Arizona weekly journal-miner., 1903-03-04
AN INDIRECT TAX.

an article for the benefit of New Mexico = law makers. and as the in formation contained in it is as pertI- nent to Arizona as to our sister terri tory. the article is reproduced:
 Gov. OdelI of New York is urging the adoption of policy of indirect taxation for state revenue which will permit of the abolition of the state tax collected from the localities on the basis of their taxable valuations. He wants to effect this change during his present term of office, and has brought the party leaders in the leg islature to an agreement upon the fol- lowing plan:
 l. A tax on real estate convey ances. expected to bring a revenue of sI. 200. GOO.
 ,. A five mills tax on mortgages. estimated to raise a revenue of S1O, 000. GOO. of which the state is to re- ceive S5,OO0.0O and the localities where collected a like sum.
 3. A tax of 1 per cent on the direct inheritance of real estate, when its value is Si5. 900 or more This is ex- pected to produce $500, 900 annually.
 If this plan is carried out there will be no further need of levying upon the tax lists of the various cities and towns. and the tax for all general pur- poses will be dropped.
 This system would be especially ad- vantageous in New Mexico because it would greatly assist Us in curing the evil of under assessments. Unless local valuations for taxation are per fectly uniform throughout the terri tory injustice is done in the levy of the tax for general purposes. and hence there is a constant effort on the part of many of the counties to reduce their proportion of the general tax by making their assessments lower than those of other counties for the same classes of property. and as a conse- quence the grand total of our terri torial assessment roll is rapidly grow ing smaller. while every one knows that real values are steadily increas- ing all over New Mexico But under l the plan now being considered by the 1 New York legislature all such incen- | tive to the policy of reducing values would be removed; the assessment | would affect only the county in which IL was made. and as the county would be obliged to raise just so much money to carry on its own government if it reduced its valuation it would have to raise the per cent of its levy, so that it would make no practical differ ence to the county or the property owner whether the valuation of the county as d whole was put up or down.
 Connecticut adopted the policy of indirect taxation number of years ago, and the governor of New York wrote to a number of the officials O: that state for their opinions regard ing the practical working of the plan. In their replies they all state that it is much more satisfactory to the pub lie than the old plan of a direct tax. and gives the state an ample reyeuue without being felt by the people. The only objection any of them raise to il is that "it brings so much revenue to the public terasury that it encourages habits of eXtravagance in the legisla- ture. and the appropriations are on far more liberal scale than they were before. $
 Of course. extravaganza on the part of the state is an evil. but is an evil that will not cause any serious com plaint as long as the money is on hand to meet it-and the new plan has the merit of bringing the money.
 This is a matter that is worthy of careful consideration by the legisla- ture. and we have reason to believe that there is ample ability ill that body to formulate a plan upon this basis that would bring sufficient reve- nue to defray all the expenses of the territorial government. and with much less friction than is experienced at present