Omaha daily bee., 1903-02-24
Committee Itself Not Entirely Unanimous
in Favor Of Measure.
ONE CORPORATIONS ARE DISSATISFIED
Railroads Believed to Favor 1t, but Atti-
tude is Not Certain,
STATE BOARD FIXES THEIR VALUATION
Taxation of Terminals is as BADLY
MuddIed Rs Ever and No Organ
iEed E6ort Apparent to
Push the Bill.
(From a Stan Correspondent)

| LINCOLN Feb. 23.-(SpeciaL)- for
revenue legislation. The revenue bill was
finally introduced in the house today. II
was placed on the desk of the chief clerk
this morning and read for the first time
by the clerk this afternoon The reading OF
the measure, which comprises over 10000
words. consumed two hours. The bill m
entitled:
"A bill for an act to provide system
of revenue and to repeal articles /, 2. 3,
and of sections 4, 8, 8, Z, s, ., 10, IL and
/ ~ of article vii of chapter lxxvii Com
piled Statutes of Nebraska for the year
1901"
! 1t was introduced by j. A. Douglas,
George L. Loomis, W. T. Thompson, w.
G. Sears. f. A. Sweezy, c. ]. Warner and
| w. II. Wilson, the special house commit
! tee appointed by Speaker Mockett TO act
jointly with Senators Brown, Pemberton,
Fries, Saunders, Day. Anderson and Rey-
nolds in the framing Of a revenue bill. The
committee has been at work about a month.
! 1t is the belief that the bill after its sec
ond reading, will go directly to the general
! file and not be held in the house revenue
! committee.
Not Unanimous for BILL
| The fate of this bill is decidedly uncer-
| tain. THAI there is opposition TO Il cannot
be doubted. Even the committeeman who
, framed and introduced it are not wholly
| agreed as to all its provisions. Then Il is
/ a notable fact that the ultra-re -revisionists
are far from satisfied 1t remains to be
seen. however, what numerical strength
! this faction possesses. Certain corpora
| tions, failing to obtain .he concessions
sought for in this bill, are known TO be ar
| rayed against it. For instance, the street
railway and electric light concerns, which
/ wanted to be taxed on their tangible prop
| erty and gross receipts as franchises, the
same as the telephone, telegraph and ex-
! press companies, are displeased. The rail-
/ roads. according to railroad lobbyists, are
satisfied with the measure. Whether the
statements thus made public are reliable
is not fully known. II is believed the rail-
roads would Just as soon-and q little
rather-see no revenue bill passed and for
| that reason will conduct an underhand
fight against the bill. One member of the
committee, however said today the bill
made little. II any material change In rail-
road affairs. Railroad influence In the Leg
| islature has not waned by any means
! from the beginning OF the session, when IL
was generally admitted to be great So
these corporations, it may be admitted.
! have strong potentialities Whenever way
they choose to develop them.
/ The revenue bill is an admixture OF sew.
| eral laws or fragments of laws on this
subject. Kansas, Iowa, Ohio, California.
Indiana and Nebraska have contributed.
according to the statements of the commit
| tee, to the making of this bill. The gen.
eral basis of taxation is to have property
listed 1T its full cash value and taxed at
one fifth. one-fourth as in Iowa. was about
to be adopted, but was finally set aside for
the one-fifth basis.
shifts Some Burdens.
This bill will not, so one Of its authors
says materially increase the volume of
taxes In Nebraska. He said It will have
a tendency to equalize the payment of taxes
by bringing a certain class of notable tax
shirkers to time and thus throwing upon
their shoulders the bulk OF the burden
which their former evasion cast upon the
shoulders of the remainder OF the people
In this way he thought the railroads
would be made to pay more taxes, pos
sibly.
That clause inserted in the bill last
week providing that street railway, gas,
electric, waterworks, telegraph, telephone.
express and mining companies be taxed on
their tangible property and in addition on
their gross receipts as their franchises, was
at the very last moment this morning
changed, as to include only telephone.
telegraph and express companies. Thus
It subjects the other companies to taxation
by the same method heretofore prescribed,
on full value of franchises and other prop
erty. Oficers OF Omaha and Lincoln cor
porations, notably of the two street rail-
way systems, appeared before the commit
tee last week. or at least before individual
members Of the committee and insisted that
the new method of franchise assessment
would not lower, but might raise their
taxes, yet argued that they would not OBJ
ject to this it would afford a more
direct and definite system and enable them
70 escape politics and complicated ltlga-
tion The argument carried, yet failed to
satisfy all the members Of the committee
and the result was that this morning. just
before the bill was introduced. this change
was made in this clause. 1t was con-
servatively estimated that had this clause
; remained as the street railway magnstes
desired, the taxes OF the Omaha Street
Railway alone would have been cut down
in one year $4,000.
1t is explained that under telephone and
, telegraph companies is also included pipe
, line and oil companies, so that the Stand
ard Oil company will receive the beneAt
of this new method OF franchise assess
ment.
Fixing Railroad Values.
Returning to this matter OF railroad as
sessment the bill puts everything up TO
Z the State Board Of Equalization by en-
larging the membership Of that body and
providing new means for IL to gather all in
: formation necessary to the assessment OF
these corporations. The method OF listing
/ property at a full cash value and taxing
. at one-ffth holds good with reference TO
railroad as well as all other property. But
the provision governing this matter speei-
hcally states that the Board of Equallza-
tion is to fix the ruling basis OF assess
ment. The board is 20 make returns TO
every county clerk In the state as the basis
OF levy for county, township, precinct. city,
! village. school and road districts and this
1 sF,an an