Omaha daily bee., 1902-08-23
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Whenever a man gives up the ghosts
nowadays the doctors charge Il M to
heart failure. On the same theory the
railroad tax bureau quacks have figured
It out that delinquent taxes have caused
the state debt.
The state debt at this day aggregates
yer S2,OO0,OOO and has for the past ten
years been growing at the rate of-from
100000 to S15O.OOO a year. The rail
road tax agents place the amount of de-
linquent taxes at $~1,O96,s73 for the
whole state, Of which amount they say
$157,7 has been delinquent for thirty
years or longer. In other words, more
than one-sixth Of the delinquent tax as
set consists Of cats and dogs that cannot
be galvanized into life by any known
process. That would leave $939,126 of
live delinquent taxes, which would be
about $1,1OO,O00 short of paying the
state debt If all delinquent taxes were
collectible. No rational business man
conversant with the true condition of af-
fairs would contend that 80 per cent of
the taxes delinquent for more than FIVE
years are collectible.
Everybody knows that these delin-
quencies represent town lots that have
been turned into corn fields and could
not be sold for the taxes. 1t represents
sand hills that were palmed of for fer
tile farm lands upon the unsuspectlng
investor during the boom times and
are In about the same position as the
child that cannot discover it's father.
Nobody claims to own them and nobody
is willing to pay taxes on them. The
delinquent tax list moreover represents
hundreds Of thousands of dollars Of per-
sonal taxes levied upon bankrupt or de-
funct business concerns and parties who
are out of the reach of the tax collector.
In Douglas county, for example, the
aggregate delinquency is represented as
$500, 20, or 1912 per cent of the taxes
levied. How much of this $4,000 is
collectible? We venture to assert that it
is not 10 per cent. The railroad tax
quacks know well that under the law
the tax levied is always 10 per cent
higher than the estimated amount of col
lectible taxes.
Everybody in Nebraska familiar with
state finances knows that fully one-half
Of the state debt has been caused by
bank wrecking and embezzlement.
Everybody knows that the state lost
$236,000 in Charley Mosher's Capital
National bank depository. Everybody
knows that the state lost nearly $500, 900
by Joe Bartley's benevolent inanciering.
Upon these losses the state has been
paying frVm i 10 I per semi interest ami
the total loss now aggregates more than
$1,OO0.0oO.
Was this part of the state debt caused
by taxi elinquents or by bank wreckers
and public thieves? Is it not about time
for the tax bureau charlatans to quit
their bunco bulletins and come down to
the two main points:
First, what is the actual value of rail-
road property in Nebraska, and, second,
what proportion does its assessed value
bear to its actual value?
Manifestly, If the railroad property in
Nebraska is worth 1926, O 10000, as may
be proved by their own bulletins, its as
sessment for $26,5OO,O 900 is scandalously
below the ratio OF assessment of all
other property returned by the assessors.
The property which the assessors have
failed to return can GU no figure in
these computations any more. than the
testimony Of 100 men who did not see a
man steal sheep a Offset the testimony
of two witnesses who did see him steal
the sheep.