The Fairmont West Virginian. (Fairmont, W. Va.) 1904-1914, 1904-10-14
WHAT Their PURPOSE is AND
wHATTHEY Wilt ACCOMPLISH
ALI THE STATUTES RE-
GENTLY ENACTED BY The
SPECIAL SESSION CLEAR
~LY EXPLAINED
AND THE GREAT BENEFIT THEY
WILL BRING SET FORTH
CLEARLY AND DISTINCT
LY-voTERS, READ
THIS.

From the Parkersburg State Journal]
The twenty-one tax laws passed al
the special session of the Legislature
Of 1o4 have been published and widel!
distributed. The acts cover 155 print
ed pages and as they appertain to the
entire system of collection, assessment
and disbursement of revenue, are o.
the utmost Importance and far reach
ing in their effect. They mark de
cided step forward toward a faireI
and more just system of assessment
and lower rates of taxation and then
merits need only to be fairly consid
cred and fully understood to meet with
gen eral approval
- What the Acts Are In Brief.
In brief, they reduce the State tax
rate from thirty-five cents to five cents
on the hundred dollars by 1907; in
crease cert ain 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-five
cents: limit the maximum levy for
the regular school building fund to
twenty cents instead of forty; making
| = total reduction of s5 cents in total
of s1.7o OF ONE-fALF; prohibit I'm.
! 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 4 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
1903: 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
20 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 apprafsement of real
estate apply in 1906; provide for as.
sessments of pipe lines, telegraph lines,
telephone lines, car lines. railroads,
C.,
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 in heritance tax; change the
method of conveying prisoners to the
penitcntiary. 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 so 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
property 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 its 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 Homo for Incurables); and a num-
Der of minor matters of more or less
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 consti-
tuition contcmpIates, at its real value,
in order that there may be % 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
he same equal footing, to assess all
property at its value. equally and uni
iorn1ly, and then to reduce State, coun-
" and municipal taxes.
1t Will take no more money 10 run
Ocal and State governments under one |
system than another. a full tax val |
lation therefore means low taxes. The
keynote Of the bills is "fairer valua
ions and lower taxation" With DOVER
aXation Invisible personal property
will more largely appear on the tax du-
>licateS. The State revenues are to