St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1891-02-17
aNINGOME TAX

AN 1NCOME 11A.
The bill proposing the submission to
the people of a constitutional amend
ment which will permit the imposition
and collection OF a tax on incomes
comes up for consideration before the
senate to-day. The act provides that
at the next general election the voters
of the state shall decide by their ballots
whether or not future legislatures shall
have authority, if they consider it wise.to
raise part of the states revenues by tax
ing incomes above fixed sum, and also
to make such tax uniform or progressive
in its character, as to them may
seem best. Under the conStitu-
ton, as it exists at present in
comes cannot be taxed, and under the
decisions of our supreme court in the
probate law cases it is not legal to tax
man with million dollars at any higher
rate per cent than one with thousand.
If this proposed amendment is sub
mitted to the people, and they adopt it..
both these restrictions or legislative
action will be abrogated.
There IS a good deal of doubt in the
GLOBES mind as to whether an income
tax is good thing. A great deal surely
can be SAID against such device. But
the legislature is evidently endeayor-
ing to grapple in honest earnestness
with the taxation problem. This is
the most important matter before it,
and its heroic efforts to struggle
with its difficulties are worthy of
the most profound encouragement.
The present system of collecting
our revenues is a notorious failure.
Personal property does not bear its
share of the burden in Minnesota any
more than it does elsewhere. In New
York the amount of personal property
which is returned for the purposes of
taxation is only one-tenth the value of
the real estate listed. This is trans
parently false. The personal property
in the state is much more, probably ten
times as valuable as the realty. But it
is hidden and lied about, and escapes the
assessors books. 1t is the same way in
Minnesota. The owner of homestead
which is mortgaged to its full value
pays taxes on its full value just the
same. and in addition has to pay taxes
on the mortgage indirectly in the rate of
interest which the mortgage eXacts of
him. But the bondholder, and the
stakeholder, and the owner of diamonds
and bank accounts pays nothing for the
protection which the state affords his
property.
There is loud public wailing over
the tax rate. both in st. Paul and Min
neapoIis and in the country. The gen
tlemen in the chambers of commerce are
holding the most animated debates, and
declaring that public Improvements
must stop, and that we must wait for
boom before we further adOru and
beautify our cities. The GLOBE does
not agree with them-We need all the
school houses which we have; we need
our bridges, and more of them. Our
city bali is noble possession, but we
need new city halls in every quarter of
our cities, where the poor can find &C.
reation and interest after their ola US
work is done. We want public parks,
where there shall be concerts Oh sum-
mereveningS; and we need well-graded
streets and roads which will increase
the comfort of living, and furnish the
arteries of trade. We want free skating
Kinks in winter, and free public baths
in summer. We need public libraries
and a thousand other things which will
add to the amenities of existence. The
GLOBE has no sympathy with the view
ha+ IctO
mentS.
The way to lower taxes is not to re-
duce ourselves to the privations which
become the FIJI islanders, but to make
the men who now laugh at our county
treasurers show what they have and
pay their taxes honestly. If the gentle
men who pirate at the Monday meetings
of the chamber of horrors were as dill
gent and successful in stopping the
march of civilization as they are in
lodging the load of their just tribute to
the states support, it would not be long
before we should become the bowling
wilderness which seems to be their
deal. But they cannot succeed, be-
cause the GLOBE, common sense and
the mass of the people are against them.
The only other thing to do is to make
such people pay their taxes.
This paper is not prepared at this
writing to say that the best way to ac-
complish this is to impose an income
tax. Butt is prepared to say, and does
say, that the legislature should have the
power to do this if it at any time seems
wisest. The legislature should not be
hampered in its hard struggle with this
gigantic work by restrictions and limi-
tations on its action. 1t should be free,
if it appears eXpedient, to use the tax
ing power at once for the collection of
the states revenue and the shaping of
our social system as the majority of peo-
pie in the state shall declare at the
polls IS their pleasure. The GLOBE
heartily indorses Senator LEAvITT's
bill directing the submission of the
right to impose graduated income
tax to the people at the next election,
and earnestly hopes that it will pre- vail.
THE POLITICAL PRESS.
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