, 1906-02-21
New Jersey Lawmakers Put Il
Two Hard Days at Trenton.
TAX MEASURES CONSTITUTIONAL
Attorney General Reports That Both
Perkins and Calvin Bills Meet All
the Requireme nts-HilIery and Col
by Have "a S~Dat-Several Important
Hearings Held.
Especial Correspondence

1'&'
that the usual Monday evening session
of h legislature was omitted this
week on account of the observance OIL
Lincoln's birthday, the legislators made
up for the time lost by hard work Tues
lay and Wednesday. a number of i'm
portant hearings were given, a batcl
of new bills was introduced, and the
measures yet within the legislative ma
chinery were put forward on their way
to final consideration.
Probably the most important event of
the week was the transmission to the
legislature by Attorney General Me.
Carter Tuesday of his report rs to the
constitutionality of the numerous equal
taxation measures now before the leg
islature. This report was requested re
Gently by the house. According to the
attorney general, either the scheme
contained in the Perkins equal taxation
measure or that of the Calvin bill
meets all the constitutional require.
ments. The Perkins bill is the admins
tration measure, and the Calvin bill is
favored by the Hudson county Repub
lican organization. The attorney gen.
eral holds that the bill introduced by
Mr.. Martin for the Colby faction will
not stand Il constitutional test. The
two Miller bills, drawn along the same
lines as the Perkins measure. the re.
port says, are constitutional. The attor-
ney general says that as to the Calvin
bill, which applies to the main stem,
second class property and tangible per-
sonal property and provides for their
assessment and taxation in each taxing
district and applying the revenue de-
rived therefrom to the taxing districts,
he sees no reason to question the consti-
tutionality of the law if the state
should see fit to surrender the revenue
heretofore derived from railroads.
Taxation of the Main Stem.
As u assembly bill No. 8, the Martin
bill, the scheme of which is to have the
main stem. tangible personal property
and franchises of railroads assessed by
the state board substantially as at pres
ent, except that the board should assess
or determine separately the value Of
the parts or portions of the main stem
lying in separate taxing districts and
also the value of that part of the tam
gible personal property located in each
taxing district, the attorney general
holds that this act would clearly fix a
different rate for the main stem of
each railroad, the tax being based upon
the various rates existing in the taxing
districts through which the main stem
runs and that this would not produce
an equal rate between two main stems,
but would vary as the tax rates in the
various taxing districts would vary.
A heated discussion occurred Tues
day in the senate when Senator Hillery
O1orris) called Senator Colby ESSEX
to account for having made statements
at a recent meeting in Morristown
which, the senator from Morris said.
We're detrimental to him. A rather
heated argument ensued, in which Sen
ator Colby said that he did not mean to
impugn the intelligence of the senator
or to say. as some of the papers had re-
ported him as saying, that the gentle
man had no backbone. Senator Colby
said that if he had made any state
ment against the character of Senator
Hillery he was willing to apologize.
The published statements to which
Senator Hillery took exception were
that he QHillery) had no backbone and
that he was a creature of political
bosses.
In the senate Mr.. Colby introduced a
bill that provides for a civil service
commission in which both political par
ties shall be represented. The commits
sion is to consist of three persons ap-
pointed by the governor. No officer
that has the appointment or employ
ment Of civil service employees shall
appoint any subordinate except with
regard to the provisions of the act.
The civil service by Mr.. Colby's bill
will be divided into unclassified and
classified service. The unclassified will
include all officers elected by the peo-
pie, all officers subject to the senate's
confirmation, all principals and super
intendents of public schools, all heads
of state government departments and
also city and county departments, all
persons appointed in any statute and
certain unskilled laborers. All other
officers are to be included in the classi-
fed service. The commission shall pre-
scribe the examinations to be passed
for positions in the classified service
and shall make rules for appointments
and promotions. Mr.. Colby's bill was
spread over twenty-eight typewriter
pages. The judiciary committee got it.