The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1901-02-25
No RADICAL CHANGE
IN REVENUE SYSTEM
Legislature Disinclined to Re-
wise Present Law.
TO GO AFTER ASSESSORS
GLAsMANN's BILLS REGARDED
r AS BUNCoMBE.
10 GO AFTER ASSESSORS

There is not likely to be any radical
change in the revenue system of the state,
notwithstanding the governors strong
recommendations to the legislature The
opinion prevails that the fault lies with
the assessors, and probably some measure
will be devised imposing more severe pen
alties for differentiation by these OFF,
Gals
More than half the term of the present
legislature has expired, but the first move
has not been made by the appropriate
committees in the matter of apprOpr1a-
tions for the carrying on Of the instltu-
tlOnS Of the state for the next TWO years.
In his message to the legislature Gov
ernOr Wells said on this subject;
Perhaps no other subject will consume
as much time and require the exercise of
so much judgment as the apportionment
of the revnues among the various public
Institutions
Benner y. Smith. who is the chairman
of the committee on revenues and appOr-
tiOnments of the lower house, said yes
terday that as yet nothing had been done
in this important matter.
THE committee" he said, ''has no pro-
gramme mapped out; IL fact it has not
yet held meeting To tell the truth, 1
don't see what the committee can do eX-
cept to make the usual appropriations
My opinion is that we will take one OF
the old appropriation bills, go through it
item by item, and appOrtiOn the money
at our disposal to the very best advant-
age possible. There are certain fixed eX-
penSeS that must be met first, of course,
and after these are met we must be
guided in making other appropriations by
the amount of revenue available"
Speaking of the amount of money that
for which appropriations must be made,
Mr.. Smith said:
THE assessed valuation of all the prop
erty IN the state last year was 800, COCO
The limit of taxation allowed under the
statute for state purposes is s mills If
we go to the limit the sum of 81 100000
Will be available, and of course the ap-
preparations must be kept within this
sum- There are demands for all kinds of
appropriations; many Of these come from
the outlying counties for all kinds of i'm
provements, as the representatives from
those counties know that the bills must
be paid by the cities, where the wealth
OF the state is largely concentrated.
More Honest Assessment.
''Of course" continued Mr.. Smith "the
value of the property of the state may
1t is shame that money on deposit in
the banks escapes taxation, but this is a
matter that rests with the assessors The
present revenue law is d good one, so far
as I am able to judge; the only change
that I would advocate would be to in
crease the. penalty for differentiation and
arrange in that way to get more honest
assessment, and a more equitable distr1-
button of the taxes. I would also favor
the taxation of dividends from mines.
The net proceeds of the mines are now
taxed, but the dividends are exempt L
am of the opinion that they should be
taxed. A man might invest his dividends
in real estate or in any other form Of
property and SO long as he could identify
his investments as mine dividends the
property would be exempt from taxation
under the present law. / am looking into
this matter and there may be some 1egis-
latiOn attempted along this line
Mr.. Smith is of the opinion that the
chief trouble in raising state revenues IS
due to the course pursued by the as
SCISSORS in the various counties The
valuation of the property is forced down
in every county with the idea of throwing
the burden of state taxation on the other
counties. They lower the assessed value
and raise the rate of local taxation, know
ing that there is limit of mills beyond
which the state levy cannot go. Thls IS
a matter that must be remedied by the
assessors and the state board Of equaiiza-
ton. The present revenue law is good
enough If it were enforced
Mr.. Smith does not take seriously any
of the revenue measures introduced by
that not one OF them stands any. chance
Of becoming a law He thinks they are
made up largely of buncomDe.
Figures from the Governor.
In this connection it will be of interest
to recall some of the figures on the as
sessment of property submitted to the
legislature by Governor Wells sin his mes
sage to that body. Governor Wells found
the total assessed value of air the prop
erty in the state last year to be S105, go
before. All the money, solvent credits,
and judgments in the state last year We're
assessed at $3.50. 334. while in the banks
Of Salt Lake City alone there was on de-
post Jan. /, S20O00, 900. The merchandise
and trade fixtures of the. entire state were
assessed at $3.50, 266 while in the gov
eFnor's opinion there are three houses
in Salt Lake whose aggregate stocks at
any time in the year are worth more than
that. The livestock of the state was as
SeSs6d last year at SS,60O.O00, while in the
same year the government census placed
the value of this stock at 1913. 600 600 The
value of railways, cars, depOtS. street
railways, telegraphs and telephones Of
the entire state was placed by the as
SCISSORS last year at 49, So, 760, while in
the opinion of the governor it should be at
least three times that amount. The gov
ernor pointed out also the inequalities in
the real estate assessments. and argued
strongly for revenue reform. One idea
that he advocated was to throw more Of
the burden of taxation upon the counties,
but up to this time nothing has been done
or suggested in the way Of carrying out
his recommendations.