Omaha daily bee., 1907-03-11
Distribution Of Value Of Terminals is =
Myth at Best
PARTY IS PLEDGED TO THE MEASURE
Roads Receive Benefits Of City Government
and Should Pay for It
WANTS cOHMIsSION BILL sMPuFltO
AmbiguOus In Certain Ways au TO the
Powers OF the COmmission to
Make or Change Exist
Ing Rates.
CFrom a star corresnondentl

From stan Correspondent
| LINCOLN, March 10.-(special 1.-THE
railroads Of Nebraska should pay taxes
for local purposes on their property located
| within cities and villages just the same as
| other property owners do I have examined
very carefully the bill introduced by Mr..
| Clarke and It should be passed and become
a law. The bill, in my opinion. does not
provide for double taxation, but is consti-
tutional in every respect"
The above statement was made by Gov
ernor Sheldon this afternoon. Continuing,
he said: THE distribution OF the value OF
railroad terminals for taxation purposes
has been In the past myth. Under the
Clarke bill every city and village In the
| state will receive more money in taxes
from the railroads than they do now. II
is fact that only about one-tenth of the
! mileage is in the towns and cities, conse-
quently only a tenth OF the value of the
terminals distributed TO these towns.
even in theory. 1t is foolish TO argue that
the value of the property Of railroads In
ali the villages OF the state Is not more
| .han the value of the Omaha and Lincoln
terminals, consequently when the local
assessors in these towns assess railroad
property they win assess II at more than
the amount which is now theoretically dis
tributed.
valid Platform Pledge.
"The taxation Of railroad terminals for
city and village purposes Is a plank in the
republican state platform and it should be
carried out, as feel sure It will be. II Is
of great Importance, as much as any
pledge made to the people by the repub-
lican state convention. and / believe that
any member of the Legislature who studies
the Clarke bill will see tine justness of the
measure and will vote for IT, There is no
reason why the railroads should receive all
the advantages of city and village goverfi-
meuts and improvements and expect the
people TO pay for it. They should be made
to pay their proportionate part of the main
tenance of the city government of every
village and city through which they run
They will do IT under tha Clarke bill That
bill provides the present method of essess.
ing railroad property for state, county
school and road district purposes Is to
remain the same as now. Property located
within the corporate limits OF village or
city will be assessed by the local assessing
officer. who will make his returns to the
state board. The board will then equalize
between the towns and cities. The beard
will be in position to do this fairly because
II will have the value placed on the prop
erty by the local assessor and by the rail-
roads. and no member of the legislature
need fear but what every village in the
state will be benefited by the passage OF
that bill"
simplifying Commission Bill.
Governor Sheldon Is not exactly satisfied
with the section in the railroad commission
bill providing the manner in which the
railway commissioners shall make rates,
and very probably he will consult with
Senator Aldrich regarding change in that
section AS originally drawn the bill In
section provides the commission shall fix
as soon as practicable complete schedule
of rates" passenger and freight This fix
ing of rates is referred to in several sec
tions. The idea of the governor is to have
all this matter in one section in such simple.
plain language there can be no mistaking
it's intention and there can be no ground
for technical objections TO what the COM
mission does.
The governor wants it made plain that
the railway commission shall have power
10 reduce a single rate, that is II 1t wants
/, 10 reduce the rate on corn between any
, two points It can do so. He fears that the
, bill could be interpreted to mean the COM
mission would have to get out complete
schedule of rates for every change that Is
made and have the same printed and fur
nished all the railroads as is pruYided
further along in the bill. The rate~ixiDs
powers of the commission are mentioned in
several sections in the bill and the gov
ernor believes this should be done in one
, section very simply
, while the legislature has been making
haste rather slowly Governor Sheldon be-
, lieves every pledge in the platform will be
l kent and he believes there will be no
thought Of adjournment until after all the
. bills relating to platform pledges have be-
/ come laws While none Of the platform
4 pledges have yet reached the governor a
! lot OF work will be accomplished this week
e and there is every reason to believe every
/ plank in the platform will be enacted into
q law.
March stolen on Harvey.
0 The legislature stole a march on Harvey
when It indefinitely postponed his forcible
+ annexation bill. He secured permission OF
0 the house to have It 80 over until Monday
7 and hold It's regular place and then left
the ROOM Then the Lee bin came up and
+ someone recommended It for passage and
? someone recommended that Harveys bill
a he indefinitely postponed. The motions both
u carried. Harvey didn't know about II until
K that night and though he tried 70 save
his bill he was not very much disappointed
that il went by the boards. He put It in
. merely because he wanted the oheers OF
the two cities 10 serve out their terms and
Q the Breen bill legislated them out Of ONCE.
Pullman Lobbyist Tom Benton got quite
a setback last week when the bill by
Thomas to reduce Pullman rates 20 per cent
was referred to the senate revenue COM
mittee instead OF the railroad committee
; Thomas is the head Of the revenue CON-
e mittee and very promptly reported the bill
I back for the general file where Il is now
d In the meantime the report went out that
the bill had been referred 70 the railroad
committee and Tom Benton was using all
N his spare time working on this COMMITTEES
> and he had been given time Monday nighi
3 M nresant arguments % the rallroad com.