The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1892-05-18
An Object Lesson.

10 THE EDlTOR-OT. nave READ your
explanation of the way the corporations
pay the increase of state taxes, but do
not believe l understand it. If the corpo-
ration taxes are increased as much as the
state taxes il looks like no one else should
be increased, but pay $3.50 more taxes
this year than did last, and am not a
corporation. Most of it is local tax, but
50 cents is state tax. How do you account
for that? SCHooLrEAcHER,
indianapolis, May IL. 1892.
That depends on circumstances. II your
property is a vacant lot in the suburbs,
part of it may be due to the fact that IL
was assessed as farm land last year and as
city lot this year, in which case your
appraisement would have increased more
than the average. If your sppraisement
has not increased more than the average
(45 per cent the increase is due to
the fact that the local taxes are higher
than they were last year. Perhaps
you will better understand the principle
Of adjusting state and local taxes If you
make practical illustration of it. Take
nine OF your school children, and appoint
one to represent the corporations and the
other eight to act as citizens. Take two
boxes, one for a state treasury and the
other fer the local treasury, and give the
children 100 peanuts, or bits of paper, or
anything else, for tax money, twenty to the
corporation boy and ten to each of the
others. Then levy 10 per cent. for state
taxes and 80 per cent. for local taxes. The
result will be that the corporation boy
will put two peanuts in the state treasury
box and eighteen in the local treasury,
while the others put one peanut each in
the state treasury and nine each in the
local treasury. You will then have ten
peanuts state taxes and ninety peanuts
local taxes.
You next want to raise twenty peanuts
for the state, and proceed to double the
assessment of the corporation boy and
give him forty peanuts to pay his taxes.
Increase the state levy to 20 per cent. and
decrease the local levy to so per cent. The
result will be that the corporation boy
puts four peanuts in the state treasury and
thirty-six in the local treasury, while the
other eight put two peanuts each in the
state treasury and eight each in the local
treasury, so that you have twenty peanuts
state taxes and 100 peanuts local taxes.
Notice now that notwiths tanding the de-
creased local assessment you have ten
peanuts more of local takes than before,
and the state taxes of each of the eight
citizens have been doubled, and vet each
of the eight citizens pays only ten peanuts
taxes in all, just as in the first case. If the
local taxes had not been increased, each
of the citizens would have eight-tenths of
q peanut left. That is the way the tax law
would have worked out if honestly ad-
ministered.
But now suppose that while you are
making the illustration a member of the
republican school board comes in and
makes and additional levy OF 10 per cent.
for his own benefit He gets ten peanuts,
which he promptly puts out at interest,
and you will have to furnish ten peanuts
more for tax money; and the genial poll
tician from the school board will say: "If
you do not think democracyis a tax, look
at your sack of peanuts" Who do you
think is responsible for those ten extra
peanuts, you or the school commissioner
And if, after the object lesson was over,
one of the eight citizens should come to
you and say. II am not corporation, but
my tax was increased one peanut" would
you not fall on his neck and break it?