The united opinion. [volume] (Bradford, Vt.) 1881-1970, 1906-10-12

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harmful to the general interest. There
should be some general restriction,
therefore, or some discretion in the In
spector of Finance with respect to the
granting of new charters, but such a
limitation can always be best accom-
plished under a general rule or in the
discretion of some selected officer rather
than by the action of the legislature
upon each case.
VILLAGE CHARTERS.
There are forty-eight Incorporated
villages in the state There is a gen
eral provision (Chap. 1922 for the vol
untary incorporation of villages but its
provisions are so incomplete that all,
or substantially all, of them have in
fact been incorporated by special char
tiers. 1t may be said of them, as of
the savings bank and trust company
charters, that no one is in all respects
like any other. In the case of municipal
corporations this diversity is even more
inconvenient than in the case of pri-
vate corporations. The powers and
privileges of villages should be uniform.
If they were thus uniform there would
become through the decisions of the
courts and otherwise some general I'M
derstanding of what those powers and
privileges are. The law of villages be-
ing now largely special for each village
is practically private law. 1t should
be public and uniform. I recommend
that Chapter 142 be so amended en-
larged and improved that it will an
swer the purposes for the voluntary
incorporation of villages, and also
recommend that consideration be Civ
en- as to the extent steps may be taken
to bring existing charters within such
general provision.
CORPORATION TAX LAW.
In 1882 Vermont began taxing cor
porations under what was termed the
corporation tax law, which provided
for a tax upon various corporations
based upon their earnings but made
no provision for any appraisal of their
properties. This law was declared by
the Supreme Court unconstitutional so
far as it attempted to tax Interstate
business. To overcome this difficulty,
in 1890 the Legislature passed a law
providing for an optional basis of tax
alton; that is, in the case of railroads,
it provided that they should be apprais-
ed and taxed at the rate of seven
tenths of one per cent. on such an ap-
praisal, but that they might in lieu of
this tax pay a tax of two and one
half per cent. on their entire gross
earnings if such railroads are situated
wholly within the state, or if situated
partly within and partly without the
state then of two and one-half per cent
on such proportion of the entire gross
earnings of such railroads as the
mileage of trains run in this state
bears to the mileage of all trains run on
the entire main line of such roads for
given period. Since this optional pro-
vision was incorporated in the law all
of the steam railroads of the state,
with two or three minor exceptions,
have paid upon their gross earnings.
1t is difficult to ascertain for the
purposes of taxation the true value
of a railroad. Many things must be
taken into account in making an ap-
praisal: The value of the railroads
franchise, its bonded and other in
debtedness, its capital stock, the gen
eral condition of its property, termi
nails, connections, expense of operating,
its opportunities for business, both
and local, and many other
things naturally entering into such an
which make it very difficult
to reach a result entirely satisfactory
either to the state or to the railroad
A state tax levied solely
upon such an appraisal is not likely
to be as just or satisfactory as the
present optional method. A tax,
based upon the earning
power of a railroad in operation is the
fairest basis and has met with gen
eral favor. Nor is it a satisfactory
method to permit each town to APP
praise and tax railroad property To-
cally. A railroad receives its fran
chise from the state, it is to quite
an extent a public corporation and
even its local property is not used To-
cally in the ordinary sense but for its
general business extending beyond the
limits of any one or any few towns.
Such tax, therefore. as is levied upon
it should be paid into the treasury of