The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1896-02-26
EQUAL TAXATION KNBLL
The State Gazette Pro-
claims the Will Of the
Republican Rail-
way Bosses.
JERSEY CITY ASsAILED
Rural Districts Incited to Hatred
Old Fallacies Revamped-
Bill Must Not Pass.

l.
The urgent clamor of Jersey City for
more taxes from the railroads, that assaiJs
the ears of every legislative session, is
easily understood by those familiar with
the financial history and necessities OF
i that municipality. BY extravaganza and
Wastefulness on the part of the loeal gov
ernment. while the city was ring-ridder
Under the old regime the debt was piled
up until it now practically covers. every
property in the city with more than a
20 per cent. mortgage The salaries paid
by Jersey City under ring rule amounted
| to almost half as much as it costs to
run the entire State government. 1t
costs as much to run the government OF
Jersey City in year as it does to run
the government of the State. Her elalnor
/ for more taxes is due, therefore, to past
/ local rapacity and misgovernment
But the rest of the State is in no de-
gree responsible for her financial necessi-
| ties And yet she stands laundering at
our Lcgisla sure halls demanding that New
jersey Shall hump herself and load up
with the burdens under whica she stag
! gers.
! ms is the practical meaning Of Jersey
City's outcry for s.equal taxation For
/
property in Jersey City is taxed. Il
would cease to pay tha State taxes that
now flow into the State Treasury ana
pay. the expense of running the State gov
eTnment. 1t could rot be compelled to
pay these large Stase taxes and to bear
The full weight of local taxation besides.
- IL sheer folly: it is insulting to the
Public intelligence to rra-,.nl otherwise.
4 q n ciI1at,
railroad companies would resort to the
| corrts, and the whole marter woald be
/ plunged into prolonged. expensive and
doubtful litigation.
/ Under the present svsten, tha rail-
roaos and other corporations pay enough
taxes into the State Treasury to meet
al tne expenses of the government and
TO leave comfortable balance for con-
tingencles. Out of these taxes all the
expenses of running the Legislature the
courts the State prison, the State hos
pltals ana al other branches and depart
ments of the government are met.
/ They are run on a liberal and enlight-
ened plan. New Jersey occupies a proud
position among her sister States for the
generous and progressive character OF
her institutions. She takes every nee.
essary object of governmental concern
within her great protecting arms And
II don't cost the taxpayers of the State
one cent. There is no State tax. None
VIII ever be necessary SO long as this
wise system prevails
In his last annual message Governor
Werts,l felicitating the State on these
| conditions, said =
New Jersey, with no tax for State pur-
poses and practically out of debt. is
unique among her sister States No such
| showing can be made by any other State,
nor, apprehend, by any civilized ma
ton anywhere
Ine theory on which the State tax on
railroad corporations is levied is that
| they are creatures of the State. derive
their franchises (without which they
could neither be built nor operated) from
the State, and are chiefly dependent for
their value upon their character and
right as objects of State concern.
In other words, the great railroads
! whose termini are at Jersey City did not
derive their franchises from that or any
other municipal authority. They de-
rived them from the State.
Nor does their great value depend nnon
the location of their termini. 1t depends
upon their continuity as chains of com
/ munication. Their Hudson county and
! simply constitutes link in that chasn
/ suppose all the rest of the chain nv
some cataclysm of nature. or other
cause, should be destroyed or cut off.
what would the link in Jersey City be
worth? There is no doubt whatever that
Jersey City and the other cities and
! towns in Hudson county get under the
| present law the full share of local fay
| to which they would be equitably en-
titled under such a valuation based on
| the link principal. The railroad property
in Jersey City is valuable for purposes
OF State taxation, because of the yalue
/ put into it by the State in breathing
into its nostrils the breath of corporate
life, that enables it to exercise its giant
limbs and functions from the Hudson to
/ the Delaware.
Jersey City practically asks that the
/ system under which the State enacts a
unreasonable quid pro quo for these yalua-
| Bile privileges which she conferred upon
| the railroads shall be abolished. For
that, befog and juggle with the issue
as cunningly as they may, is the real
| question to face. 1t would undoubtedly
! involve the abandonment of the present
system of railroad taxation and impose
upon us the necessity of levying a general
/ State tax. The two millions Of dollars
| a year that are now raised out of the
| corporations would need to be wrested
| from the pockets Of the taxpayers.
Do the people of New Jersey want
thus to load themselves up for the special
relief and benefit of Jersey City. a muni-
| 'cipality that bends it's back beneath the
crushing weight of debt and a tax rate
that were created by the reckiessness
and wastefulness of a predatory gang.
Why should the farmers of New
Jersey-of Salem, Gloucester and Cumber-
land. of Burlington Monmouth and
Ocean, of Monmouth, Hunterdon and
| Somerset, of Middlesex, Sussex and War
remand all the numerous communities
that nestle, thrive and prosper, through
out the State. be taxed to relieve Jer-
sey City from the burdens she has so
carelessly, foolishly. wickedly loaded
herself up with?
| That IS precisely what would happen
That Is the proposition that confronts
u.s.
| Public policy as well as public equity
condemn the proposed change of taxa
tion. 1t would lodge in the municipal au-
! thorities OF Jersey City power Of taxa
ition that might practically be exercised
Las q power OF confiscation. Under d
threat or Increasing the valuations oi
| the ratea. or both, the corporate Victims