The independent., 1902-11-20
OUR REVlkUE LAW
The Independent Has an me ndnn snt 20
Suggest Regarding NOn-Productiye
Personal Property

The constitution of Nebraska pro-
vides that
The legislature shall provide sucl
revenue as may be needful, by levying
tax by valuation, SO that every per-
son and corporation shall pay tax in
proportion to the value of his, her or
its property and franchises, the value
to be ascertained in such manner as
the legislature shall direct" (Sec. l.,
Art TX, Const. OF Neb.t
This, unless it shall be amended
down to what is known as the general
property tax. Nothing is exempt the
oretically except the classes of prop
erty enumerated in section 2, which
need not be mentioned here. In the
ory all property, movable and immoy-
able, tangible and intangible, real and
personal, is subject to taxation in pro-
portion to value. In practice a great
deal of movable or intangible prop
erty escapes altogether, and large
amount is notoriously under-valuod as
compared to other like property.
The constitution requires taxes to
be levied proportionally and on va
ues. In other words, an ad valorem
tax. Whether property be taxed Oh
full value or a fraction Of that does
not matter so there Is uniformity. In
practice perhaps no property what
ever is assessed at full or fair CT
value, although the statute requires it.
But there is a higher law than the
at fc nf clot.
no amount of penalties and fines and
Imprisonment of assessing officers will
ever secure a full compliance OF the
law as it now stands or as it may be
amended, so long as the system pre-
walls of lcvying state and county taxes
upon all the property in the state. A
separation is essential to more equit-
able taxation, so that land will pay
none but local taxes, and state gov
ernment be maintained by revenues
raised in some other way, say by rail-
road taxes, etc.
But we are tied to our present sys-
tenn for perhaps years to come and
must male the best Of it.
The trainers of our revenue law
were men (at least there was one of
them who believed the taxation OF
personal property to be a grand farce
but they were obliged to comply with
the constitution. In their endeavorS
to make the provisions for assessing
personal property so thorough as to
let nothing escape, they arranged
schedule of some 36 items OF person
atty. Experience has shown that seven
of these items ought to be made into
two. and. as to one of the items, the
valuation ascertained in manner rad
ically different from that which now
obtains.
The Independent would divide Item
"a, ''the value of household or office
furniture and property" so that office
furniture and property would stand
as an item by itself. Then six other
items would be consolidated with and
be classed as household furniture anF.
property. These six items are:
Watches and clocks. sewing and knit
ting machines, piano fOrtes, melodeons
and organs, gold or silver plate and
plated ware, diamonds and jewelry.
These seven items as at present
listed comprise scarcely IL per cent
of the grand assessment roll, and the
six above enumerated paid less than
- of per cent of the taxes in 1900,
as the following table will bear wit
ness:
GRAND ASSESSMENT ROLL-1900.
Valuation. Per cent
All property .$171, TAT ,593 1000
Watches & clocks 129,S33 O.O'