Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1907-03-06

eyer the farmer has is taxed
You can buy in Portland or Au-
gusta your thousand dollar bond and
put it in a safe deposit vault and
clip it's coupons and pay no taxes upon
it; but the farmer out upon these hills.
if he buys a blooded COW to improve
his condition and TO help the dairy in
tcrests Of his neighborhood, is taxed
upon it; he is taxed for everything in
sight and out of sight One dollar of
tax out upon these hills weighs more
heavily. Mr.. Chairman. than two dol
lars of tax in Portland or in Augusta.
1t may not be proper for me stand
ing and living here in the city of Au-
gusta, to tell the truth. 1t is the truth.
God knows it is the truth; and you, as
public men. know that it has been to
the discredit of the Legislature OF
Maine that. for 20 years you have al
lowed these conditions to go on. / sub
NIT today that, in your heart of hearts,
every man Of You knows that when
Portland flaunts her fifty million in our
faces and Augusta upon an appropri-
ate occasion would flaunt her eight
that we are telling the story of but
hall our wealth. We are competing here
with these unorganized representatives
from the country towns that are not in
it with Us in political movements to
keep up this unjust system of taxation.
When you say that the county of OK
ford would pay s6S,000 and that the
county of Cumberland would pay six
or seven hundred thousand dollars, that
S6S, 900 in oxford is pressing with ire
mendous weight upon the shoulders of
the men that pay it.
Think upon these things, Mr.. Chair
man. before you increase the burdens
of mon whose burdens today are heavy
and wcariSome, intOlerable and unjust.
I have not the time to elaborate one
point but I want to submit to your
consideration and for my friend, Gen.
Mattocks, to answer. that this con-
struction account is not all.
When you shoulder yourself with
capital costing two and a half million,
but costing as I believe the judgment
Of business would say three and half
or four million, you have assumed an
expensive luxury.
] submit. and Gen. Mattocks, will
criticise me if I am wrong-I submit
the increased operating expenses Of
that building would reach down into
the public treasury every year to the
extent of at least $4,000. We would
find ourselves where good Old Bowdoin
College finds itself today; rich in
buildings but crippled in her work, be-
cause Of her wealth of buildings. 1t
costs money to operate and keep up
CT
Nor Mr.. Chairman can they deludc
themselves. I submit as lawyer, with
the idea that you can distribute this
burden over a series of years.
You can make no contract Mr.. Chair
man for the building of a four million
dollar, or a two and half million dol
arS State House, uncss you have be-
hind that contract the money in the
State treasury to meet that contract;
and, if l am wrong in my law, my
friend Gen. Mattocks, an able lawyer,
will correct me.
Our forefathers guarded against the
possibilities OF such reckless disregard
of the rights Of the smaller and poorer
towns.
Let me read from the Constitution Of
this State which extends to the grand
and beautiful city of Portland and
takes it in within its provision:
THE Legislature shall not create any
debt or debts, liability or liabilities on
behalf of the State which shall in the
sinSly or in the aggregate, with previ-
Gus debts and liabilities hereafter in
Cured, at any one time exceed $780, :,
900 except to Suppress instruction, to
repcl invasion. or for purposes of war"
l submit, as a matter Of law. that il
you appropriate beyond your revenue,
that the excess is a nullity, a liability
forbidden by the constitution.
There is a greater power than Legis-
latures under the constitution that
stands over us, the strong arm of the
supreme court of this State ready to
be invoked at the instance Of any
wrOnged taxpayer to prevent such an
illegal ard unconstitutional liability.
So. Mr.. Chairman, if you sign a con-
tract for the erection Of this new build
ing. with no tax levy to meet the full
amount Of that contract. submit that
the court would enjoin it's performance.
Certainly my friend will not answer
20 that. that the State Of Maine will
distribute this burden over series Of
years and build this new State House,
not by contract but by the day.
Honest as we are in the State Of
Maine, honest government as we should
have, Mr.. Chairman, even IL your party
were in powcr-no matter who is in
power in the State of Maine, our people
are honest-but. honest as we are, the
State of Maine would not dare to open
the door to possible graft that would
come from the expenditure of four mil
lions upon building built by the day
as you would have to do, or raise 1t in
a single year.
I have heard il argued about here
that we have surplus revenues. and I
think my friend Mr.. Reed referred to
thcm-that we have a surplus revenue
of three hundred thousand dollars a
year and that, using them for 10 or -
years, or more. we could build a State
House, without a direct property tax.
The proposition assumes, Mr.. Chair
man. that for the next 10 years you will