The Fairmont West Virginian. (Fairmont, W. Va.) 1904-1914, 1904-09-21
& VIA HEIR PURPOSE is AND
WILL AccoMP7,LIsH ~.
The STATUTES 80
III GENTLY ENACTED BY He
SPECIAL SESSION LEAR 35s
2s ss W ExPLAiNED
AND THE GREAT BENEFIT THEY
"a Will BRING SET; ORTIZ Is 4sS8si
cLEARLYSA AND DisTiNc
III VOTERS, READ
E NH This.

1870
From, the Parkersburg State Journal
The twenty-one tax "A laws passed at
the special session of the Legislature
cot i 9o4 have been published and widely
distributed. The acts cover 155 print
ed pages: and as they appertain to the
entire system of collection, assessment
sand disbursement of revenue, are or
the utmost importance and far reach
ing IN their effect. They mark de-
sscided6 step forward toward fairer
and more Just system of assessment
and HIoWersrates of taxation and their
merits need only to be fairly consld-
cred and fully understood to meet with
general approval
What the Acts Are IN Brief.
IN brief, they reduce the State tax
rate from thirty-five cents to five cents
B. on the hundred dollars by 1907; in
new ones, thereby raising a large
amount of new revenue for the State
from these sources; reduce the max
Ssimum county levy to sixty cents in
stead of the present limit Of ninety-five
cents; limit the maximum levy for
the regular school = building fund" to
twentyscents instead of forty; making
Il a total reiuctionsof s5 cents in total
aof SsS1.7 orS ONE-HALF; prohibit I'M
authorized expenditures by any Off
seer of the State, county courts or
sboards#o education; require the coun-
ties having special Criminal Courts to
pay tile salariesaof the Judges; pro-
vide for "a Tax Commissioner, who be-
comes the head of the tax assessment
& system of the State; create a better
Of assessor and assessments.
r. much of which in regard to the duties
VI of he assessors goes into effect in
@S1 500 ;;&# provide for a re assessment OF
all the real estate of the State In 1905,
under the direction of the Tax Com
missioner, by commissioners appoint
led by him, thesvaluation being subject
ito review and correction by the County
Courts and by the State Board Of
PubIic5sW Works, as an equalization
board make the first tax levies in the
5S$neW59y values or appraisement of real
81 estate apply in 1906: provide for as
easements of pipe lines, telegraph lines.
t telephone lines, car lines railroads,
sSsetc., annually by the Board Of Public
Works. requiring complete and .accu-
T. -
rate sworn returns of the true and ac-
stual values of the property from these
corporations: increase and perfect the
collateral inheritance tax; change the
method Of conveying prisoners to the
saving thousands of dol
lars annually; fix the fees to be
charged, adding new ones and raising
$old ones in the Offices of Secretary of
State and Auditor, which are to so to
the State hereafter as new revenue:
require that the regularly elected as
SCISSORS $@of the counties beginning in
II 9O9,$sha thereafter annually assess
ssyt he real estate as well as all other
property the special re-assessment of
IL real estate of 1905 holding until that
e time; provide that corporate and all
& Mother property shall be returned for
taxation :at#itS true or actual value:
s5 require counties to pay $4,000 year
toward the education and support of
B their reform school inmates and those
Z in the w. Va. Asylum formerly called
Il the Home for Incurables) and num-
4 Der Of minor matters of more or less
Simportance
The general scope of these bills is
perfect the tdNdlloH assessment SyS
TEN and give it head and to cause
all property to be valued the consti-
tuition contemplates, at is real value.
a in order that there may be G)uniform-
ii ity and honesty in valuations of similar
property; that CD the rates of local
4 taxation be greatly reduced: that 90
direct State taxes may be wiped out
as far as possible. and the needed
State revenues raised otherwise.
Our present system of unequal and
= low values with high taxes is fatally
defective. The object of the new laws
lis to put corporate and all property on
the same equal footing. to assess all
property at its value, equally and uni
formly, and then to reduce State, coun-
.4# tys$ and municipal taxes.
1t viii take no more money to run
local and State governments under one
system than another. a full tax val.
uaton therefore means low taxes. The
keynote of the bills is ''fairer valua.
tions and lower taxation" With lower
taxation invisible personal property
= viii more largely appear on the-tax du