The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1902-01-15
OPINIONS IN
MINNEAPOLIS
MILL CITY RESIDENTS APPROVE 1T
COY. LIND TALKS.

1
| approval Of former Gov. John Lind, and
| while his approval is unstinted of the
many good points of the proposed revision
| CT the laws, he is disappointed in one or
| TWO things which he says the commits
| sion evidently failed to take into consid-
/ Grafton, OF else decided to ignore for the
| present. The most important omission
| of this kind, iE the opinion of Mr. Lind
! is the failure to provide for the taxation
| OF foreign corporations doing business In
! the state except banks and public scrv-
! ice concerns. There has never been "a
! tax calculated to reach such corporations
! and the Somerville law, which is the
nearest approach is merely the imposi-
| ton Of a license, which when once paid
is not again assessed
| Through this omission says Mr. Lind.
! the United States Steel company. with
! its billiOn-dOllar capitalization is per-
mltted to escape, the sugar trust escapes
| and the Standard Oil company gets off
| With the payment only of taxes upon the
small amount Of tangible property which
J the assessor can discover in the state
/ The report of the tax commission Is
| one which has so much to recommend it,"
| said Mr.. Lind, that it would be very
| ungracious to make any criticism. espe-
| cially as far as | am concerned person
ally, inasmuch as it has taken up and
| urged for adoption nearly every change
1 and reform which L recommended Off
| cially.
in my opinion, it is unfortunate that
| the commission in this revision should
| have seen fit to have reduced the amount
/ OF personal property exemption from 500
| to $25, not that it makes any material
| difference, because under the present sys-
| tenn the bulk Of the personal property
! burden falls upon the producers and per-
| sons of small means, and it makes little
ohHerence whether the exemption is $25
or 500. The load is borne by the same
| people. I fear that the proposed change
will be used by the enemies of the bin
| to create prejudice against it, and will
| give them an opportunity to attack it in
| the way of amendments
| L believe that the constitutional chang
| es proposed are wholesome, and | sim
cerely hope that they will be adopted,
! although do not agree with the men,
oers Of the commission that the present
| constitutional conditions limit us to the
| extent they assume. They have appar-
| entity overlooked the provisions of para
| graphs So and "a, article of the state
| constitution, which now authorizes the
| legislature to exempt any class of prop
| erty from taxation, provided it is dona
| by means of general law, and under that
| provision the commission could easily
! nave eliminated the unjust and embar-
| RAISING feature of taxing real estate
| mortgages and other items which the
| commission deplOres it's inability to
| reach"
City Attorney Heaiy-'I should like to
see the bill proposed by the tax commits
sion go through in its present form with
| out any tinkering by the legislature.
especially admire the feature of the bill
creating permanent state tax commits
| slon because it does awav with that use
less state board of equalization. whose
only function it is to raise or lower values
| OF property already reported AS an ex-
ample of the work Of the equalization
| board certain county reported last wear
the value of diamonds within it's limits at
| $1,000. The board said. why. thaSs too
| SMALL and proceeded to raise the vaIu-
| alton to $4,000. That made the poor fell
lows who were honest enough to report
| their diamonds, pay Just that much more
as the board had no authority to discover
| those who did not report their diamonds
| at ALL
| City Assessor Fort-'The report Of the
| tax commission is of vital importance to
all the people of the city and state. and
| should receive careful study and consid-
| Grafton. There are manv provisions in
| the proposed tax legislation which are all
along the right lines, and should result
| in more equitable distribution in the
| burden of taxation. The exemption limit
| of $25 is altogether too low, and the legis-
| lature ought to amend this The consti-
| tUtional limit is 5000 while the present
! legislative limit is 800 and that is none
| too high. In other words if a man has
| only $25 worth of personal property ne
! should not be called uDon to paw any tax
| Again to assess, levy. aollect, the tax
received from a valuation of only S25
! would cost more than the amount of the
tax itself
Edward P. Sweet. chairman of the
| board of county commissioners think
Al I,xr s-,1S@ L.
| port which the members have made al
| though 1 have not read it as carefully
| as / expect to. is in my opinion one
| which makes many good innovations.
The best thing about it is at first thought
| the fact that all laws relating to taxation
| are placed together. so that it is possible
| to know what is the law in respect to a
certain subject. Heretofore it has been
| impossible for anyone to be certain even
| after spending a long time in studying on
| the matter
| 81 think the provision which takes tie
| collection of personal taxes from the
sheTiffs hands and places it under the
charge and direction of the clerk and
| the auditor, an excellent change. I be-
lieve if adopted, it will bring % per cent
more revenue into the county. The
| change should be made too. It is natural
that the collection of taxes should be
| done in the Office where the original pro-
! ceedlng originated.
'In this connection may say that I
believe the provision wise. which in effect
makes the treasurer, what he really
should be- the cashier of the county.
| Under the provision of the report. as I
take it, the treasurer will have nothing
to do except to collect and pay out
| money"
Representative Carl Wallace. who is
| chairman of the house committee on
| taxes and tax laws, expressed great sat
| isfaction with the work of the commits
sion and said that he was personally
| willing to vote forsit just as it has been
rendered and then adjourn.
4 Senator F. B. Snyder expresses the
| opinion that the report submitted by the
tax commission will need very little
amendment, basing his judgment not
upon a careful reading, but upon the
| summaries which have appeared in print
Certain features of the proposed revised
| law had been read by him, however and
met with his entire approval.
The methods proposed for the assess
| ment Of franchises of public service and
| other corporations, he believed, would re-
suit in a large increase of property to be
| placed upon the assessment rolls, and
would in itself result in an increase of
! taxable property to almost double the
| present amount.
Still another important feature, said he.
is the clause which applies to the taxa
ton of mining property. While the re-
ment of the property as real estate, it
Il