Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1880-02-20
REVENUE AND TAXATION.

down. The advocates Of its adoption at
once became engaged in a desperate en-
deavor to show that it did not mean what it
said, and the most fnespun sophistries
were employed to allay the sharp suspicion
of injustice which its plain letter engen-
dered. If, however, it is to be interpreted
in accordance with the construction put
upon 1t by It's supporters, it is clear that
the revenue and taxation clauses must be
so dealt with as to avoid double taxation
This has been the end sought by the ma
jority OF the Joint Committee on Revenue
and Taxation, and their report rs
particular cogent and closely reasoned
argument in defense of the position
they have taken. The mode of assess
ment adopted by the majority of the COM
mittee reaches every description of tang
ible property, but it does not, after assess
ing all actual property, proceed to assess
certificates of ownership as if they were
property in themselves, apart from and
beyond the things for which they stand.
! The committee say in their report &c 1t is
unprecedented that the chief ground OF
Opposition to the bill presented herewith
twill be based on the fact that its first
"section declares that no property shall be
"subject to double taxation, and that its
subsequent sections are conceived in con-
"sonance with this declaration. The
"double taxation which is thus sought to
''be obyiated arises mainly, if not exclu-
"sively, in reference to the taxation of
fstocks in corporations formed and doing
Cuisines in this State, and moneys on
deposit with savings and loan corpora
e tions of the State. That to tax at its
full cash value the franchise and all
''the real and personal property of
ga corporation, is an efectual and
complete taxation Of all the values
belonging to such corporation, whether
tangible or intangible, is beyond dis
"pute. 1t is equally beyond controversy
"that the stock issued to the stockhold-
sc ers of the corporation is but certificate
showing the interest which the holder
"has in the entire assets of the corpora
ton, just as deed is merely the evil
"dence of the interest which the grantee
"has acquired in the property described
therein" This is the gist of the argu-
ment, and nothing can be palmer than the
fact that to assess the stock as we'll as all
| the actual property of the corporation,
would be double taxation of the most open
kind. In order to justify recourse to such
method it will have to be shown that
double taxation was deliberately intended
| by the trainers of the Constitution, and
whoever takes that position vindicates the
soundness of every objection made against
the instrument, and confesses that it is
malignant engine of oppression and wrong.
The minority report advocates double
taxation, and advances the extraordinary
argument that ''the adoption of the mi
"nority's system of taxing stock would in
=" crease the taxable property of the State
sat least seventy-five millions of dollars,
"and to that extent lessen the rate of tax
alton. Doubtless a system of assessment
which went upon the principle of counting
every item twice for purposes of taxation,
would have the same ostensible effect in an
even greater degree. But do the minority
seriously believe that property can be in
J 5
sulting gain to the community? If they
really think that they have discovered a
new economic principle here, they
ought not to confne it to one
class of property If the rate OF taxation
can be lowered by counting property twice
over in one case, how much more can it be
lowered by counting everything twice
over, or three or four times over? This
novel and brilliant method of tightening
the burdens of taxation deserves to be i'm
mortalized. TAX every body double on
"stock and what it represents" say the
minority, land then the tax-rate will not
"be SO high" And yet, artful and in
{
us that the same end might be reached
with less elaboration. Once abandon the
maxim of equality in taxation, and the
road to confscation is short and straight.
If it is not wrong to impose double taxa
ton on stockholders, it is not wrong to
lessen the tax-rate upon the majority by
decreeing arbitrarily that minority shall
pay half or tWo-thirds of all the taxes If
the primary object is to "lessen the rate
of taxation, and no consideration is to
be given to the rights of the taxpayers, the
simplest and most direct mode of confisca-
ton strikes US as the most eligible But
the minority have failed to realize that
lessening the rate of taxation, when sought
by inequltable and oppressive methods, is
apt to iniure instead of relieving the State.
A mode of assessment which imposes double
taxation upon every depositor in savings
bank, and the tendency of which must
therefore be to discourage the maintenance
of such institutions, and so to promote
habits of dissipation and unthrift, can
hardly be regarded as in the line of pub
lie boon, nor can it be believed that in
crease OF the taxable property of the State
by seventy-fve millions would at all com
pensate for the injury done the body
polite.
The assumption that the taxable prop
erty of the State can be increased in the
manner proposed is, moreover, delusion.
1t contemplates no increase of property.
What it contemplates is the assessment of
the same property twice. The seventy
five millions here spoken of has no ex-
istence outside the Imagination of the mi
nority. When the franchise and real and
personal property of all corporations has
been assessed, every atom of actual prop
erty has been reached, and any attempt to
create new values after this must result in
taxing something second time. The
natural and inevitable effect of such a