The Colfax chronicle. [volume] (Colfax, Grant Parish, La.) 1877-1981, 1893-02-25
TAX REFORM DEPARTMENT.
EAST ST. LOUIS TAXATION PROB
LEM.


How Great ard Rich City Could BE Made
Ont of n bankrupt Town.
Our sister city of East st. Louis is In
a peck of trouble. At n time when
public sentiment seems to be fairly
represented by her city government,
the penalty of former municipal ex-
travagance and mismanagcment must
be paid by the present generation of
taxpayers. The law wills it, the courts
have decreed it, and the debt must be
paid even though ali property and goods
within the corporate limits 'be COTS
cate to Venice in order to satisfy the
judgments of the city's creditors.
In the halcyon days when the city
was in the hands of political monde
scripts, debts were contracted and
bonds were issued to the tune of
$1,000, 600. And now, by legal decree,
taxes must be levied to pay them. But
how can the industry of East st, Louis
survive under so heavy burden? How
can it be hoped that single new in.
dustry will be established there If
threatened at the outset with prohibit
i've taxation? Capital is not only free
to stay away if the prospect is uninvit-
ing, hut is free to move away
if brrdened there more than
elsewhere with repressive taxation,
thereby reducing to an utter impossible
ity the already gloomy prospect OF free
ing the city from the principal and ever
growing interest of its municipal debot.
While the ablest financiers of the city
are bordering the problem. and COM
mittees are devising ways and means
out of the trouble, they are confronted
at the outset by a constitutional diff.
Guilty which presents an obstacle almost
insurmountablc. The constitution of
Illinois provides that all property and
values in the state shall be assessed and
shall pay state taxes in equal ratio.
This provision applies to county and
municipal taxation as well, although
corporations and individuals through
out the state evade the law every year
by secreting. or only partially listing
their personal property to the assessor,
yet they can not successfully evade the
law when capital seeks fixed invest
ment And, therefore. every fixed in
vestment, every manufacturing and
productive enterprise in the city
and state contributes its proportionate
share to the public revenues. The tax
on enterprise, though hitherto not oner-
Gus enough to be prohibitive, Is, never
theless, sufficiently heavy to dampen
the ardor of those who would engage in
manufacturing or in productive enter
| prises of any kind, from the building of
| factories down to stock raising Though
! the trainers of the constitution prob
! ably did not contemplate such results.
yet the steadily growing state taxes are
just as steadily operating to discourage
thrift and enterprise throughout the
state. But now, when it shall be neces-
sary flor the court DEGREES it) for a
municipal government, under this con-
stitutional provision, to quadruple and
| quintuple the taxes on all enterprises
within its municipal confines. from roll
ing mills down to provision stores, then
will the industrial outlook for such q
city be gloomy indeed.
If, on the contrary, instead of placing
further burdens on industry and pro-
ductive enterprise, the existing load of
state, county and municipal taxes could
be lightened, or indeed abolished, then
would enterprise meet with so much
| greater recompense in East St. Louis
than elsewhere that capital would flow
to that fortunate railroad center, and
the hum of industry and the songs OF
happy artisans be heard in a few short
months where now the lonely gardener
hoes the succulent cabbage in the truck
patches of the American bottom. Were
the constitution of Illinois so modified
rs to permit county, township and mu.
nicipal governments to exempt from
taxation all personal property within
their confines, then the problem of East
st. Louis would be solved So soon as
that city adopted the method of raising
its revenues by taxing real estate alone,
and exempting from taxation every
product of industry and every form Of
enterprise, there would at once set in a
flow of capital and of labor to East St
Louis.
| The greatest inducement to the es
tablishment of business enterprises is
to exempt therefrom taxation. Where
manufacturers prosper population
grows. The recommendation of Elk
Mayor Hewitt that personal property
be exempt from taxation in New Yorl
city is but straw showing the rising
current of popular opinion, and not the
least improbable action of the mex
legislature of Illinois is the submission
to popular vote of constitutional
amendment giving local option in tax
alton to each county.