred in the provision of adequate police protection for persons and property.” 92 Idaho at 514, 446 P.2d at 446.
The words “ordinary and necessary” as used in their constitutional context have been considered by this court in several other cases. In Williams v. City of Emmett, 51 Idaho 500, 6 P.2d 475 (1931), this court held that payments by the city on an agreement to acquire use of and title to a street sprinkler were not ordinary or necessary expenses. In Dunbar v. Board of Com’rs, 5 Idaho 407, 49 P. 409 (1897), this court held that building of a bridge and the payment of scalp bounties were not within the contemplation of those terms. Therein this court stated:
“It will be seen that the two terms are used conjunctively; hence, to come with*784in the constitutional proviso or exception, expenditures made in excess of the revenues of any current year must not only be for ordinary expenses, such as are usual to the maintenance of the county government, the conduct of its necessary business, and the protection of its property, but there must exist a necessity for making the expenditure at or during such year.”' 5 Idaho at 412, 49 P. at 411.
Bannock County v. C. Bunting & Co., 4 Idaho 156, 37 P. 277 (1894), in construing Revised Statutes § 1762 (dealing with construction of public buildings or improvements) held that the purchase and building of a county courthouse “is clearly not among the ordinary and necessary expenses of the county.”' Allen v. Doumecq Highway Dist., 33 Idaho 249, 192 P. 662 (1920), held that construction of a bridge was not an ordinary and necessary expense.
Cases decided by this court recognizing expenditures to be “ordinary and necessary expenses” are: Butler v. City of Lewiston, 11 Idaho 393, 83 P. 234 (1905) — validity of bond issue' to redeem city warrants issued for salaries of city officials and employees, the bond issue having passed by a two-thirds majority; Hickey v. City of Nampa, 22 Idaho 41, 124 P. 280 (1912), which approved a bond issue passed to retire warrants used to pay for reconstruction of a water main which collapsed while firemen were fighting a fire; Jones v. Power County, 27 Idaho 656, 150 P. 35 (1915), which held transcribing of county records, providing furniture fixtures, record books and erecting a jail for a newly created county were ordinary and necessary expenses within the constitutional proviso, and such items could be contracted for without submitting the issue to the vote of the people.
It is to be noted, however, that this court held in the following cases that where expenditures, or liabilities exceed income for the current year, they are in violation of the constitution; Ball v. Bannock County 5 Idaho 602, 51 P. 454 (1897), purchase of real estate for courthouse; McNutt v. Lemhi County, 12 Idaho 63, 84 P. 1054 (1906), building of courthouse, bridge or wagon road; School Dist. No. 8 v. Twin Falls County Mutual Fire Ins. Co., 30 Idaho 400, 164 P. 1174 (1917), membership in county mutual fire insurance company; Miller v. City of Buhl, 48 Idaho 668, 284 P. 843 (1930), purchase of electric system by pledge orders payable from sale of power; Feil v. City of Coeur d’Alene, 23 Idaho 32, 129 P. 643 (1912), purchase of water system, payable from bonds to be redeemed from receipts; Boise Development Co., Ltd. v. Boise City, 26 Idaho 347, 143 P. 531 (1914), payments for land; Mittry v. Bonneville County, 38 Idaho 306, 222 P. 292 (1923), excess' expense above bonded limits in completion of courthouse; Williams v. City of Emmett, 51 Idaho 500, 6 P.2d 475 (1931), payments on sprinkler truck; General Hospital v. City of Grangeville, 69 Idaho 6, 201 P.2d 750, debt on hospital construction payable out of proceeds of operation of hospital. In none of these cases, however, did this court consider whether the expenditures could have been considered as “ordinary and necessary.”
