The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1888-12-28
GE0RGIA'S NEW TAX BILL
COMPTROLLER GENERAL wRIGaT
POINTS OUT ITS FLAWS.

A Claim That the Assessment OF Rail-
road Property is eft in the Hands OF
Railroad Employ Sleeping Cars
Double Taxed - A Loop nole for
Express Companies.
ATLANTA, GA, Dec. 27.-Senator Hall
created something of a sensation by the in
PRODUCTION of his amendments to the tax
bill in the recent session of the legislature.
This lax bill, as amended by Senator Hall.
changes the entire system of taxation of
the state so far as relates to railroads, ex-
press and nonresident sleeping car COM
panies. There is question as to whether
the amendments are constituti lnal, but con-
stitutional or not they are nov the law of
the state and will make sweeping changes.
BY the law of 1874 railroads were
taxed, and have been taxed ever
since.
FIXING THE ASSESSMENT.
1t was one of the provisions of that law
that II the assessment made by the railroad
was unsatisfactory to o comptroller
general, board OF arbitration should he
appointed, consisting of one man selected
by the state and one by the railroad. Ii
these two disagree. then third was TO be
selected by them, and two OF the three
would agree upon a proper assessment. By
the change in the law, IL railroads
valuation Of its property does not satisfy
the comptroller general. that officer reports
1t to the governor, who appoints three orbi-
tors all railroad experts, who will make
the final assessment
WHAT THE COMPTROLLER GENERAL SAYS.
Comptroller General Wright, In speaklng
OF the law as amended, said to-day: The
bill Will, IN my opinion, cost the state some
money. IL specifies that the board OF arbi-
tratiol must he railroad experts. That
means that the entire board will be railroad
employees, whose sympathies are with the
railroads. Say the X. Y and z railroad
returns 10 property at $1,000 mile. ] say
| can't receive It at that figure and notify
the governor. He appoints three railroad
experts. They may sustain the assessment
of $4,000 per mile or make an inappreciable
change. The road may be worth 5000
mile, and the state loses taxes on $4,000
from every mile of the road"
THE SLEEPING CAR TAX.
"What of the sleeping car tax" was
asked
"That is no better. The tax. you will see,
is on nonresident sleeping car companies
The constitution forbids that any non-resi-
dent be taxed otherwise than resident
may be taxed. No tax Is put upon the
Georgia and Central of Georgia sleeping
cars, and their charters exempt them from
taxation Of any kind beyond one-half of l
per cent on the gross earnings. so that these
roads may have Pullman or Mann boudoir
cars without tax, while the other roads
must pay tax.
BAD MANNER OF LEvYING.
"The manner of levying this tax is bad,
The length Of the line over which the cars
are run in Georgia is taken as the basis
Say sleeping car company runs its cars
over 100 miles in Georgia aud 1000 miles in
other states and the entire valuation OF that
company's property is $l,000,000. Then
its assessment in this state must be the tenth
part Of its total valuation, or 100000, and
taxes levied accordingly. The injustice of
this method of taxation is that 6nese Sleep
ing car companies pay taxes OH their
property in the state in which
their principle Office is located.
Ii Georgia levies this tax, il means that
certain property will be taxed twice, and
if all the states through which the cars run
follow the same course, sleeping car COM
panles will have TO pay a double tax on
every dollar of their property"
ON EXPRESS COMPANIES.
"fIow will the tax be levied upon express
companies as they own no carsr'
"Iheres the rub. They own no cars, as
sleeping car companies, and yet it is pro-
posed to tax them la the same way. As l
understand it, these companies hire cars
from the railroads and pay them a
certain toll, called truckage. Now, how
can these companies be taxedl By the old
tax bill Of 1885 they were taxed as tele-
graph companies 2111 per cent on their gross
receipts. Now they will not pay any tax at
all, or at least they can't be made TO pay
any, because they have no cars to be taxed,
and the tax bill does not provide for any
other method of taxation The whole bill
l regard as useless. 1t does not add cent
to the revenue and only complexities the
collection of the In yes y