The Montgomery advertiser., 1901-07-02

S@<hAok1> . at4E x4t.. &%<#<<<~<-~St - VI attitude of a convert to the commit- tees report. When 1t was first printed and laid upon my desk and had studied it and cad 1t over. l thougnt that this section could not safely pc adopted. and that in ac much as the tax rate nov is up to the Con9iitu- tional limit of 75 cents, and 1t seemed to be necessary in order to meet all the expenses of State Government, that we could not safely reduce that limit. and SO. MT. President for the purpose of making fight upon this provision. proceeded to investigate the facts and figures for myself. Much to my sur prise when had done so. found that 1 was caA the side with the Committee. feel assured, Mir. President, that this rats> can be safely reduced to Ss cents. If thought it would take one dollar on of the school fund. or one dollar on of the Confederate pension fund, or would
 impare in the last the credit of this State, l should oppose It. but beiiev- ing that the figures, the facts, show that 1t can >be safely reduced. l feel that I would be recreant to the pledge that the Democratic Convention put upon the Democratic members Of this Convention to reduce tax rate, If prac- ticable, if did not vote to support the section as reported by the Committee. Now gentlemen argue as this ie new and unheard of thing, as 1T the Idea of limiting the discretion of the Legislature in the levy of taxes Is something new In, the history of the laws of this State. Why MT. Fresi- dent, if I felt that way, if had the absolute confidence in the legislatures, that gentlemen who have argued this question upon this floor seem to have. I should say let us not limit their dis- erection by any figures at alL let the Legislature be the sole judge or the limit.
 MT. Rogers (sumter)-I wish to ask
 Mir. Foster if his confidence in the Leg
 lslature is as great as these gentle-
 men indicate. what would be the use of having a Constitution at all!
 Mir. soster-Very little at all. es2e-
 cially upon this tax limitation. have no criticism to make upon the mem-
 bere of Lesislatures. I have always found the members to be the best men in the world. The fact is it Is not so much the fault of General Assemblies that they have been extravagant in their appropriations, as 1t is the people of Alaba ama--we are living in an era of extravagant public expenditure-our National and State history of recent years shows 1t. We have the idea that when any enterprise is gotten ap, es- pecially if there is anything of pup- lie character involved in it, we ought to come to the Legislature of Alabama, or to the Congress of the United States and ask for State aid. Well, now. when we come before the members of the General Assembly. if we cannot pursuade them. have seen 1t frequent ly, MT. President. we add to ouS per- suasive arguments the eloquenee or beauty and bring in the ladies to De- siege these gentlemen in the interest of some approximation. Now observe On page 21. the Roman numsral page, of the Auditors report. that immediate ly after the ratification of the Consfi- tuition of 1875, the tax rate was fixed at 1-2 mills-the Constitutional limit. I infer from that that our foresathers who assembled In the Convention Of 1875 did as this Committee Is endeavor- ing to do today, they carefully examfn- ed and calculated the necessary amount of taxes to be levied upon the taxaple property of this State. and having as- certained that they placed it at the limit of 1-2 mills. So l say we are not attempting anything unheard of. or any new proposition here. when we fig ure >out what will be necessary for the SupDOEt OI EHe StaeS SONSthhNSaes oAeN the appropriations already made. and which we contemplate will continue Tn the future. and say that the tax limit shall reach that amount and no fur- ther, we are simply following In the footsteps of the frameFs of the Consti- tuition of 1875. Now. MT. President, for the figures that lead me to my conclus- ion. This Convention Is told by the dis tinguished Chairman of this Committee who has made a careful investigation of 1t. whose estimates think, are con- servative and safe. that the taxable value of the properties of this state next year will be $27S,oOe.00O. Well. then, a tax of 61-2 mills on S2IS.OO0- 900 in round figures is 1,So7, 900. Now l think we may safely estimate that the taxes from all other sources will cer- tainly not be less than they are esti- mated by the Auditar for this year, than the actual receipts up to this time according to the Auditors figures show. and I place that. MT. President, at $922, ,00O-those are the figures shown by the Auditor. So then we have as gross receipts on a. basis of 1-z mills S2, ,729, ,000. MT. President, we might safely appropriate $1,2So,Ooo to the schools q believe that is in excess of the present appropriaten) give the same pension fund of $250.0oO, and have left for the general expenses of the State government $1,200,00O making total of $2, $50 900 for appropriations, and a surplus of nearly $So000. Now. MT. President. I know that figures have been used for different purposes by delegates who have argued this question, and I have been somewhat amazed at the different conclusions that have been drawn from these elas- tic figlNes, but take the figures from the Auditors report submitted to the Governor of this State. for use in the General Assembly. and I find that up- on page l6 the Auditor says he esti- mates the disbursements for the year 1901 at $2,526, ,970, and in foot note to that estimate he adds: 'The above es- timate of receipts and disbursements are made also for the year ending September 30th. 1902, except as to the item of S50, 0,0O0 for Legislative ex- penses." Mir. President. 1 say 1t is not only practicable for us to reduce this limit. but 1t is necessary that We should do it in order to carry out the pledges that we are under to the people of Alabama. Now they say this limit of 75 cents does not fall hard upon any body. It does not, Mir. President. upon the man who comes before the General Assembly for appropriations, but there is a large element in this State which has no representation before that body; there mj a large element, the poor peo- ple of this State, who do feel this bug den of taxation, and 1t is for those pe0- ple. for the relief of those people that -aAa- |. .AE. .tu-kar rN AQ