The New Orleans daily Democrat. [volume] (New Orleans, La.) 1877-1880, 1879-01-07
rur REVENUE AND ASSESSMENT
LAWS,

fH1r country exchanges vuio"S"ou |
state. almost without exception Insist upon
! constitutional convention, and the releea-
sio, to It 81 the financial difficulties Of the
f,tate for final adjustment There is no propo-
!. aition locking to Reputation, but, on the con
trsyv. Il ia insisted that the State shall hon
orat,ly discharge all her honest obligations.
yat the complaint OF onerous taxation. wnieh
i mainly attributed 10 the high assessments
.,d their lack uf uniformity In the various
saot,ons 81 the State Is very general, anu II
& apparent that the relief demanded IN this
rasnet,t cannot be secured and the State credit
maintained. at the same time. on the basis Of
Aha presef,t agreement between the State and
her creditors.
There can be no dlsputing the justice Of the
oamplaipt. but we do not see what relief the
,,rosept Legislature can afford by the enact
mont of n new assessment law, that is, II |
constitutional convention ID TO be assembled
within the present year.
The rates Of assessment throughout the
state are by no means uniform, nor Is there
any method provided In our State statutes
snr securing such uniformity As the law is
novv framed. the rate Of valuation Of property
for taxable purposes 10 matter within the
arbitrary discretion Of each individual asses
aor. and whether it Is high or low depends
,por, that officials personal bias aud opinions
III anch matters. It ID claimed. both In
th;a city and III number of the country
marshes that the thirteen mills tax
il more unerous under the present
axorbitat,t assessments than the fourteen and
half mills tax under the old rates OF valua~
zion. There certainly should be uniformity
IN the assessments throughout the whole
state and there should be some way Of making
the same values pay the same tax In one par
sish that they do III another. We know but one
way IN which this uniformity can be0btained'
and that ID by the establishment Of g board
a equalization, whose duty 1t shall be to as
certain the value Of taxable property In every
Parish, and distribute the taxes accordingly,
renuIring each parish TO contribute to the
revenues on the basis of certain rate OF as
aeastnsnt fixed with reference to the actual
cash value Of property. But such an innova-
tion would be unnecessary II we are to have
4 constitutional convention. It would
amount merely to having now assessment
made, at considerable cost and labor, fOr only
ora year. This whole matter would come
within the province Of the convention, which
Will, doubtless, incorporate provisions In re-
gard thereto IN bue CUH5bbutIuil, WHtcu WUuiu
necessitate further legislation.
But we are of the opinion thst all the trout
Bile does not lie In the assessment law,
and that very material relief can be afforded
by the present Legislature by amending the
revenue law. Tho law. Is most Objectionable
In many respects. II Ii inqnsitorial In spirit,
ana for this very reason Its enforcement ID
utterly impractlcabe. The proof OF this Ia
that many of It's provisions have not been en-
forced, nor has any effort been made to en-
force them. indeed, It Is utterly impossible
10 assess on collect tax upon number OF ar
ticles enumerated In the bill, such, for In
stance, az salaries, cash on hand, silver-plate,
iewelry. pictures, libraries, etc, and certain
ly, the returns upon these articles should not
enter Into any computations Of the public rev.
enueg.
Another source Of relief would be In the
Increase Of the license tax on many avoca-
tions, and notably In the repeal OF the Moffett
register law and the substitution Of much
larger license tax on retail liquor dealers. In
consequence Of this law, which ID more obnox.
ious than the revenue laws. the State has beer
deprived during the past year Of almost oil
revenue from this source. II matters moi
whether the law Ia Constitutional or not. It Il
impractIcabe and cannot be enforced, and this
h reason enough for itB repeal and q return X
the old license tax system.
There Is also another source Of taxation
that might BIO tried as an experiment, a'
least for the present year--we allude to tht
licensing Of gambling. Weare very decidedly
Of the opinion that this could be made source
Of considerable revenue. Gambling is one 81
those vices that appear inherent In human
nature and which can never be eradicated
by making 1t crime we do not suppress IL
but merely make.it secret and preclude al
legal surveillance Of itand Of the numbers d
persons who openly and avowedly pursue
that occupation as q means Of livelihood
We do not sec that by licensing gambling II
will be encouraged On the contrary, we be.
lieve IL would operate just the other way, and
at the same time, subject all such establish.
ments to the supervision OF the lawful
authorities. In this way swindliDg and rob.
berry might be in measure guarded against
while the licensed houses would certainly In
terest themselves In the exposure OF all at
tempts on the part Of unlicensed persons To
interfere with their business. We throw this
out merely rs a suggestion for the considera-
ton OF the Legislature.
In any event provision must be made to
carry on the functions Of government for the
year, and such legislation as we have sug-
gested, which would not operate any addi-
ttonal outlay or material alteration OF the
laws, might be passed without any serious
prolongation Of the session. But II we are
to have constitutional convention, and we
take this for granted, 1t would be unwise for
the Legislature to make any radical changes
In existing laws.
some Cats.
fCincinnati Enauirerl
When Ben DeBar was manager of the st.
Charles Theatre In New Orleans about seven
h0 xrua To-