Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1883-07-03
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eTIIuGuloA COhNNAAo ~.
country engages hsbitually and unre'
mittingly in a discussion of national
taxation, while the subject of munich
pal taxes receives comparatively little
attention.
Municipal taxes are as ten dollars to
one compared with national taxes. The
latter may be excessive, but are eldom
oppressive. National taxes are paid
directly by the few, while municipal
taxes are levied on all classes alike.
There is no man in the city of Wheel
ing, except he be engaged in the tobac-
CO or whisky traffic, who does not,
probably, pay five times more taxes to
the city than to the general Govern
ment.
Not only so, but our municipal rev.
enues are seldom equal to our expendi-
lures. We are always spending more
than We get. We go on piling up a
debt for future generations &c pay, or to
pay interest or We tax our popula-
ton to the limit of the law, and then
borrow to make the ends meet. We
are not very 'public spirited" as a city,
and very little money goes to improv-
ing or embellishing the city, but our
whole income appears to be expended
in repairs, while the annual interest ac-
count is continually swelling and eat
ing up the ven we need for re-
pains.
Why it is that any city should bor-
row and accumulate debt from year to
year, simply to meet current expenses,
is a eonundrum that would puzzle a
financier if it does not the politician.
Ii betrays q radical defect either in our
system of taxation or expenditures,
probably in both.
1t may be demonstrated that our
finances are judicially and economically
managed-that our are applied
| only for the absolute necessities OF the
city. And If that be true, it is also de-
monstrated that either the rate of taxes
is too low, or that all property Is not
bearing an equal burden. Our local
tax system may be as loose and de-
fective as the State system has been
shownto be. In either case it demands
correction. 1t is a short-sighted policy
that relies npon a loan to meet the cur
reIt liabilities of a municipality. That
only complicates the difficulty and bor-
rows trouble of the future.
These comments are no suggested
by the policy, of our city alone. 1t is
the common rule of every city to run
in debt. There is scarcely a city in
| America that is not in debt. Scarcely
one that is not paying enough interest
to meet one third its current expenses.
The prime cause is that property
either resists or evades an adequate rate
of taxation. Property complains more,
yet pays less according to its ability
than the poor. The poor man seldom
escapes his full share of the tax burden
in Il city. From the rich only a portion
of their excess is taken, but the poor
man has no surplus.
And, yet, money wisely spent by the
local government benefits the poor
man, for his share of the burden is less
than the benefit he receives. 1t is so
also with the rich. Taxes bring large
returns, a. a rule, for the investment.
But money wasted or extravagantly
spent increases the burdens of those
who already have enough to bear, and
does them no good. The poor man gets
more than he pays for in schools,
streets, lights, sewe rage, police and so
on, but his living is shortened by money
misappiied or extravagantly spent.
Where there is purity, economy and
wisdom in the management of q city's
finances there is generally little ground
for complaint of the rate of tax. 1t
would be better policy in many cases,
and probably in our own, if we paid
more instead of less.