The Goodland republic. [volume] (Goodland, Kan.) 1891-1907, 1905-12-29
TAX REBATE LAW ALL WRONG
BRANDED as CLASS LEGISLATION
AT COUNTY CLERKS MEETING.
Paper Read by J. Z. BOoOck Of Chase
County, at the Wichita Annual
Convention

At the annual convention Of the coun-
" clerks Of the state at Wichita last
week J. E BOcock, county clerk Of
Chase county, declared that 1T is all
: wrong to give rebates on taxes. In ef-
feet it is class legislation, and it ought
to be repealed by the next legislature -
Mr. BOcOck read q paper on Re
bates on Taxes" before the conven-
ton A general discussion followed
the reading OF the paper and Mr.. BO-
cock was strongly supported in his at
tack upon the statue that makes re-
bates legal In his paper ne said:
What shall say on this subject
viii be on the theory that the system is
wrong and the law should be repeal
ed In order TO prove the truth of
this statement, 1 viii use my own cOun-
ty, Chase, as an illustration In Chase
county the amount Of taxes paid in
full, and hence subject to, reSate
amounts to $4,000. The rebate on
this 1000 is $1,000, and as you all
know, is taken from the county gen
eral fund, and affects every taxpayer
in the county This 81, 500 would build
a pretty good bridge, or pay some
other county expense, and therefore
we could do more public improvement
on the levy for county purposes If
this law did not exist
Take the railroads and telegraph
companies In my county they pay
taxes this year amounting to SIS, 200,
on which they Will receive $3.50 re-
bate The idea 1 wish to convey, is
that the railroad companies, the banks
and men Of business are the ones ben
Gifted by this law True it is, that the
privilege Of paying in full, and there
by obtaining the rebate, extends to
f-n lob
man is generally unable, on account
Of his limited means, to take advan-
tage Of the privilege So I say that
while technically this law is not class
legislation, yet in effect il is As an
other evidence Of the injustice Of this
law, take the case Of two men, one
worth $4,000 and the other $1,000.
The county, township, city and school
district officials say to the county
clerk, extend a tax which in the ag-
gregate amounts to say 3 per cent
against the property OF these two in
dividUals. The $1,000 man pays his
tax in full in December and gets
per cent rebate on the last half Of
his tax The $1,000 man can only pay
one-half Of his tax so does not get
the rebate. In this instance one man
paid the full amount levied against his
property, while the other did not
There are, perhaps, exceptional cases
when il would be advantageous to the
county to have taxes paid in full, in
stances when the general fund was
running low But these instances are
very rare
There is another injustice in this
law, which I now think Of, and that
is where a sidewalk tax is placed on
the tax roll against a mans town lot
In some counties, at least the county
treasurer allows the owner Of the lot
a rebate on this tax if paid in full in
December. This makes me pay q part
Of the expense Of laying a sidewalk !
in front Of my neighbours property.
I can see no justice in this instance
Wilson Peters, county clerk Of Sher-
man county, was in attendance at the
convention, and expressed himself as
well pleased with the discussion Of
the clerks from over the state. They /
are wide-awake lot Of men, he
said And one good strong howl they
put up was on the matter Of hunters
licenses, which the county clerks have
TO do at the expense Of a good deal OF
time and work, and get nothing for
it. The fees go to the state, and the
clerks think they should be allowed
something for this extra labor. The
county clerks Of the state are going
70 make q test case d TINS before the
supreme court TO determine whether
or not they can hOId either for them
selves or for the counties Of the state
a fee out of the 81 collected by them
for each hunters license issued under /
the new game law
officers of the association were re-
elected as follows: Claude y. Breese, |
Riley county, president; J o. StrOm- I
Quist, Mcpherson county, vice presi- /
dent; H W. Jacobs, Dickinson coun- /
ty, treasurer; A Newman, Shawnee
county, secretary.