The Fairmont West Virginian. (Fairmont, W. Va.) 1904-1914, 1904-10-12
WHAT THEIR PURPOSE is AND
T WHA,T5THEY WILL ACCOMPLISH:
ALL THE STATUTES RE
GENTLY ENACTED BY%T
SPECIAL SESSION CLEAR
LY EXPLAINED
WlLL BRING SET FORTH
CLEARLY AND DISTINCT
,LY-voTERs, READ
THIS.

From the ParkersburS State journal
The twenty-one tax laws passed at
the specfal session of the Legislature
| of 1U have been published and widely
distributed The acts cover 100 PRINT
| ed pages and as they appertaln 70 me
entire system of collection, assessment
and disbursement Of revenue, are OIL
the utmost importance and far reach
ing in their effect. They mark de-
cided step forward toward taireF
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 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 nlnety-hVe
cents; limit the maximum levy 1of
the regular school building fund TO
twenty cents instead of forty; making
total reduction OF IS cents in a total
of $17o or OME-HALF; prohibit IN
authorized expenditures by any. Oil
Ger Of the State, county courts or
boards of education; require the coun-
ties having special Criminal Courts to
of II1nrpE.
vide for a Tax Commissioner, who be-
comes the head of the tax assessment
system of the State; create better
system of assessor and assessments
much of which in regard to the duties
of the assessors goes into effect in
1909; provide for re-assessment OIL
all the real estate of the State in 1900,
under the direction of the Tax Com
nlissioner, by. commissioners appoint
ed by him. the valuation being subject
to review and correction by the County4
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 Tor as
sessmcnts of pipe lines, telegraph 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
penitmtiary. 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 10
the State hereafter as new reVeHNc;
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
property, the special re-assessment OF
real estate OF 1905 holdng\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 $1,000 a year
toward the education and support oil
their reform school inmates and those
in thew. 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 sys- |
TEN and give it a head and to cause
all property to be valued as the const
tuition contcmplates, at its real value
in order that there may be (Duniform
ity and h onesty in valuations of similar
properly that CD the rates of local
taxation be greatly reduced; that (S)
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. Tho 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
formlS 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
uationth erefore means low taxes. The
keynote of the bills is "fairer valua-
tons ard lower taxation" With lower
taxation invisible personal property
Will more largely appear on the tax du-