The Richmond palladium. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1855-1875, 1868-11-10
COUNTY TAX REFORM.

the State. During its brief possession !
of power, almost one half Of o debt OF
nearly s u 900, 900. left unprovided forby |
the former Democratic rulers of the State |
has been paid The Northern Peniten-
tiary; the buiIdiDg Of which was com
menced under a Democratic adminisira
ton, has been finished and paid for; the |
Insane II ospital has been enlarged at
an expense of $3.50, 900; the constitu-
tional mandate for establishing a House
of Refuge for Juvenile offenders. which
Democratic Legislatures persistently dis
regarded, has been obeyed by Repub-
lican law makers, and this has cost $780,
600; Home for disabled Indiana
soldiers has been erected at an expose
of $4,000 the money distracted from
the School Fund by q Democratic adj
ministration has been restored, and our
public schools have been aided by adj
ditional revenues, yet the sum total of
State taxation is but ffty-six cents on
each hundred dollars worth of taxable
property; only one forth as much is levi
ed to pay the local expenses of the Dem
ocratic county of Allen.
Heretofore the Legislature has not in
terfered to limit the rate of taxation, nor
to control the expenditures of the coun
ties. acknowledgements with watch
full care of the State Treasury and the
reduction Of State taxes as rapidly as
A.. II 81 II ~,
publicans who have sat in the Legisla-
ture have left local affairs to the direc-
ton of the local authorities, believing
that the home interests of the people
could be best guarded by the officers
chosen by themselves for that purpose.
But we: think the time has come for q
change in this particular.
During the recent State canvass it was
the practice of Democratic orators to
hold up the report of the Auditor Of
State, showing the aggregate of general
and local taxes, and to ask g What has
Governor Baker done with the $4,000,
900 of taxes levied in Indiana last year?
although they we'll knew that more than
two thirds of the amount was levied by
the county authorities, over whom Gov.
Baker had no control whatever If
the Republican party is to be held to
res possibility for county expenditures,
it must, in self defense, restrict them
within reasonable limits.
Another and stronger reason why the
Legislature ought to interfere with the
prodieal wastefulness of a portion of
the counties of this State is, that the
mino rity Of voters in those counties can
not be otherwise protected from the OPP
pressive taxation to which they are sub
| ject.
| Take for example the counties of
Allen, Cass. Clay, Crawford, Blackford,
Bartholomew. Brown, Dearborn, Dubois.
Floyd Fountain. Franklin, Fulton, Knox,
Martin. Owen; Sullivan, Starke, Upton,
and w ellis, in which local taxation ranges
from one and four tenths; to two and
nine-tenths per cent on the dollar; the
minority are not only taxed far beyond
the amount really necessary for the lie
gitimate demands for the public seyice.
Those exhorbitant levics furnish the
Dem county officers with cor
ruption fund with which to control cleo
tiens and buy nominations, and this, aided
i by party discipline and unscrupulous
abuse of the Republican party for tax
ing the people to death, enable these
public robbers to perpetuate their power
and increase Democratic majorities.
The legislature has power to protect
honest men against the system Of extor-
ton that is being practiced in these and
other Democratic counties of this State
and we hope to see that power exercised
at the coming session, by placing limit
upon county and other local taxes. So
| far as these Democratic counties have
/ contracted debts they should be required
to levy taxes to pay them, and then be
sufficient to meet their proper current
expenses, but no margin should be
allowed for stealings.
| What that rate ought to be, we are not
! prepared to say, but there will doubtless
be men in the Legislature sufficiently
versed in county finances to digest bill
that will accomplish the purpose we have
indicated
| This opens a field for reform in which
a legislator competent to the work may
reap harvest of renown, and at the
same time save millions of money to the
I people of the State. Who will gather
this harvest ?-[ indianapolis Journal.
/ RI sF
The New York Tribune of Friday
last says: Fully ninety days ago it
was known on the street that upon the