Evening bulletin. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1895-1912, 1907-09-24
HOLT AND COUNTY
DADS MAY SCRAP
Prospect Of Row Over
Road Laborers'
Taxes

beautiful row between Tax Assesso,
James L. Holt on one side and the
County Supervisors and Road Super
visor Sam johnson on the other side.
before II Is settled.
Tax Assessor Holt stated this morn.
ing that he is preparing garnishsee
summonses to be served on the road
laborers who are delinquent. There
ere about $50 Of these. The road de.
partment employs at times as many
as 300 laborers. OF these possibly so
are members of the National Guart
and are therefore exempt from paying
the tax Few of the others have pait
up, and Holt intends to go after them
end collect the money by process of
law.
II the money Is collected by gar.
nishment of wages, each laborer
gsrnisheed will have to pay nearl,
twice as much as the actual amour,
of the tax. The tax became delinquent
at the end of last March and the pen
atty added to the original IS make,
the amount $500. Added to this IL
about ten cents interest, while the cost
OF punishment will bring the total
NJ to about $685.. As the average
amount received by the men each pay
day for two weeks is frequently not
over 80 or $40. II is obvious that this
manner Of collections Is going TO worl
severe hardship on the delinquents
Holt says he hardly has the heart
to take the money, but lays all the
blame of the necessity for garnish-
Ing the wages OF the men on the Su.
pervisors Of the County.
He says that early In January he
took the matter up with them ant
proposed that the head OF the road
department himself collect the none,
In installments, turning over the total
to the Assessor after II was all col
.octed. But the Supervisors have
taken no action In the matter beyond
writing a letter saying that the plar
proposed had received their favorable
consideration. ti''
A couple of weeks ago two collec.
tors of the tax Office went to San
Johnson's Office when the men were
being paid of, with the idea of col.
iecting from each man as he was paid
the full amount of his delinquency
But when they saw the small amounts
received by the meh, the collectors
vent back without collecting cent
and reported that they did not have
The heart to take $500 from the pay
envelopes.
Holt this morning, when asked why
ne did not collect the. money in in
stallments, as was done last year. said
he had no time to bother with such Q
method of collecting. II any such
method were adopted, 1t was up to the
Road Supervisors, acting under the In.
structions of the Board of Supervisors
10 collect the money and turn II over
TO the Tax Assessor. 81 don't know
who the men are, he said. "T> an
willing to pay Mr.. Cummins the reg
ular per centage paid all our collec.
tors for his extra work. But the SUI
pervisors refuse or neglect to see tina
the collections are made. so the onl,
thing left for me to do Is to issue gar
nishee summonses. don't want Il
do that. for 1t will mean that the mel
will have to pay nearly twice thu
amount OF tax, but 1t is the only thin.
| can do, and am going to garnishe'
every man of the road department
who Is delinquent. The papers arr
being made out now"
1T Is nothing but a game Of poll
ties" was the way Road Supervisor
Sam Johnson characterized the prog
osition Of the Tax Assessor. Il an
not the tax collector. and II is mont
OF my business to collect taxes for thu
Assessor. There Is niger In thu
woodpile and Holt knows where he Is
what they want to do Is to get MI
20 stand at the window and take on
one dollar or two dollars every weel
from the envelopes of the men ant
turn It over to them. Then, when I
nan has had couple OF dollars take!
from him, he will go away and get
couple of drinks and then get sore
Sam Johnson took two dollars of m!
money he will say.
why can't the Assessor use tn
coupon system AS he did last year, ant
collect dollar week from each maj
until the tax is paid. II is not trn
that this department collected thu
money for the tax Office last year. Tn
tax collectors did It themselves. On
of my men did help them, but the de
partment had nothing to do with Il
And the department is not going I
collect the money for them this yeal
IF Holt will not collect the take
on the installment plan, he will hav
to garnishee the wages OF the men,"
And that is how the matter stand
now Meantime, the poor road la
borers, who can't afford to pay NOR
than half OF their weekly wage at
time are liable to have to suffer for 1