Morning journal and courier., 1882-11-17
News by Telegraph FROM ALL QUARTERS. TAXATION IN VERMONT. 4 New Scheme to Assess
 Corporations. STAR ROUTE BRIBERS IN COURT. The Case of the Govern
 ment Strengthened. A COLLISION IN EAST RIVER. Seven Persons Go Down With
 a Barge.
NEW ENGLAND.
 Vermont.

State Taxes-A New System of Assessment
 The Corporations te Pay the Entire
 State Expenses.
 BURLINGTON, Nov. 16.-Vermont is about to take new departure in taxation in the shape of assessing upon the corporations
 within her borders the entire amount re- quired to pay the expenses of the State gov
 ernment. The bill making this very radical change in the system of taxation has not yet
 passed the Legislature, to be sure but there is little doubt of it's passage, for the public
 feeling in it's favor is so strong that not even
 the combined power of the corporations in-
 terested can defeat it. The bill taxes corpo-
 rations of all sorts, railroad, express. tele-
 graph, steamboat, car, transportation, insur
 ance, telephone, savings banks and trust
 companies Railroads are taxed at the rate
 of ? per cent. on earnings of $2,OO0 per
 mile of road, or on earnings of less than that
 sum; per cent on $3, ,O0O, 4 per cent. on
 $4,OOo and per cent. on $5,OOO. Insurance
 companies are taxed ? per cent. per annum
 on the gross amount of premiums and as-
 sessments collected within Vermont and
 one-half of one per cent. on all sur
 plus over the necessary 4 per cent.
 reserve. Savings banks and trust companies
 are required to pay ] per cent. on the aver age amount of deposits and accumulations.
 Express, telegraph and telephone companies
 are assessed per cent. of their gross receipts and steamboat, car and transportation con- panies per cent. of their gross receipts an-
 nually. The cashier or manager of each
 company is required to make the necessary returns each year, under penalty of $500 for each days neglect and the penalty for
 failing to pay the tax is forfeiture of it's amount and $500 for each additional day B neglect. The working of the law is placed
 in charge of 8 new officer, the commissioner of State taxes. It is expected that the an nual amount raised by this law will be $25O,- GOO, which will be amply sufficient to pay all the current expenses of the State. These changes are very sweeping in their character. Heretofore the State taxes have been based upon the town assessment rolls, the corpora tions paying very light taxes or in the ma- jority of cases none at all. Thus for the current year all the railroads in Vermont paid aggregate taxes of little less than $3O, ,OOV whereas under the bill under con sideration they will be required to pay $15O,- 900. Heretofore each county has had an equalizing board whose duty il was to equalize the taxes that one to VII should not pay moro approximately than another, and there has been State equalizing board to perform a like duty in every respect to the counties. The bill does away with all this costly and cumbersome machinery and I both simplifes and improves the system oi ! taxation. Of course under it the corpora tlons are exempted from local taxation, but l the loss of this account will bs much more 1 than made up in other directions. Some | great scandals too will be obviated, such af the performance of the St. Albans assessors in assessing National Car company stock al ! 45, while it was selling in the Boston market aS 1lO and was listed in the Burlington mar ket at 100.