The majority opinion discards the reasoning of the North Carolina court in the cases of Goswick v. City of Durham, 211 N.C. 687, 191 S.E. 728 (1937); Sing v. City of Charlotte, 213 N.C. 60, 195 S.E. 271 (1938) ; Greensboro-Highpoint Airport Authority v. Johnson, 226 N.C. 1, 36 S.E.2d 803 (1946) ; Vance County v. Royster, 271 N.C. 53, 155 S.E.2d 790 (1967) ; in which series of cases that court held expenditures for municipal airport facilities were not “ordinary and necessary” expenses under that state’s constitutional debt limitations. In Henderson v. City of Wilmington, 191 N.C. 269, 132 S.E. 25 (1926), the Supreme Court of North Carolina stated:
“The decisions heretofore rendered by the court make the test of a ‘necessary expense’ the purpose for which the expense is to be incurred. If the purpose is the maintenance of the public peace- or the administration of justice, if it, partakes of a governmental nature or *785purports to be an exercise by the city of a portion of the state’s delegated sovereignty, if in brief, it involves a necessary governmental expense — in these cases the expense required to effect the purpose is necessary * * 132 S.E. at 30-31.
The reasoning of the North Carolina court seems valid. An airport terminal facility is not such an integral part of governmental function that an expenditure for renting of a terminal facility is a “necessary” expense. There are a wide variety of facilities that are frequently supplied by city government, such as municipal libraries, auditoriums, golf courses, museums and many more. Yet it is difficult to say in precisely which instance an expenditure for such facilities would be “necessary.”
“Ordinary” means “regular; usual; normal; common; often recurring; according to established order; settled; customary ; reasonable; not characterized by peculiar or unusual circumstances; belonging to, exercised by, or characteristic of the normal or average individual.” Black’s Law Dictionary (rev. 4th ed. 1968). “Necessary” has a flexible meaning: “It may import absolute physical necessity or inevitability, or it may import that which is only convenient, useful, appropriate, suitable, proper, or conducive to the end sought.” Black’s Law Dictionary (rev. 4th ed. 1968).
In the proviso clause the two terms “ordinary and necessary” are used conjunctively in modifying the word “expenses.” In the constitutional context with which they are used, only in exceptional circumstances can the expenditures of a city, town, etc., exceed the income or revenue provided for in that year. Idaho Const, art. 8, § 3. When a city obligates itself to pay $1,440,000 at $6,000 per month for a twenty year term it is difficult to see how that is an “ordinary and necessary” expense. When the facility for which the rent is contracted to be paid has not yet been constructed, and where the impetus for the construction of such new facility originated from the city, more than ever am I convinced that this is an “extraordinary” expense, regardless of how necessary such facility might be. Particularly is this so in the instant case, inasmuch as the city of Pocatello held a general obligation bond election in 1968 for the purpose of the city construction of aviation facilities including a municipal airport terminal building (Bogert v. Kinzer, 93 Idaho 515, 465 P.2d 639 (1970)), which did not pass by the necessary majority.
The type of arrangement proposed by this case is an attempt to do indirectly what the constitutional prohibition proscribes — • the creation of any “indebtedness, or liability, in any manner, or for any purpose exceeding in that year, the income and revenue provided for it for such year, without the assent of two-thirds of the qualified electors thereof voting at an election to be held for that purpose * * Idaho Const, art. 8, § 3.
Sympathetic as we may be for the problem facing the city and understanding the need the city council in its good faith desires to alleviate by this arrangement, yet the regular method of proceeding for acquisition of such a large and expensive facility should be followed.5 The judgment of the trial court should be reversed.
