The Lafayette advertiser. [volume] (Vermilionville [i.e. Lafayette], La.) 1865-19??, 1906-07-18
New Orleans Picayunc. July I6.


Baton Rouge, July ia high es-
innate is placed by the State officials
on the work done by the General AS
sembly during the session which was
closed Thursday of last week.
Here are the views of Governor
Blanchard and some of the State Off
Gals.
Relative to the work of the session
of the General Assembly. just closed,
GOVERNOR BLANCHARD
makes the following statement:
''The people of the State are to he
congratulated on some excellent work
done by the General Assembly at its
recent session. That body is entitled
to their thanks. 1t has written into
the body of the States laws fiscal re-
forms that constitute the first step,
but a long one, towards putting Lou
isiana in line, in such matters, with
the progressive States of the Union
and countries of the world. And if
the Legislature of 1908 will follow this
lead and write into the fiscal policy
of the State modern methods of taxa
ton, as applied elsewhere, u State
will be emancipated from the anti
quated system to which we have ad-
hered all these years-a system which
makes of real estate the beast of bur-
den in the matter of taxation.
"Then may we hope to reach that
desirable status that six States of the
Union have already attained and to-
wards which goal twenty other pro-
gressive States are rapidly approach
ing, namely, the disassociation, or
separation. of the system of
the State from that of its political
subdivisions; the State having its own
objects or things to tax, and the po-
litical subdivisions their objects and
things to tax, and what the one taxes
is not taxed by the other.
'Under this system. when perfected,
no State tax at all will be levied on
real and personal property.
$50 the credit of the General AS
sembly, at its second and last session,
must be placed the following enact
ments:
''First--A bill reducing State taxes
from 6 to 5 mills. This is not so
large a reduction of State taxes as
the people were entitled to, consider
ing the aggregate of assessments had
risen to $3.50. 10000 from $40, DOC. 900
when the 6-mill rate was fixed in 1879.
But it is a good start. l wanted the
State tax at this session reduced to
4 ITO mills and the treasury could
easily have stood this reduction, and
had it been made l would have held
down the appropriations within its
limits by the exercise of the veto
power. But circumstances forced me
to yield the three-tenths and submit to
the l-mill reduction. l call to the at
ention of the taxpayers of the State,
however, that they should have a
gre alter reduction, and recommend to
them at the next State election to
pledge all candidates for State Offices
and for Senators and Representatives
to q further tax-reduction policy.
''rhe talk that the troubles which
arose over the appropriation bills is
attributable to the reduction effected
in the State tax is nonsense. Five
mills tax on $3.50, OOO, 900 assessments
in 1906 pays a lot more money into
the State Treasury than 6 mills did
two years ago when the last appro-
priation bill was passed) on 1850, OOO,-
600.
"'The trouble over the appropria-
tons grew out of
LEGISLATIVE EXTRAVAGANZA
and not tax reduction.
"Second-A bill reducing parish
taxes and town taxes from 10 mills
to 8 mills.
1.-The passage of these tax-reduction
measures effects a saving of 5 mills
per annum to the people, and in
this saving is to be found the justi-
ticatlon of the effort l had made,
through the assessors, to equalize as
sessments throughout the State, and
to bring new property upon the as
sessment rolls, resulting in a large
increase in the States aggregate as
sessment, and leading down to action
by the Legislature reducing taxes.