Morning appeal. [volume] (Carson City, Nev.) 1877-1906, 1901-04-28
NEVADA IN GOOD COMPANY.
Many Communities Studying
The Single Tax.
By Wells Drury.


that the progress of the Single Tax
idea throughout the world is remark.
able. For that reason the people of
the Sagebrush State need not be deter
red from joining in the procession.
Touching this matter the Chicago
Public CT recent date says:
The outlook for tax reform in the
right direction grows brighter. 1t is
but Il few weeks since We were able to
announce the report Of the Bucklin
revenue commission of Colorado rec
ON mending the Australasian system Of
local option and land value taxation:
and now the New York Cham Der of
Commerce, one Of the most influential
commercial bodies 10 the world, DELHI
erately and unanimously endorses d
legislative measure Of the same charac-
ter. The measure now in question is a
slight modification OF the bill introduced |
in the New York legislatu re last winter |
by Senator Elsberg. We explained |
and commented upon it last summer at
page 342.. AS now modified, only in
some details and with Senator Elberg's
| approval, and as unanimously endOrs-
ed by the chamber of commerce, this
bill has two commanding features.
| Primarily, its purpose is to remit the
question Of the taxability OF property
to local governing bodies-countes
and cities. That is the Australasian
system recommended by the Colorado
com mission. Secondariiv. for the pur
pose Of perfectiog that system by de-
nriving the State equalization board OF
1all power of favOrit:sm, it substitutes
for that body d tax apportionmeut
board having no discretion whatever.
This is done by basing the apportion-
:nent Of taxation each year upon data
furnished by the taxation of the pre-
vions year. The superintendent board
is to ascertain the percentage of State
o tax which each county must pay 10 the
given year, ''by dividing the sum Of
the gross revenue, for the preceding
calendar year, of each county, includ-
county, by the sum of the gross rev.
} enue of all the tax districts of the
State for the same year. This purely
o. clerical process is to determine ''the
county shall pay La other words,
the proportion of State tax to be paid
- by each county in the given year will
= be determined by the amount of its
own revenue of the previous year.
II Counties, therefore, may regulate the
v amount of their share of State taxes
by their own range of expenditure.
e Inasmuch as with this plan of appOr-
a tionment-or, rather. as underlying it
would go the right to each county to
% raise it's taxes, both State and local,
from personal property. or land, OF
landed improvements, or from any two
or all three, as to the taxed voters
might seem most beneficial to them,
" the new Elsberg bill should prove to be
a satisfactory measure.
"a Before endorsing this bin the New
J. York chamber of commerce referred
it to a committee which carefully eX
6 amined it with the, aid of Lawson
;s Purdy, of the New Y or< Tax Reform
Is association. and under the ad vice o
such eminent lawyers as Samuel B
# Clark, George w. Wickersham ant
X Wheeler H. Peck ham. In their repOr
- this committee discussed the genera
a property tax which prevails in New
q Y Ork, and which, though designed t.
be equal, has proved, as they declare
Il to be sin actual operation unequal
4 They look forward. of course, to re
~ form in taxation itself as the result O
III an enactment of this bill; but they air
'o Immediately only at securing NOR
elastic system, believing that a rig b
re principle of taxation ''can only b
as secured by granting to the several 20
u litical divisions certain discretion'-
Y. in other phrase, by establishing loca
be option.
IN AS readers of the APPEAL alread
is know. the Single Tax doctrine has
he good start in New Zealand, where tn
le results are reported to be better tina
the friends of the Henry George phi
osophy and ever dared to hope, con
=, sidering the limited manner in whic
& the principle has been applied.