SPEAR, J., concurs herein.. McArthur v. Smallwood, 225 Ark. 328, 281 S.W.2d 428 (1955) ; Dean v. Kuchel, 35 Cal.2d 444, 218 P.2d 521 (1950) ; Los Angeles County v. Byram, 36 Cal.2d 694, 227 P.2d 4 (1951) ; City of La Habra v. Pellerin, 216 Cal.App.2d 99, 30 Cal.Rptr. 752 (1963) ; City of Los Angeles v. Offner, 122 P.2d 14, 145 A.L.R. 1358 (Cal.1942); Ruane v. City of San Diego, 267 Cal.App.2d 548, 73 Cal.Rptr. 316 (1968) ; County of Los Angeles v. Nesvig, 231 Cal.App.2d 603, 41 Cal.Rptr. 918 (1965) ; Heberer v. Board of County Commissioners of Chaffee County, 88 Colo. 159, 293 P. 349 (1930) ; Sheffield v. State School Bldg. Auth., 208 Ga. 575, 68 S.E.2d 590 (1952) ; Berger v. Howlett, 25 Ill.2d 128, 182 N.E.2d 673 (1962) ; Loomis v. Keehn, 400 Ill. 337, 80 N.E. 2d 368 (1948); Jefferson School Tp. v. Jefferson Tp. School Bldg. Co., 212 Ind. 542, 10 N.E.2d 608 (1937) ; Protsman v. Jefferson-Craig Consolidated School Corp. of Switzerland County, 109 N.E.2d 889 (Ind.1953) ; Book v. State Office Building Comm., 238 Ind. 120, 149 N.E.2d 273 (1958) ; State ex rel. Fatzer v. Armory Bd., 174 Kan. 369, 256 P.2d 143 (1953) ; Fiscal Court of Jackson County v. Board of Education, 268 Ky. 336, 104 S.W.2d 1103 (1937), aff. 269 Ky. 258, 106 S.W.2d 990, cf: State Property & Bldg. Comm. v. Hays, 346 S.W.2d 3 (Ky.1961) ; Hall v. City of Baltimore, 252 Md. 416, 250 A.2d 233 (1969) ; Walinske v. Detroit-Wayne Joint Bldg. Auth., 39 N.W.2d 73 (1949) ; People v. Doyle and Associates, Inc., 374 Mich. 222, 132 N.W.2d 99 (1965) ; Ambrozich v. City of Eveleth, 200 Minn. 473, 274 N.W. 635, 112 A.L.R. 269 (1937) ; Petition of Bd. of Public Bldgs. v. Crowe, 363 S.W.2d 598 (Mo.1962) ; 405 Monroe Co. v. City of Asbury Park, 40 N.J. 457, 193 A.2d 115 (1963) ; Application of Okl. Capitol Imp. Auth., 355 P.2d 1028 (Okl. 1960) ; Kelley v. Earle, 325 Pa. 337, 190 A. 140 (1937) ; Greenhalgh v. Woolworth, 361 Pa. 543, 64 A.2d 659 (1949) ; Bair v. Layton City Corp., 6 Utah 2d 138, 307 P.2d 895 (1957) ; State ex rel. Thomson v. Giessel, 267 Wis. 331, 65 N.W.2d 529 (1954); State ex rel. Thomson v. Giessel, 271 Wis. 15, 72 N.W.2d 577 (1955)).
.The language in the bid submitted by the appellants to the effect that “We, as citizens of Pocatello, feel it is in the best interests of the City of Pocatello to eventually regain ownership of the terminal. We submit as a part of this proposal that at the end of the twenty year lease term, we will deed the property and terminal building back to the City of Pocatello, at no cost as a gift,” suggests that the “lease” involved here is more than a mere lease of the air terminal facility. See Williams v. City of Emmett, 51 Idaho 500, 6 P.2d 475 (1931). See Magnusson, “Lease Financing by Municipal Corporations As A Way Around Debt Limitations,” 25 Geo.Wask.L.Rev. 377, 390 (1957).
. Colo.Const. art. 11, § 6; Ga.Const, art. 7, § 7; Ill.Const. art. 9, § 12; Ind. Const, art. 13; Kan.Const, art.. 11, §§ 6, 7; Ky.Const. §§ -157-158; Md.Const. art. 11, § 7; Mick.Const. art. 7, § 11; Okla. Const, art. 10, § 23; Pa.Const. art. 9, §§ 9, 10, P.S.; Utah Const, art. 14, § 3; Wis.Const. art. 14, § 3.
. Calif.Const, art 16, § 1; Mo.Const. art. 3, § 37; N..T.Const, art. 8, § 3.
. Since the time of the argument in this case the Supreme Court of the United States decided the ease of City of Phoenix, Arizona, et al. v. Kolodziejski, 399 U.S. 204, 90 S.Ct. 1990, 26 L.Ed. 523, holding invalid property limitations on the right of electors to vote at general obligation bond elections.