The Lafayette advertiser. [volume] (Vermilionville [i.e. Lafayette], La.) 1865-19??, 1907-02-20
THAT TAX REDUCTION.

We quote from the Democrat of Feb.
IL the following:
The contention has been made
and proclaimed, with a persist
ency worthy of a better cause,
that the present city administra
ton has not reduced the tax rate
of taxation, but on the contrary
has actually increased the rate to
ten and three-tifth mills, which
shows them to be the most eX-
pensive Council the town of Lafa-
yette ever had" That the rate
of taxation has been reduced
from ten to eight mills by the
Council is not, and cannot be
t~ruthfully denied, and in order
to weaken, and II possible des-
troy the force of this incOntrOver-
tibTe fact resort has been made
to a subtle and ingenious line of
figuring" predicated upon an
entirely wrong statement OF
facts, and 'basing taxation upon
the assessment when the present
Council went into Office"
Is it not utterly absurd" in
computing the rate of taxation
now, to take as "a basis, the as
sessment o. 1904? To carry
this ridiculous reasoning to it's
legitimate conclusion. What
would the rate of taxation now
be il the assessment of 1900 or
that of 1900, we're used as a base
for present revenues And yet
this is the argument (?) boldly
advanced to prove that the pres
ent Coucil is the most expensive
Lafayette ever bad! Any school
boy. knows that the rate of taxa
ton is. found by dividing the
amounted revenue to be raised
by the total valuation of property
for the given gear and not upon
the value for anv previous year,
or the property of any other
community. For if TIM year can
be changed. to suit the argument
~ why not take the a. Sessment
of some other town or communi-
typ
The above is a very ingenious at
tempt to center attention upon the fact
that the present administration has re-
duced the rate of taxation from ten
mills'to eight, with the obvious pur-
pose of making the public believe that
the present Council has reduced tdra-
ton since they hare been IN office. To do
so, q resort has been made to a wrong
statement0f fact, namelv:that ''the con-
tention has been made and proclaimed
that the present administration has not
reduced the tax rate of taxation" In
our editorial of Feb. 6 appears,
thence we may assume that they place
considerable stress upon the fact that
they reduced the rate of taxation from
ten to eight mills" Ais in our edi-
torial of Feb. ID appears, THAT the
present, Council did actually reduce
the rate from ten mills to eight, no one
will deny" The Democrat did not
quote those two editorials of ours in
reproducing editorials in s'high praise
of the present city administration
because they show too plainly that
the bold effort they are making to
make people believe they reduced taIa-
tion sohile IN Office mas no basis to stand
We are accused of 'ssubtle and
ingenious line of figuring predicated
upon . wrong statement of facts
Our figuring was to establish the
fact that the present Council has not re-
duced taxation during their term of Office.
And in support of our figuring" we
have selected q number Of properties
that have not changed in the last three
years and VI submit the following
figures taken from the assessment
rolls, showing the amount of taxes
paid on the properties in the years
1904, 1905 and 1906.
. Q q c