The Fairmont West Virginian. (Fairmont, W. Va.) 1904-1914, 1904-09-23
5SsWHAT THEIR PURPOSE is AND
WHAT THEY WILL ACCOMPLISH
4 ALI THE STATUTES Re-
GENTLY ENACTED BY TIL
SPECIAL SESSION CLEAR
UNEXPLAINED
AND He GREAT BENEFlT THEY
"ANb ITHE97GREAT7 BENEFT IL FEY
d s.3s WILL BRING SET FORTH
CLEARLY 3AND. DISTINCT
L,s---VoTERs, READ 4
5S.5 ri S.

From the II arkersburg State Journal
The twenty-one tax laws passed at
4 the special, session of the Legislature
B of 1904 have been published and widely
distributed. The acts cover 155 Print
ed pages and assthey appertain to the
entire system of collection, assessment
and disbursement of revenue. are of
u the mostEimportance and far reach
ing in their effect. They mark de-
.cided step forward toward q fairer
and more just system of assessment
land lower rates of taxation and their
II merits need only to be fairly consid-
xered and fully understood to meet with
general approval.
What the Acts Are In Brief.
IN brief they reduce the State9tax:
rate from sthirty-five cents to five cents
4 on the hundred dollars by 1907; in
II crease certain license taxes and create
new ones, thereby raising large
Ss amount of new revenue for the State
II from these sources; reduce the max
8imnm county levy to sixty cents in
stead Of the present limit of ninety-tive
cents w limit the maximum levy for
the. regular school Building fund" to
twenty cents instead Of forty: making
a total reduction of s5 cents in total
s of $1.7O or ONE-HALF; prohibit I'M
4. authorized expenditures by any Off
Ger of the State, county courts or.
boards of education; require the coun-
II ties having special Criminal Courts to
pay the salaries of the Judges; pro
vide for a Tax 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 goes into effect in
1909; 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
4 board; make the first tax levies 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,
Z etc, annually by the Board of Public
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
i the real estate as well 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 a year
toward the education and support of
their reform school inmates ant! those
in the w Va. Asylum formerly called
the Home for Incurab1es): and a num-
Der of minor matters of more or less
Importance.
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 valued1as the consti-
tuition contemplates, at is real value,
in order that there may be (1)uniform-
lty and honesty in valuations of similar
property; that (2) the rates of local
taxation be greatly reduced; that go |
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 it's value, equally and uni |
formly, and then to reduce State, cOun- !
F.ty and municipal taxes.
II will take no more money to run |
local and State governments under one |
system than another. 4 full tax val |
uation therefore means low taxes. The |
keynote of the bills is "fairer yalua- |
tioDs and lower taxa ton" With lower |
taxation Invisible personal property (
Will more largely nnDca1-. on the AK din