Gloucester County Democrat., 1906-02-22
STATE LEGISLATURE
New Jersey Lawmakers Put In
Two Hard Days at Trenton.
TAX MEASURES CONSTITUTIONAL

TAX MEASURES CONSTITUTIONAL
Attorney General Reports That Both
Perkins and Calvin Bills Meet All
the Reauirements-HiI and Col
| by Have a spat--severaI Important
Hearings Held.
Especial Correspondence.
| Trenton. Feb Is Despite the fact
| that the usual Monday evening session
of the legislature was omitted this
week on account of the observance of
Lincoln's birthday, the legislators made
lup for the time lost by hard work Tues
| day and Wednesday. a number of i'm
pogtant hearings were given, batch
of new bills was introduced and the
measures yet within the legislative ma
chineiy 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 Nc
Carter Tuesday of his report as 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 a constitutional test. The
two Miller bills, drawn along the same
| lines as the Perkins measure, the re-
port says, are constitutional The attor-
neyl 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 constis
tutionality of the law if the state
should see fit to surrender the revenue
heretofore derived from railroads,
Taxation of the Main Stem.
AS to assembly bill No. s, the Martin
bill, the scheme of which is to have the
main stem. tangible personal property
and franchises of railroads assessed by
rS,sac
ent, except that the board should assess
or determine separately the value of
the parts OF 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 betwee1f~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
(AIorris) called Senator Colby Essex
to account for having made statements
at a recent meeting in Morristown
which, the senator from Morris said.
were 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 We're
| that he (Hillery) had no backbone and
that he was creature of political
bosses.
In the senate Mr.. Colby introduced a
bill that provides for 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
4.io,, q II mir, oi,,a le sa5,d e,.,aa.