Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1881-01-04
RATIONAL TAXATION.

The trainers of the new Constitution, IN
drafting revenue system, fell into the
serious error of forgetting that equal
Justice to all the members Of common
wealth is not only an absolute moral re-
auirement, but necessary condition OF
prosperous community growth. There
were complaints at that time to the effect
that large percentage of property was
escaping taxation. This was an evil to
be remedied, but there was only one
statesmanlike method of remedying it.
If property which ought to be taxed
escapes taxation. it is necessary to pursue
it and bring it within the reach of the
assessor. This, however, is not what the
Constitutional Convention did. Instead OF
seeking to equalize taxation on rational
basis, it sought to create inequalities even
greater than those which had previously
existed. 1t appeared to be possessed by
the idea that it's business was rather that
OF an avenger than a legislator. 1t
proceeded on the hypothesis that mas
much as some classes of property had in
the past paid less taxes than it should
have done, in the future it ought to be
made to pay more than its just proportion.
This was to discriminate against certain
classes of property and to discriminate
against certain classes of property is
to deprive that property Of the equal
measure OF justice all citizens are entitled
to, and so to disturb the balance of society
The Convention, had it been wise, would
have confined its efforts to preventing eva
sions of just taxation. Instead of doing
this it undertook to create unjust methods
OF taxation. It said in effect, Hitherto
there have been evasions of taxation on
actual and tangible property. Hence
Z" forth there shall be taxation on unreal
and intangible property" 1t invented
class of property having 10 real existence.
| II decreed that the shadow as well as the
substance should be assessed. In so doing
it erected an invidious distinction which
had all the effect of deliberate special
impost upon certain forms of enterprise
and investment In endeavoring to cure
one wrong it in fact perpetrated another,
and instead of establishing equality of
taxation, which would have been just to
all, it established inequality of taxation,
which was unjust. Now when a State
thus attacks certain kinds of property, it
is practically banishing those kinds of
property in the same way that govern
ments seek to exclude foreign manu-
features by tariff regulations. When
California declared that stocks and shares
should hereafter be taxed as well as the
things they represented, she advertised
that corporate enterprises were not desired
in her boundaries. For by her course on
this head she made it apparent that any
other State in the Union offered greater
advantages for this form of investment
than she did. She deliberately handi-
capped corporate undertakings in her
midst, and made it the interest of all who
were concerned in those undertakings to
go elsewhere. 1t is matter of business
and of arithmetic A State which should
impose double taxation upon manufactures
would drive them away. A State which
singles out any kind of property for double
taxation drives it away. Capital necessa-
rily and invariably seeks the most profta-
bic investments Ii, therefore, the State
handicaps some particular form of invest
ment by unequal and discriminating taxa
ton, the measure diverts capital into other
channels