The Minneapolis journal. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1888-1939, 1903-02-16
A Bic Tax Bill.

AS shown elsewhere to-day the people
of Minnesota will this year pay $1S,52O,-
94660 in direct taxes. This sum includes
all Of the expenses of the state govern
ment and of every political subdivision
within the states limits. Taking the ma
tional tax revenue at about $500, 900, 900
and assuming, that through customs and
internal revenue taxes the people of this
state pay one-fortieth Of the whole, since
they make up about that portion Of the
entire population, We. have the total taxa
ton of Minnesota at somewhere around
$30,000,000. This would be about SIG per
and local taxes and Sc national taxes.
This looks like pretty heavy tax bur
den, and it is; but the state is immensely
wealthy and able to stand it, AS matter
Of fact our per centage of the federal
taxation is much less than SIS, 900, 900,
though. Of course, there is no way to
locate definitely the placing of the burden
Of indirect taxation, and the people pay
it without knowing that they are being
taxed. 1t never occurs to most men that
they ever have any other fiscal relations
with the federal government than the
buying of a postage stamp or a. money
order, though the Spanish war taxes came
home to hundreds Of thousands in the
form of stamp taxes.
1t is pleasing to observe that while the
| assessed valuation of the state has, in
| round numbers, been raised $3.50, GOO 900,
| making total of 1852, 900, 0Oe, there has
been a very substantial reduction in the
tax rate. This reduction. has not it is
true, been in the same proportion as the
| increase in valuation, but that is partly
due to the fact that there are some tax
levies that are fixed at certain percent
age regardness of assessment such for
example as the state and local school tax
Of mills and the university tax.
There is little doubt that the tax levy
ers have yielded to the temptation of rails
! Ing the total amount of q the taxes by
means Of a rate not reduced so much as
the valuation is increased. This fault will
probably be corrected in a year or two
and the man with property of a certain
value will find that his TAX bills are about
| the same. This idea that assessments must
be kept far below true valuation in order
| to escape taxation is merely a delusion or
the consequence of an almost universal
tax-dodging impulse. The machinery of
government must be. maintained. If the
total valuation is low taxes will be high;
and if one person has succeeded in getting
his valuation even lower than that Of the
community in general the only result is
that he forces his neighbors to pay, his
taxes.
The tax abstract shows that Minnesota
has upwards of 37,OO00OO acres Of taxed
Hand assessed at more than $40 per acre.
AS this valuation is probably not more
than so per cent Of the actual, we may say
that the states landed wealth to-day
alone is $40, 900. That is wealth that
has almost all been created in about fifty
years, mainly by the mere coming of
population. AS the state fifty years from
now will have about three times its pres
ent population, we may expect land values
to continue to. increase rapidly; on the
basis of this population estimate, at the
rate $30,000,000 a year, or almost a dollar
an acre,