Staunton vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1860-1896, 1871-08-25
Communicated
: ssThe Funding Bill"


assumed on the LIST Jan. 1872, in the shape
Of new Bonds, interest due LIST Jan. and LIST
Of July, of each year. As by the auditors
late report, the entire debt of the State is
now 48 millions, and by the LIST Jan. next
will be near so millions, Of which it is hoped
West Virginia will assume and pay her pro-
portion. There is great doubt however
about West Va. paying dollar. But we
will assume that Va, for the present, will
pay the amount of 80 millions only, which is
now being funded, and we will have one
million nine hundred and eighty thousand
($1, $50, 000) to pay in the shape of inter-
est. To this amount of intercrt we must add
the expenses of the State Govern which
are annually, say
Expenses OF {, '4v.n 1t, 81 600. 600
Interest GU Pa lie de 4 ), $50. 900
Total, ' $3.50, 900
According to the late report of the State
auditor of the value of real and Personal
estate, by the last assessment, we fin the
total basis Of Taxation to be, in 1860, $3.50. :
902, 1897, which requires near j 90 in every
hundred dollars worthof real estate to meet
the interest on the funded debt and to sus-
tain the expenses ofthe State Government
| But suppose West Va, refuses to pay
any part of the SO million or should upon
settlement pay Gas she will no doubt only
small part of the so millions, the interest
on the debt, with the necessary expenses,
will reach near 4 millions Of dollars to be
paid in semi-annual instruments, which will
then reach over 81, 25 cents on every 500
worth Of property, instead of so Or go cents
as claimed by the friends Of the Funding Bill.
Gov. Walker in his late message of
march 9Th 1870 makes out a very hand
some and encouraging list of assets,
amounting to 1913, 405. 200. which included
the States interest in all her Railroads,
Canals, Turnpikes Plank Roads, Bridges
and the debt due by Selden, Withers Il Co..
But what are those assets worth to the Tax
payer in reducing his proportion Of tho in
terest Literally nothing. This Gov Walk
err we'll knew when he penned his pretty
sounding message of March the 9Th 1870
The schedule is truly imposing to look at,
but what are the facts ? Six or seven mil
lions have already been given away to Gen.
Mahone's consolidation scheme. The great
Covington and Ohio Railroad, including
the Central, has been surrendered to a New
York company, principally foreign cor
poration, and for the reasons too that the
State was bankrupt or too poor to make a
mile of Railroad and that all her improve
ments had better be made or finished by
foreigners than by no one. Yet in the face
of his declaration Of fact our Legislature
have saddled upon their impoverished con-
stitueney certain debt Of 80 millions and
in all probability so millions to be paid by
the owners of real estate in Virginia.
The Capitation Tax Of 81, so cents goes
to pay say Z Of the expenses of our Free
School system, and therefore will afford NO
aid in reducing the States liabilities for the
payment Of the funded debt, and as no long
er source of Revenue, remembering too as
We proceed that over three -fcurths of the
negro population does not and will not pay
cent Of either the Capitation or any other
form of tax. This opinion is now and
will be fully borne out by the reports of the
Collectors in the varied Townships, espe-
cially all over Eastern Virginia Incomes
|
alton. It is very readily accounted for then
why the whole Radical vote in the Legisla-
ture voted for the funding bill, for they well
knew that the negro population who were
their constituents would pay little of the in
creased tax. The vote will show too that
the funding bill was carried by the 40 Rad
ical votes in the Legislature uniting with a
minority Of the Conservatives, for MAORI
ty Of the Conservative party voted against
the bill. The bill then is the result Of the
efforts on the part of the Radical party to
tax the people, knowing that they paid but
little, if any, but what did they care, and
who knows the means brought to bear upon
men who have their price and are virtually
no taxpayers, comparatively speaking.
Property, We mean lapds and houses and
lots, must bear this whole burden of Taxa
ton. Can our farmers in their present de.
pleted and exhausted condition bear this
heavy burden, ranging from 81 to $1,60
upon the 800 worth of,property Can our
farmers in Augusta, whose lands are valued
at $50 per acre upon the late high assess
ment, pay the taxes on 200 acres of land
worth 10 thousand dollars which will
amount to 800 or 1925 or it may be $3.50.
Should Virginia pay the entire debt of so
millions, or more by the LIST JAN 1872 p
The answer is plain, they cannot, in addition
to the district school and other taxes, with
their incidental expenses. There are SO
Counties in Virginia and 848 election pre-
cincts, requiring 948 Registrars, which are
allowed 9 days each Of service during the
year at So per day, amounting to over thir-
ty thousand dollars additional tax to the
people Of the State The whole work could
have been done in 4 days had the Legisla-
ture done their duty, thus saving to the tax
payers $4,000 annually. Unfortunately,
however, for the taxpayers, our Legislature
seemed possessed with but one leading idea,
which was taxation: What would our people
have thought before the war, when all were
prosperous and able to pay, had our Legis-
lators raised their per diem from 81 to Sc /?
What would have been thought of Rail
road official as President receiving 1926 900
per year instead of $4,000. Every official
must increase bis salary and every State In
stitution Of charity receive larger appropria-
tons since the war than before, whilst 9th.
ers are created, as the Colored Insane Asy-
lum at Richmond, and whoever heard, Mr..
Editor, Of dozen Negroes being Lunatics
prior 10 the war in the whole State Of Vir-
ginia? And all this too in the face of facts
that Virginia has lost over 200 millions of
dollars in property by the war and so of her
best tax-paying Counties by the cruel and
unnatural separation Of West Va. from her
dear old mother.
What Is to become Of the owners Of real