The La Jara chronicle., 1906-11-23
RECOMMENDED BY ATTORNEY
GENERAL OF COLORADO.
TO SAVE INHERITANCE TAX
Should Be Special Clerk in Auditors
office-ShouId Change Makeup Of
State Land Board-RaiIroads should
Be exempted From Flat Tax Law.

Denver. = With recommendations
! that the State Land Board be changed
| entirely in its organization: that a
clerk be appointed in the auditors Of
| flee to look after inheritance tax col
| lections; that the law be changed and
| that law be enacted compelling all
corporations organized under the laws
| of the state to be explicit in the pur,
poses of their organization, Attorney
General n. C. Miller submits his bien-
NAL report to Governor Mcdonald.
In it Mr.. Miller states that while for
| merly the criminal work of his Office
was the most important. it is not so
! now. 1.-The work that requires the most
time" he says. relates to the civil law.
For instance the revenue act imposing
the inheritance tax has made an i'm
mense amount of labor for this office.
Although the law imposes no duty on
this office to look after the collection
Of the inheritance tax, yet the governor
has The right to direct the attorney gen.
eral to take care of all suits in which
the state has an interest, and this has
been done by written order.
In my Judgment the work arising
from the Inheritance tax law is becom-
lug too large and important to be han
died in this way. The bookkeeping and
auditing department of the state is in
the auditors office, and my judgment
is that clerk should be provided who
has authority 10 examine all papers and
inquire into all proceedings concerning
Inheritance tax. When matters appear
ttHt t1I tl, ,ntn1I h.a tod he. N-
has the authority to call upon the attor-
ney general to take Charge
In discussing the land board the at
torney general suggests a complete
change. At present the board is made
UP of the governor, the attorney gen.
erai, secretary of state and the state
superintendent OF public instruction.
There are employed by the board a reg
lister, deputy and chief appraiser.
During the biennial period under Gov
ernor Orman the revenues for tho
state from its lands We're 1925 900. This
increased to S515,000 under Governor
Peabody, and by the end of the present
biennial period will have increased to
100000, SO tnat the work OF the board
is constantly growing
Mr.. Miller suggests that three per
sons could be employed at very little
more than is paid now to the register
and his assistants, to devote their en-
tire time to the work and take it en-
tirely from the control of the other
state officers. This. he believes, would
mean vast saving to the state, as the
revenues arising from the business
could be made much larger If it Were
looked after closely.
Railroad corporations, Mr.. Miller
says. should be taxed upon their mile
age in the state, and not upon their TO-
tai capitalization as is provided for in
the fiat tax law. All other corpora
tions, he says, should be taxed ON their
total capitalization, as the law pro.
vides. To carry out this suggestion
would necessitate a slight change in
the law, and this is recommended
Other recommendations are given un
Ger the discussion on corporations. OnJ
is that law should be enacted com.
pelling all domestic corporations to be
specific as to the purposes for which
they are organized. Also that domes-
tic corporations should be required to
have an agent upon whom all papers
could be served.