The Fairmont West Virginian. (Fairmont, W. Va.) 1904-1914, 1904-10-15
AT THEIR PURPosE IS AND
/ WHAT HEY WILL@Ac coMPGIsfiiSS!
- Ii THE Statutes 2 iE;;-.s5
GENTLY ENACTED q - 80.
SPECIAL SESsioNsSc EEAR 10 5S8s.s
LYs EXPLAINED
AND THE GREAT BENEFlTsTHlEE'Y,,,
WILL BRING SET FORTH Ss7
353i CLEARLY AND zDIsTINcT s..
lnr-voTERs, READ
THIS. ,4 5z

LY-NOTERS, READ
THIS.
From the Parkersburg State JournaLl
The twenty-one tax laws passed at
the special session of the. Legislature
Sofl04 have been published and widely
| distributed. The acts cover 155 PRINT
| edpages and as they apDertaln to the
entire system of collection, assessment
! and disburseme of revenue, are OF
the utmost Importance and far reach
ing in their effect. They mark a de-
| cided step forward toward a fairer
| ana 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 g. large
amount of new revenue for the state
from these sources; reduce the max
imu1n county levy to sixty cents in
stead of the present limit of ninety-fve
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 or ONE-HALF; prohibit I'M
authorized expenditures by any Off
Ger of the State, county courts OF.
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
system of assessor and assessments,
much of which in regard to the duties
of the assessors goes into effect in
1900; provide for 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 equalization
board make the first tax 1evies in the
new values or appraisement OF real
estate apply in 1906; provide for as
sessments of pipe lines, telegraph lines,
telephone lines, car lines, railroads,
etc. annually by the Board Of Public
Works, requiring complete and accu-
rate sworn returns OF the true and &C
tual values of the property from these
corporations; increase and perfect the
colat inheritance tax; change the
method of conveying prisoners to the
penten tfary, saving thousands of dol
lars annually: fix the fees. to be
charged, adding new ones andsTalslng
old ones in the Offices of Secretary OF
Stale 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
1907, 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 it's 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 Incurables) and num-
Der of minor matters of more or less
mpOrtance.
The general scope of these bills is
to perfect the taxation assessment sys-
tenn and give it a head and to cause
all property to be valued as the consti-
tuition contemp1ates, at its real value,
in order that there may be (Duniform-
ity and honesty in valuations of similar
that (2) 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
ow values with high taxes is fatally
Defective. The object of the new laws
S put corporate and all property on
he same equal footing, to assess all
at it's value, equally and uni
'ormly, and then to reduce State, coun-
y and municipal taxes.
1t will take no more money to run
ocal and State governments under one
system than another. A full tax val
Iation therefore means low taxes. The
KEYNOTE of the bills is "fairer Valua- II