The Fairmont West Virginian. (Fairmont, W. Va.) 1904-1914, 1904-10-10
WHAT THElRGPURPosE is AND.
WHAT THEYWlLL ACCOMPLISH
ALE THE SsTATUTES Re
GENTLY ENACTED BY THE
SPECIAL sESslON#cLEAR-
LY EXPLAINED
AND THE GREAT BENEFIT THEY
WILL BRING SET FORTH
cLEARLYAND DISTINCT
LY-voTERs, READ
THIS.

From the Parkersburg State Journal
The twenty-one tax laws passed at
the special session of the Legislature
Of 104 have been published and widely
distributed. The acts cover 100 PRINT
ed pages and as they apperta1n 70 the
entire system ofcolIection, 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 talrer
ehnd more just system OF assessment
and lower rates of taxation and their
merits need only to be fairly consld-
cred and fully<und erstood to meet with
general approval
What the Acts Are in Brief.
In brief, they reduce the State tax
rate from thirtyNve cents to Ave cents
on the hundred dollars by 1907; in
crease certain license taxes and create
new ones, thereby raising a large
amount of new eTenue for the state
from these sources; reduce the max
mum county levy to sixty u IN
stead of the present limit OF e
cents; limit the maximum levy LOT
the regular school building fund to
twenty. cents instead of forty; making
4 total reduction OF IS cents in 4 total
Of S1.7o OF CNE-AALF; prohibit IN
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 Tan 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 zoe into effect IN
1909: provide for a r~e-asSessment OF
all the real estate of b 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 a"ppraisement of real
estate apply in 1906; provide for as
sessments of pipe lines, telegraph ilneS,
telephone lines, a lines,
etc, annually by the Board OF PuhIlc
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
penitentiarv, saving thousands OF dol
lars annually; fix the fees to be
charged, adding nen ones and raising
old ones in the Offices OF Secretary OF
State and Auditor, which are to go TO
the State hereafter as new
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
oronerty, the special re-assessment OF
real estate of 1908 holding until that
time; provide that corporate and all
other property sh all be returned for
taxation at its true or actual value;
require counties to pay $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 ~Incurab1es); and a num-
Der of minor matters of more or less
Importance. SD
The general scope of these bills is
to perfect the taxation assessment sys-
TEN and give it a e. and to cause
all roperty to bevalued as the constl-
tuition contemplates, at its real value,
in order that there may be Nuniform-
tty and honesty in valuations of similar
property; that G) the rates of local
taxation be greatly reduced; h a CD
direct State taxes may De wiped out
as far as possible, and the needed
state revenues raised otherwise.
Our present system OF unequal and
low values with high X is fatally
defective. The object OF h 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 thento reduce State, coun
ty and municipal taxes.
1t will take no more money to run
local and State governments under one
system thar another. A full tax val
uation therefore means low axes. The
Keynote of the bills Is "fairer valua-
tons and lower tASation." With lower
taxation invisible personal property
Will mora In rralvnnnaa on the taS dl1-