Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1902-11-27

Total loss to town for benefit of no.
license towns. .....,..'...'.''.''' VII I"
TO give the penalties to the town as
originally provided. would make it an
object for every taxpayer as well as every
temperance man to that the law is
obeyed This robbery scheme is nothing
more nor less than to punish MIN for do
ing So And of course the result will be
that the average town won't do it, and
especially the large towns ana cities
where the cost and loss would be much
larger.
The grabbing of three-quarters of the
license fees has color of moral argyll
nent for it, while this has none II is
that by as much as the money is taken
away from the towns the temptation to
grant licenses for the sake of 1t will be
iessened. This is the same thing If
I should philosophize that if you get that
80 that is coming to you. you might
make bad use of it-get drunk perhaps
therefore | will steal it and save you
from temptation, and what a benevolent
fellow | would then be- The one-half
OF the license fees which the original bill
proposed and the Senate has voted to send
to the State and highway fund, is way
beyond the fair share. considering con-
tributions to the traffic by surrounding
towns, the burdens or costs ii may i'm
pose on them and everything of the kind.
IT Is more than is given by like laws IN
any other State: in New York it is 30 Is
per cent in n part of the other State 4
and in a part nothing.
The outrageousness of the thing Is only
greater than that of highway and State
school taxes. whose robbery none of our
statesmen seem to have ever taken the
trouble to figure out.
In the State highway tax 81 towns,
averaging for the last three years ac-
IL, -.
report, to pay SLIT a year, taxes of their
own. contribute 81 .29S73 to the other
towns which average to pay only Sl62 a
year of taxes of their own. The thing
mas not even the poor excuse of taking
from the rich to aid the poor. It does
Just the other thing. OF this robbery the
nine large towns of Bennington, St.
Johnsbury. Burlington, st. Adams, Rut-
land. Barre. Montpelier Brattleboro and
Rockingham, peopled mainly by laborng
men, on whom all taxes must ultimately
fall pay Just 500 1886
The picking Of pockets though the
Stat. school tax IL done against the same
towns, win about half n dozen exceptions,
each way. where the excess or deficit Is
small In each case, Through this tax
IS towns pay an excess, over the amount
received back, of so $50 90 which goes to
subsidize the other towns. The towns
that nay II have in addition to pay their
own taxes t1at average 40 Genus on tnt'
dollar The towns that get 1t average to
pay only ~ AS cents on the dollar. The
towns chat pay. also pay besides, on the
average sli9i Il year per pupil in their
schools aside from the fact that In many
of them Iarochial schools are supported,
| thus TRIPPING the burden. Brattleboro, ac-
cording to the State school report for 1900
FROM which all these figures are taken,
paid $22 n for each pupil in her schools,
The towns that get this subsidy and in
| Guiding II only spend SIPS per pupi! per
year. Only 50 towns in the whole lot, less
| than one sixth the whole number, pay
| over n 20 cent tax or materially more than
| those they are compelling to suhsidze
them, and any quantity of them pay less
| than half as much. Only Is pay school
| tax above GO cents, or on even the theory
Of the law, are entitled to the aid
| The towns mulcted by these taxes are
| generally the ones most likely TO grant
| licenses. and the amount OF the license
| fees they would receive, as well as II can
lie estimated now, would be $il7,000 and
| II 81 of this goes to the State and back
| to the small or no license towns, il would
| he another mulct Of SSs,625 or nearly a
| half more than the other two together.
The three mulcts aggregate sl49, 60
| about S475 a year for each average fam
lily. II the new school bill and that
doubling the highway tax become laws,
as Is likely, having passed the House
.he mulct will be sl95. $40 10 or S630 a yeaI
for each average family.
Burlington. If she grants licenses IN
the usual proportion and prices, will be
skinned to the amount Of 81, 632 2-oi