The News-Herald. [volume] (Hillsboro, Highland Co., Ohio) 1886-1973, 1907-05-23
JUSTICE IN TAXATION
Representative Of Labor Dis
cusses Taxation Question.
James A. Robinson Of The Ohio
Federation of Labor Makes
Timely Suggestions.

idAdtiOu III JHe Stdle vi OHlO, Uc-
fore the State Tax Commission at the
meeting of April s.
Mr.. Robinson said 1t is a common
assumption of many people that la
Dor does not bear its share of the
burdens of state, but he did not care
to discuss the question from that
point of view alone. but rather as a
question Of justice between all
classes.
Under the present system Of APP
praising real property" continued Mr.
Robinson che snail home is valued
higher than the building site and com
mercial pppc. c.ty in the center of the
city. This Is due to two causes.
First. the assessor is able to tell pret-
ty accurately the value of house and
lot or a farm, whose value is from
one to three thousand dollars.
Second. Under the plan of val.
uing real property every ten years
the small home overs prop
erty is kept on the tax duplicate at its
full or more than its full value flor
II does not change very much) while
the valuable building sites, worth
more per front foot than the entire
value of the small home, VIII double,
oft-times treble in value before the
next assessment is made.
ITO tho extent that the laboring
man is a home owner therefore he is
more heavily burdened than any 9th
er class and 70 the extent that the
taxes paid by the owner are shifted 10
him as tenant he is equally heavily
burdened.
"A correction of these inequalities
seems to me to be an easy achieve
ment. II can be accomplished by the
more frequent valuation of real prop
erty and bv some means for giving
publicity to the valuations as they are
fixed by the assessors.
Promote Labor.
"Just as the valuable sites in the
cities are undervalued, so the mines,
the oil and the gas wells, and the
valuable mineral rights of the state
which mount mp into the hundreds OF
million of dollars are assessed in
many instances at their value as
farms. They are capitalized by their
owners at many times their farm
figure. Now IL Is to the advantage OF
those who consume coal, and oil and
gas and other minerals that they be as
cheap as possible rather than as dear.
II is to the advantage of all classes
that these valuable resources, that
cost the owners but little, If any more.
than farm values, should be used and
not monopolized. 1t is to the ad-
vantage of all those who labor that
these resources should be worked
rather than held out of use, for this
will increase the demand for labor and
consequently the well being of all
classes. II should be the object Of the
state to encourage enterprise and in
dustry and cheaper the price OF these
raw materials. BY what means can the
state, without dealing an injustice to
any one, promote this end? 1t would
seem to me that law should be pass
ed by which all Of the mining, oil, gas
and every other mineral property in
the state would be valued by a state
board at the capitalized value that the
owner placed u-On It himself.
Tax Things State Gives Away.
There Is still another reason why these
classes OF property should be assessed at
their full value. II any class is to be
Disseminated against II should be those
who own this particular kind OF prop
And for this When u-a IN
q mars home. his farm, his tools, his
machinery, the things he has In his
house, we tax wnat has cost him labor.
They represent his own effort and his
savings. Now when we come to the
franchises OF the city corporations, to the
rights OF the many transportation COM
panies In the state, to the mines and the
resources, there Is another value that
does not come from any mans labor.
Now ] understand that these values,
which for lack OF some better name may
be called franchise values, are worth in
Ohio hundreds OF millions OF dollars But
they pay no tax whatever. There is no
way TO tax them. Al Of the taxes OF the
counties and the cities are collected from
the things that labor creates. Ought not
the things that the state itself, that all
of us create and that have cost the own
ers nothing, he taxed at least as heavily
as the things that the individual himself
pfOducesI III this We're done would IL
not reduce the taxes OF the ordinary man
by from 25 TO so per cent more?
Promote Ownership OF Homes.
II In but few days since we took pride
in the fact that the American people
were a people that owned their homes
We all admit that the well being OF the
people is largely dependent on the sort OF
homes they live In. Ought not the state to
do everything II can to make the owner
ship Of homes easy and natural? II
seems to me that this would be helped
very greatly II the cities had the right
to exempt houses and improvements
from taxation. Possibly II not altogeth-
er. at least up to $4,000.
@ We Counties More Control.
In conclusion, II seems to me the cities
and the counties ought to have more
power In the dealing with taxation. The
conditions In cities are very different
from the conditions In the country dis
trict. City land changes In value daily.
There a thousand forms of invisible
wealth abound that the country does not
have II II were possible to permit each
county to make Its own~rules and plans
for taxation of these things II seems IN