News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1890-05-22

A fact of which observing citizens
are taking cOgnizance is the identity
of the leading advocates of Lieuten-
ant-Governor Woodbury's promo
ton to the office of chief executive
and the promoters and supporters of
the various schemes of the past few
years which have swollen the States
expenses to amounts hitherto I'M
known, except in time of war.
This tendency toward prodigality of
public expenditure began with the in
coming tide of revenue from the cor
poration tax and Sshlminated at the
session of 1888 In appropriations
aggregating 81 ,245,000 for the cur
rent biennial term Early in the ses-
sion we showed that the appropria-
tions already sought from the legis-
lature would aggregate over $780,
600. The people had been
led to believe that the income from
the corporation tax would pay the
State expenses and practically relieve
them of the State tax. The results
sustained the assurances of the au-
thors and supporters of the law. The
income from the tax was quite suffi-
Gent to meet State expenses on the
scale that was prevailing at the time
the corporation tax law was passed.
The fears, also, of many were veri-
fed that the enactment of this just
measure would mark the beginning
of an era of too liberal expenditure,
and that ultimately heavy direct tax
alton would again be necessary to
meet the demands on the treasury
A sign of the realization of this fear
was found in the increasing appro-
priations of the legislatures of 1884
and 1886, amounting in the latter
year to $3.50, 900 as against $685.
600 in 1892; but it was reserved for
the legislature of 1SSS-whOse hands,
it is just to say, were to some extent
forced by its predecessOrs-to make
appropriations for the succeeding two
years that engulfed the corporation
tax and required also direct tax of
twenty cents on dollar of the grand
list. These facts do not fully meas
ure the extent of the increase in State
expenditures. Some 100000, the
proceeds of the Huntington bequest
for State educational purposes, was
turned into the treasury in 1SS4-
practically borrowed by the State
and devoted to the payment of cur
rent expenditures. But for this op-
pOrtunity to effect a permanent loan
a tax of about twelve per cent of the
grand list would have been required,
in addition to the corporation tax,
to pull the State treasurer through a
preceding biennial term. The State
tax for the biennial term of 1S76-77
was tifty-fve cents; for 1S7S-79,
seventy cents; for 1SS0-S1, thirty
seven cents. The grand list was then,
in round numbers, 81 100000. The
yearly average of taxation for these
six years was tWenty-seven per cent,
or 270, 900, and the yearly average
of State expenses was about $27S,-
600. The corporation tax for 1888
was $245, 900, and for 1889, $26S,-
600, nearly equivalent to the annual
average of taxation for several years
prior to the passage of the corpora
ton tax law, and but $4,000 less
than the yearly average of State ex-
penditures for that period. The di-
rect tax of twenty per cent of the
grand list of 1889 is equivalent to a
tax of thirty-tive per cent of the list
of 1880, and the latter, it will be OBJ
served, is only somewhat less than
the aggregate tax for the years of
the last biennial term in which State
expenses were borne entirely by di-
rect taxation. The corporation tax
gates 100000. The twenty per
cent direct tax raises 1888, 900. The
SUM of these items, 1888 900 is the
revenue for the current biennial pc
Rod. 1t is $500, 900 larger than the
average revenue for the three biennial
periods preceding the passage of the
annual corporation tax law. The
popular demand for retrenchment is
reasonable Taxation has been in
creased at a time when the people of
the State are the least able to bear
the burden and when their burdens
should be made lighter rather than
heavier.
Acknowledgements Woodbury. is !
the candidate of the papers which
have been the most Jealous support
ers of the various schemes for tap
ping the State treasury. His most |
obstreperOus advocate characterized
as buster" and derided as a ''scare-
crow a plain and truthful statement
of the burdens the legislature was