The Fairmont West Virginian. (Fairmont, W. Va.) 1904-1914, 1904-10-11
WHAT THEIR PURPOSE IS AND
s .wHATSTHEY WILL ACCOMPLISH
i ALL THE STATUTES RE-
GENTLY ENACTED BY III
SPECIAL SESSION CLEAR
LY EXPLAINED
AND THE GREAT BENEFIT THEY
AND THE GREAT" BENEFTi = 10y
WILL BRING. SET FORTH
CLEARLY AND DISTINCT
LY-voTERs, READ
THIS.

From the Parkersburg State Journal.1
The twenty-one tax laws passed at
the special session of the Legislature
Of 104 have been published and widely
distributed. The acts cover r155 print
ed pages and as they appertaln 70 the
entire system of collection, assessment
and disbursement of revenue, are OIL
the utmost importance and Tar reach-
ing in their effect They mark de-
cided step forward toward fairer
and more just system of assessment
and lower rates of taxation anu their
merits need only to be fairly cons1d-
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-fve cents to five cents
on the hundred dollars by 1897 in
crease certain license taxes and create
new ones, thereby raising large
amount of new revenue for the state
from these sources; reduce the max
imum county levy to sixty cents IN
stead Of the present limit of ninety-hVe
cents: limit the maximum levy for
the regular school building fund to
twenty cents instead of forty; making
a total reduction of e5 cents in total
Of s1.7o or oNE-HALF; prohibit I'M
authorized expenditures by any OH
Ger of the State, county courts OF
boards of education; require the coun-
ties having special Criminal Courts to
nav 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 better
system OF assessor and assessm ents,
much of which in regard to the duties
of the assessors goes into effect in
| 1909; provide for a re-assessment OF
all the real estate of the State in 1908,
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
new values or appraisement Of real
estate apply in 1906; provide for as
sessments of pipe lines, telegram lines,
telephone lines, car lines. railroads.
etc., annually by the Board OF Pubic
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
peniteutiar.-. saving thousands of dol
lars annually; fix the fees to be
charged, adding new ones and raising
old ones in the Offices of Secretary OIL
State and Auditor, which are to go TO
| the State hereafter as new revenue,
require that the regularly elected as
SCISSORS of the counties beginning IN
| 1909. shall thereafter annually assess
| the real estate as well as all other
| proDertv 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 it's true or actual value;
| REQUIRE counties to pay $4,000 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 num-
Der of minor matters of more or less
| importance.
The general scope of these bills is
| to perfect the taxation assessment sys-
| TEN and give it a head and to cause
all property to be valued as the constl-
tuition scontemplates, at its real value,
in order that there may be Cd Uniform
itv and honesty in valuations of similar
property: that (2l 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 revenues raised otherwise,
! Our present system of unequal and
low values with high taxes is fatally
defective. The object of the new laws
| is 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-
ty and municipal taxes.
1t Will take no more money to run
| local and State governments under one
system than another. A full tax val
uation therefore means low taxes. The
! keynote OF the bills is "fairer valua-
| tons and lower taxation" With lower
taxation invisible personal property
will more largely appear on thetaH du-
| D1jcafos The State revenues arn TO