Wauwatosa news. [volume] (Wauwatosa, Wis.) 1900-1948, 1903-01-31
RAIL WAY TAXATION IN WISCONSIN.
TIE RAILROAD SIDE OF THE oUEs-
TON.
Amount of License Tax Paid by Wiscon-
sin Railroads.
ISSUED In Behalf of Wisconsin Railways,

ISSUED In Behalf of Wisconsin Railwaysl
The railroad companies of Wisconsin he.
iieye they are already bearing their full
share of the burdens of maintaining the
government of this state. Consequently
they feel that to add anything whatever to
the taxes they are now paying would be
unfair, and to add such great sums as
have been proposed in some quarters would
be long step toward the absolute connSea'
ton of their property.
Such being their views, they ask the peo-
pie OF Wisconsin to suspend Judgment as
to this controversy until they have pre-
sented their side. They promise to do this
In the shortest space possible and in the
simplest manner which the facts Will permit.
They will submit the facts they wish to
present In series of articles Of which TINS
is the first.
THE ISSUE. 1t is always well to have
the point at issue clearly stated at the out
set. If this is not DONE much time Is
wasted In the discussion of questions thai
have little, and very often nothing at az!
TO do with the real question. To prevent
this waste of words let us state what the
issue In this controversy is and also what
1t Is not. This is the question before u.s.
DO the railroads pay their full share OF the
taxes: IL II can be shown that they do pay
their full share, 1t makes no difference to
the people of Wisconsin in what form the
taxes are collected or what they are called
We have stated what the question before
as Is. Now let us state what II is no..
The question Is often discussed as though
Ut could. with equal accuracy, be put this
way: DO the railways pay on the FULL
value of their property the average rate Of
taxation which is paid by other property
on its ASSESSED value. OF course the
question Is never put In this bald. direct
form because the Injustice OF such n com
paris0n would be seen by everybody; but
the question is nevertheless discussed as II
II were fair TO compare the tate on :he
full and even much more than the fun
value of railroad property with the rate
paid on the ASSESSED value of other prop
erty which is almost invariably much less
than It's full value.
II the statement of the subject we hare
before us, which has just been made, is
corr ect, then 1t Is fundamentally important
20 ascertain, on the one hand what Is the
io;al actual value of the real and personal
pro ierty in the state and the total amount
Of taxes paid on this property: and, on the
other hand, the total value which should
he placed on the railroads and the total
taxes or license fees paid by the railroads,
The whole question of whether or not the
railroads are bearing their full share Of the
cost of running the government depends OF
the correctness Of these figures This is
true because the total taxes collected from
all real aud personal property in the state
subject TO taxation divided by the full yalue
N this property gives the average rate paid
by these forms of property; and the total
sum Of license fees or taxes paid by the
FailIoads divided by the full value Of th.
railroads gives the average RATE paid by
this Kind of property. \ comparison or
these TWO rates viii show whether or not
tho different kinds of property are paying
their fun share of taxes
So much has been said during the last
three or -four years about the outrageous
way In which the railways escape taxation
tbat great many people now doubt
whether the railways pay any taxes Mt all
To show that VIC do pay taxes and that
the sums are really yely large whatever
way they are taken we present below the
total sums paid by all the railways in wis,
cnnsn during the last twelve years and
the amounts paid by the leading roads dur.
ing the wear 1900
The payment of license fees Ivy the rail.
ODDS In Wisconsin. from the table present
ri below, shows that as the state has de.
veloped the payments have increased
These statements are flom official data aud
were carefully prepared