The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1894-11-23
IDEAS OF TAXATION.
II. w. Brown Reviews the Sub
iect Before the S. S. Club.
Thinks the Single Tax on Land
Values Would be the Most Fair and
Just.

: of municipal government, are prov
, ing most interesting and instructive
feature of the Clubs program, anC
: are we'll calculated to give the mem
; bers a better idea of the business
7 conduct of municipal affairs. At;
meeting last evening: the subject dis
cussed was Revenues aand EXpendi
tures,' and the paper was read by H
{ w. Brown. 1t dealt largely with oul
present methods of taxation and the
: abuses that have grown out of it,
The question as to the best ano
easiest way to raise the proper re-
venues to carry on government, be
it general or local, he said, had been
often agitated, indeed it had largely
occupied the minds of men from the
time that cities and villages COM
menced to grow, for upon it's justice
or injustice has depended the peo-
pies welfare. That the present mode
of taxation SO far as real estate and
personal property is concerned, is un-
just and open to fragrant abuses, is
patent to all. While theoretically it
may work all right, yet he thought
that in practical life it had demonstrate
ed Itself grand failure. And he
believed that whatever may be it's
shortcomings. SO far as the rural sec
tions are concerned, the abuses arts
ing from it are great in the city, be-
cause the chances to ''cOver up" pro-
perty are greater. He believed that
the canons laid down by Adam Smith.
in the matter of taxation, -towit:
Equality, Convenience, Certainty
and Economy" should be followed as
closely as possible. The people of
every state ought to contribute to it's
support in proportion to the ability of
each. Equality Of taxation means
equality of sacrifice. He then dis
cuSSed the present methods of taxing
real estate and personal property, and
the fact that it is not listed at it's
full value, as the law provides. Many
are the cases, he said, in the matter
of personal property, where for one
dollar listed, one hundred escapes,
and it seems simply impossible under
the present system to prevent this
abuse. The poor pay the heaviest tax
in proportion to their belongings, be-
cause what they have is in sight and
cannot be hid away.
To get at anything like equality
under the present system, he believed
that all property, real and personal,
should be listed at it's actual market
value. Real estate in the business
portion of city should be listed the
highest, and it should gradually de-
crease in value as it approaches the
outskirts of the town. Further than
this, he would have no exemptions,
either as relates to certain amount
of personal property or as to church
property. Again, he thought the
assessment of county should be done
by one man, who should appoint his
own deputies, and be held strictly re
sponSible for the result. In no other
way could anything like equality be
secured. Every man listing his prop
erty should be put under oath, and
perjury should be followed by convic-
tiOn and sentence.
By the strict following of such a
plan only can equality be obtained,
and if this will not give it what better
system can be devised.
The matter of expenditures he did
not touch upon, further than to state
that he believed they should never eX-
coed the revenue, and should be adj
ministered economically and honestly.
The remainder of his paper was de-
voted to "a brief discussion of the single
tax as an improved mode of raising
revenues.
The discussion was to have been
opened by ]. d. Hilger, but in his alb
sence, his remarks, which were re-
duced to writing, were read by B. d.
Smith. While agreeing with the pa
per in many things, he opposed the
idea which was advanced against ex-
emption of certain amount of per-
sonal property, and argued that to do
away with it would work a greater
hardship than the injustice which
now comes. He also favored the ex-
emption of church property from taxa
tiOn. He took the ground that gen.
eral municipal Improvements upon a
liberal scale were not bad for town,
but conducive to it's growth and in
crease of wealth, and made it easier
to raise the revenue needed for gen.
eral purposes.
A general discussion ensued engaged
in by Messrs. Higgs, Pope, Young,
Willard, Koehler, Smith, Schmitt and
others, and covered many features of
the question. The points which
caused the greatest diversity of opin-
ion were special assessments and the
taxation of church property.
| The next meeting of the c1uh will