The Fairmont West Virginian. (Fairmont, W. Va.) 1904-1914, 1904-10-17
WHAT iEiR PURPo 70
ATs>TiIE Y NIELsAc Comprise
q TIE STATUTES RE IN
scENTEY s8ENAcTED b SEs5.T. Il Essg3
SPECIAL SESSION CLEAR
LY4 EXCLAIMED
AND THE GREAT BENEFIT THEY THEY
WILL BRING SET FORTH
CLEARLY AND DISTINCT
LY-voTERs, READ
THIS.

LY-voTERs, READ
THIS.
From the Parkersburg State Journal
The twenty-one tax laws passed at
the special session of the Legislature
of 1O4 have been published and widely
distributed The acts cover 155 print,
ed pages and as they appertaln to tne
entire system of collection, assessment
and disbursement of revenue, are OF
the utmost Importance and far reach
ing in their effect. They mark a de-
cided step forward toward a fairer
and more just system of assessment
and lower rates of taxation and their
merits need only to be fairly consid-
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 1907; in
crease certain license taxes and create.
new ones, thereby raising a large
amount of new revenue for the state
from these sources; reduce the max
! inur,a county levy to sixty cents In
stead of the present limit of ninety-flVe
cents; limit the maximum levy 1or
the regular school building fund to
twenty cents instead Of forty; making
total reduction of IS cents in a total
of $17o or ONE-HALF; prohibit I'M
authorized expenditures by any OIL
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 Tax Commissioner, who be-
comes the head of the tax assessment
system OF the State; create better
syst tenn of assessor and assessments
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 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 equallzatioh
board; make the first tax 1evies in the
new values or appraisement of real
estate apply in 1906; provide for as
sessm ents of pipe lines, telegraph INES
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
penitentiary, 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 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 we'll as all other
uroperty, the special re-assessment OF
real estate of 1905 holding until that
time; provide that corporate and all
other property shall be returned Tor
taxation at it's true or actual value;
REQUIRE counties to pay $4,000 year
toward the education and support Oh
their reform school inmates and those
in the w. va. Asylum formerly called
the Home for Incurables) and num-
Der of minor matters of more or less
Importance.
The general scope of these bills is
to perfect the taxation assessment sSs-
tenn and give it a head and to cause
all property to be valued as the constl-
tuition contemplates, at its real value,
in order that there may be Cd uniform
ity and honesty in valuations of similar
property; that CD 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
fornl1y, 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
l. ~P &c A.