The Fairmont West Virginian. (Fairmont, W. Va.) 1904-1914, 1904-09-24
WHAT THEIR PURPosE is AND
MHATTHEY WILL ACCOMPLISH
AL THE STATUTES Re
GENTLY ENACTED BY THE
SPEcIAL#SESSlON CLEAR
LY%ExPLAINED
AND THE#GREAT BENEFIT they
WILL BRING SET FORTH
CLEARLY AND DISTINCT
LY-voTERs, READ
THIS.

sGEIhG CWeTIy-One Tax ld"S pdoSSH =" y
the special session of the Legislature
of 1901 have been published and widely
distributed. The acts cover 15o print
sedpages and as they appertain TO the
entiresystem of collection, assessment
and disbursement of r%evenue are of
the utmost importance and far reach
ing in their effect. They mark a de-
.cfded step forward toward a fairer
more just system of assessment
and lower rates of taxation and their
merits need only to be fairly consid-
.ered and fully understood to meet with
general approval.
What the Acts Are In Brief.
In brief, they reduc the State tax
rate from thirty-five cents to five cents
on the hundred dollars by 1907; in
crease certain license taxes and create
new ones, thereby raising alarge
aamountEof new e for the State
from&these sources; reduce the max
imum county levy to sixty cents in
stead OF the presentlimit of ninety-five
cents; limit the maximum levy for
the regular school "buildins fund" to
twenty cents instead of forty; making
a total reduction of IS cents in a total
ofS1.7O or ONE-HALF; prohibit I'M
6 authorized expenditures by any Off
Ger of the State, county courts or
boards of education; require the coun-
ties having special Criminal Courts to
pay the salaries of the Judges; pro-
vide for a Tax Commissioner, who be-
comes the head of the tax assessment
system Of the State; create a better
system of assessor and assessments,
& much of which in regard to the duties
of the assessors goeS into effect in
1909; provide for a r-e-assessment of
all the real estate of the State in 1905,
under the direction of the Tax Com
missioner, by commissioners appoint
ed by him, the valuation being subject
to review and correction by the County
Courts and by the State Board of
Public Works, as an equalization
board; make the first tax levies in the
newya1ues or appraisenent of real
estate apply in 1906; provide for as
sessments of pipe lines, telegraph lines,
telephone Ines. car lines. railroads,
etc, annually by the Board of Public
Works, requiring complete and accu-
rate sworn returns of the true and ac-
tual values of the property from these
corporations; increase and perfect the
collateral inheritance tax; change the
method of conveying prisoners to the
penitentiary, saving thousands of dol
7 lars annually; tx the fees to be
charged, adding new ones and raising
old ones in the Offices of Secretary of
State and Auditor, which are to sc to
the State hereafter as new revenues;
require that the regularly elected ass
SCISSORS of the counties beginning in
1909, shall thereafter annually assess
>>the real estate as well as all other
property, the special re-assessment of
real estate of 1905 holding until that
time; provide that corporate and all
other property shall be returned for
taxation at its true or actual value;
require counties to a $4,000 a year
toward the education and support of
their reform school inmates and those
in the w. Va. Asylum formerly called
the Home for Incurables); and a mum
Der of minor matters of more or less
Importance.
The general scope of these bills is
to ~perfecttthe taxation assessment sys-
tenn and give it a head and to cause
all property to be valued as the consti-
tuition contemp1ates, at is real value,
in order that there may be CDunifofm-
ity and honesty in valuations of similar
property; thai co the rates of local
taxation be greatly reduced; that CD
direct State taxes may be wiped out
as far as possible, and the needed
State raised otherwise.
Our present system OF unequal and
low values with high taxes is fatally
defective. The object of the G laws
is to put corporate and all property on
theas same equal footing, to assess all
property at its value, equally and uni,
formIy, and then to reduce State. coun
ty and municipal axes
1t will take no more none to run
local and State governments under one
system than another. A full tax val,
uation therefore a low taxes. The
keynote OF h bills is "fairer Valua,
ions and lower taxation" With lower
taxation Invisible personal property
will more largely appear on the tax du
pGcates. The State are tic
be raised from license ant privilege
~ A..z--. -. -. .,z, a.