Whig and tribune. [volume] (Jackson, Tenn.) 1870-1877, 1876-05-27
THE STATE DEBT.
Colonel CoIyar's Reply to HSnorable
James Z. BaFley.
A Low Tax View Of fhs Ys1sdQuestiOu

James 4 8afley.
A Low Tax View Of fhe Ys1ed Question
The calculation showing that we car
pay current expenses aa1 interest on th'
public debt with 3 ~ .of sixty cents !.
erroneous. -
Besides other paapable errors It ignores
the accumulated interest. II we are 60
ing to restore our lest credit, we must a
least give new nsts for the debt thai
broke Us. Tbs pnesspt ConptroiieT, IN :
sEatenostls = - n. l1il feE pnbd-
cation on the 10th q Eelruzry last, sooE
after the Governors open letter appeared
shows that the accumulated past due in
terest on the 1st Of January, 1871, when
the Legislature meets, wiz be q, ,446, 54l,
As l do not want TO get on disputed
ground on this question of figures, will
take what Col. Bailey says the bonded
debt is, to-wit: $23, ,72O, sos The interest
funded and added to the bonded debt
makes $26, ,167 ,O52.
To this 1 want to add enc more item
which, IL weare able to pay all our debts,
we must pay, to-wit: the unpaid and
never heard from depositOrs in the Bank
| Of Tennessee.
This was the States institution, and
because it WAS the States, many of our
own most worthy citizens put their mo-
ney in it to be kept-the State used it and
lost it. Thsje new very poor people have
no friends f. cry on the stump and in the
newspapess "broken faith" Nobody to
demand in eloquent tones the restoration
of the States credit; but if the State is
able to pay the capitalist, it must pay
these suffering people.
Suppose we pat these deposits at $780,
900 and fund it, we have the debt of the
State SAG, ,667 ,O52. The interest on this is
! 81, ,6OO,O 900. The current expenses are put
down at about sGOO,O but when we
have session of the Legislature at $780,
600, averaging $3.50, 600, this makes TO be
raised 81 ,25O, 900. or this we will pay,
say, $4,000 from privileges, and this is
what the Comptroller puts it at in his
statement for publication. Mr.. Bailey
puts it higher. The fact is, in view of
| the declining mercantile business, and
the wrong done, which will probably be
corrected, of taxing all kinds of business
as privileges, it will probably be
much less, but have put it at that.
Then, suppose we collect from railroads
$50, 900, and this is the Comptroller's es-
timate, and we have $500, 900 paid. This
leaves to be raised 8, $50, 600. Heretofore
the costs of collection and delInqueneies
have not been less than 1877 per cent. If
your taxes are new greatly increased,
with the unprecedented stringency in
money matters, not less than Is per cent.
should be counted and now the simple
question in arithmetic is, What per cent.
on $275 200, 900 win raise 81 ,S60, 900 al
lowing 10 per cent. for delinquencies and
commissions? The answOr is so cents on
the 800 or mills will do it, and raise a
sinking fund of $6l GOO.
It is thus shown by the COmptroller's
figures, as published on the 10th of Feb
Col. Bailey's advice and levies a tax Of
6Octs or 6 mills, that the people of the
State will again be humiliated before the
whole world, as they have already been
by the hasty action of the convention
two years ago, when the people were told
that the taxes should not be increased
above 40 cents, but the credit of the State
should be maintained. Allowing a few
sap-headed politicians in a convention, in
a committee room, in twenty minutes, to
do the whole peoples thinking for tive
years, on the all-absorbing question Of
cur State debt, we are made a laughing
stock, and put in the humiliating attitude
before our creditors OF missing the
amount we needed fer two years expen-
ses just s., ,446, ,547.
We can better afford to tell our credit
ors that we are not able to pay, than to
tell them that our public men did not
know, and hadn't business sense enough
to tell how much it would take to pay,
and that they made a mistake, and the
error was nearly equal TO the whole
amount due the bondholders for two
years, aud yet this is what we have now
| to confess before the whole world. 1t
seems to me that the State hasn't much to
| lose, but would make a wonderful advance
by paying interest on about one-half the
debt.
But how is it proposed to get along
/ with the tax 1 have indicated on proper
! ty? First by letting all the property Of
the State sold and not paid for or mort
gagged, be twice taxed. Second, by taxing
the property at its full value, when most
of the States tax on given per cent. of
/ the value. The census valuation of all
the States is an exaggeratiOn, but this
exaggeration is supposed to run through
the whole, and therefore it may be looked
to in meeting the argument that we are
/ taxed lightly compared with other States.
Our census valuation is $49s, 200, 600; our
taxing valuation is 4275, ,O0O, 900. The
census valuation of Connecticut is s714,-
600, 600, but the taxing valuation is only
1904, ,OOO, 600. The census valuation OF
New York is 81, 500, ,S41 ,264, while the
taxing valuation is 81, So, ,72O, ,9O7. The
census valuation of Illinois is q, ,121, $50,
573, while the taxing valuation is only
! s34s, ,433, ,SO6. The census valuation OF
California is $63s, ,757, ,Ol7, while the tax
able valuation is only SIG, ,527, ,16O.
1t is proposed to continue to raise $780,
UUU Uy IdAlliE the CHSthcSS VI luC NOuulIy
| This is now done, and it is proposed to
continue it by taxing all the various kinds
of business except practicing medicine,
preaching and farming; and this is done
under the word privilege" in the Con-
stitution. The Constitution provides for
a tax on property which must be uniform
and then for a tax on privileges which
need not be uniform
For thirty-tWO years after the Consti.
tuition was made no lawyer ever thought
that privilege meant anything ex.
cent such things as the State might graz.
and charge for; something that could b
tolerated for a certain sum of money. The
State got into tight place, and having
exhausted the catalogue of pursuits, and
lacking just 100000 OF having money
enough to meet all demands, a gray,
question arose between the preachers
doctors and farmers on the one side. -ant
the dogs on the other, and as it wa.
found on examining the statute tha
preachers, doctors and farmers had NOR,
votes than dogs, it was shrewdly decided