The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-12-12
Merchants Tax Is Collected On City Assessment and Is Done
 Under State Laws
CITIZENS REBOUBLE THE
 DEMANDS FOR DECREASE
Merchants Still Complain Against the Heavy Increases and Generally Favor a Street Tax of
 $3 or $5.

An investigation yesterday revealed the
 fact that the repeal of the merchants
 tax, which was suggested by the miscel-
 laneous committee of the city council,
 and on which the committee based it's
 enormous increases in the license sclfed-
 ule, is impossible. In fact it seems that
 about the only thing that would result
 from an action of that sort would lose
 the city about s9O0O, which is collected
 from parties who dodge the county as-
 sessment.
 When members of the committee were
 called up last night and this fact was
 called to their attention they stated that
 the matter was being investigated by
 them, and that in case they could not
 repeal the merchants tax they would be
 forced to make very material reductions
 in the license schedule. In fact, this
 seemed to be the general opinion, as they
 stated they did not wish to burden any
 one too much
 Tax Must Be Collected.
 The fact of the business is that the so-. called merchants tax is only a part of the property tax which is levied on every thing, and has to be collected under the state laws and the city's charter. As
 general thing the law provides that the collection shall be made in October on
 the state and county assessments.
 However, about ten years ago. under special enactment of the legislature, Bir- mingham was given the right to make her own assessments on the merchants nf
 October. This was done in order to catch the merchants with a full spring stock,
 and before the little first of the year up- starts could fail and retire from business. Under this enactment the city raised last
 year $29,000, or 5000 more than could have been gotten under the county assessments. In case the council were to drop Its own assessments the collections would have to be made in October on the county assessments and the merchants would be l saved but 5000, which is replaced by S73,- GOO increase in the license schedule.
 Every property owner, whether his be- longings be real or personal, has to pay
 s23o on every 500 in property taxes to
 the city, county and state. The city
 gets $1 and the rest goes to the county and state.
 Constit1tionalty Often Questioned. The system of collecting the tax from the merchants ahead of time has often been questioned as to it's constitutionality,
 but the matter has never been tested and still is in doubt So it is evident
 that if a merchants license is raised s100 l he has to pay just that much to the city l,o fa,- ,n l suggestion of the committee, while it ! sounds we'll on it's face, Is believed to | amount to nothing, and several citizens are redoubling their demands for de- l crease in the schedule.
 Wide Difference of Opinion. J. D. Collins of the Collins shoe store | said: 'I saw one member of the mis- 1 cellaneous committee and he explained to me that would escape the merchants l tax, but I saw the chairman of the | finance committee and he told me such would be impossible. It reminds me of the time the council licensed the saloons according to districts and the citizens | called their attention to the fact that it was illegaL
 | q think the schedule is all wrong. The | assessments on them have always been relatively too high, and one more such raise would run us out of business We have a hard enough time with condi- | tions now. It seems to me that some other means could be found for making | up the deficit.
 Jewellers Will Make Protest. ! The jewellers are going to make united effort to have their license reduced. They are going to hold meetings and appear | together before the committee Friday morning. Abbott Bros. said last night: | If they have to raise the jewellers, it ought to be in proportion to the raises l on other businesses. It is entirely exces- | sive, for we have to pay a watchmaker's s ] license as well. You can't quote us as l being more bitterly opposed to the meas ure than we are.
 Really, there is no more reason why merchants should pay any license what | ever on their stock than the man who | owns that building over there should pay | a license to rent it. Things ought to be done fairly"
 Injustice To Small Restaurants. | Mrs Kemp, proprietor of the Dairy | depot is authority for the statement that l the soda fountains in drug stores and I other places are all selling coffee, oysters, | and are, in fact, running a lunch counter
 without license. She also says that they are raised from $25 to $SO for running a l soda fountaian, while the poor lunch | counters are raised all the way from s.5 | to $50. and are not allowed to run a soda | fountain in connection with their busi- | ness without paying extra license. She wants to know the cause for such favorit- | ism, and whether certain druggists are in- | terested in putting lunch counters out of l business.
 Leo Loeb of the firm of Loveman, Jo- 1 sep & Loeb, said: q suppose the mer- | chants are to pay for everything, and the wholesale people nothing at all in com l parison That schedule is all out of pro- | portion, and is not fair at all. There are 1 hundreds who would rather pay B street l tax than see such an injustice done the merchants. I am in favor of the street