The Opelousas courier., 1895-06-01
SAYS FARMERS FAVOR IT,
An Oneida County Physicians Diagnosis
OF the Single Tax and the Ainsworth

An Oneida County Physicians Diagnose
OF the Single Tax and the Ainsworth
Bill.
To the Editor of the armer Advocate:
Some time ago in an editorial you
admitted that in counties having large
cities the effect of the adoption of the
single tax would be to shift part of the
farmers taxes to the cities.
That is true, because if taxation is
based on land values exclusive of i'm
pr2Esments) the cities will pay the
greater part of the taxes.
BAT you seemed to think that in coun-
tlel. having no cities there would be no
waF to shift taxes from the farmers by
thu operation of the Ainsworth local
option tax bill.
Having lived in the rural districts of
both Herkimer and Fulton counties, l
wish to speak of the probable effectso of
the single tax in the purely agriculture
al counties.
My farmer friends and neighbors in
Fulton and Herkimer counties are all
for the local option tax bill. They see
clearly that the exemption of improve
ments from taxation would greatly
lower their county and town taxes.
10 illustrate: The town of Stratford.
Fulton county, is eight Or ten miles
from a railroad and the soil is by no
means fertile. Stratford farmers see
that to exempt their improvements and
tax only their land values would al
most free them, from taxation. Take
another case. The town of Salisbury,
Herkimer county, is a large district
with some very good land and some
very poor land. The exemption of inn
~provements would make taxation
merely nominal in the poor soil Sec
ton of the town, especially as that dis
bulk of town taxation would fall on
the land of greater fertility and of ca
sier access to market.
As for county taxes, the town of Sal
isbury would pay a smaller share of
taxes. The county taxes would be in
creased where the land values of Her.
kirner county lie. That means that
the purely agricultural towns would
shift their taxes to the towns in which
it's large villages lie-that is, to the
towns of Little Falls and Herkimer.
So the taxes even in rural counties
would be shifted from the poorer end
of a town to the richer end. In vii
lagos the shifting would be from the
suburbs to the higher land values of
the business and fine residence qua
tiers.
In E,r1%0r n0y~{- tho town ~ C<~nk
ford and all other towns outside of
Gloversville and Johnstown, would be
relieved at the expense Of Gloversville
and Johnstown. In Gloversville and
Johnstown the burden would drop
heavier on vacant lots and on the high
land values of the main streets. Thus
wealth would pay the taxes now IN
justly paid by the poorer people. I'm
der the single tax Utica and Rome
would pay most of Oneida county's
taxes.
All counties basing taxes on land
values, exclusive of improvements,
would succeed in reducing the farmers
taxes by shifting the burden to their
cities and villages. The larger the
city the greater the relief. Albany
and Erie county farmers would place
their tax burden on the fine landed
properties of Albany and Buffalo.
will say in closing that any of the
farmers of the towns of Steuben, Rem
son, Boonville and New Hartford, in
the county of Oneida, are staunch adj
vocates Of the Ainsworth bill, for the
relief that local option will give them.
My grandfather's farm in the town
of Steuben, worth $4,000, would be as
sessed less than 81, 900 if improvements
were exempted. Let every farmer de-
duct the value Of improvements and
see the relief to himself.
JOHN d. HILTON, M. d.
WASHINGTON MILLS, Feb. 81,