Aberdeen herald. [volume] (Aberdeen, Chehalis County, W.T.) 1886-1917, 1909-10-04
BURDEN OFTAXATION.
CHEHALIS COUNTY TAXES TO-
TAKE ANOTHER BOOST.
County and State Managed on pOIi!i.
Cal Party Lines Comes High, bu.
the People Seem TO Want 1t, or
They Are Led to Think That They
Do.

The board of county commission
ers, at their session today will fix
the tax ley for 1909, and, accord
ing to the estimates published as re-
quired by law, the rate will be a
record breaker, such as will cause
the taxpayer to sit up and take good
notice. The increase will amount
to about Al per cent. In other
words, the person paying taxes on a
home business or farm valued at
$4,000 will have to pay about $125.
In 1908, his taxes would have been
about $50, and this is about the ra-
ito of the increase all down the
line.
If this does not prove the necessity
of putting an end to the extravagant
expenditure of public money that
has prevailed during the past five
years, by such a protest from the
taxpayers they deserve no SYM
pathy.
During the past five years from
1904 to 1908. Chehalis county has
levied for state taxes $426,432.O4,
and for all kinds of county taxes
and for school and municipal tax,
total of $1,660, ,S54.49 making a
grand total of taxes levied for five
years of $2,0S7,2S6.53. 1t cost the
taxpayers 67 per cent more in 1908
to defray the current county expense
than it did in 1904, while for the
road and bridge fund, it cost 144
per cent more for 1908 than it did in
1904.
For 1909, the state taxes eXacted
from Chehalis county will be $780,
419.00, as against $65,335.S3 in
1904, an increase of about 300 per
cent in five years. In 1908 we paid
the state $131,5SS.62, SO that the
present legislature by eXtravagHnt
appropriations have increased the al
ready high tax by about 80 per cent.
The special school fund has cost
1877 per cent more in 1908 than it
did in 1904, and the special road
fund has cost IS per cent more for
the pear 1908 than for the year
1904.
In the five years included in the
above statement, there has been
levied for roads and bridges, a total
$516,292.49.
In 1904 Chehalis county had A.
351 pupils enrolled in the public
schools, while in 1908 there were
enrolled 5,132 pupils. The amount
raised for school tax in 1904 aver
aged $1,000 per pupils, while for
the year 1908, the amount raised
averaged $25.27 per pupil. The rate
of taxation for 1908 was higher than
for any one of the proceeding four
years, the average rate being 39.1
mills.
For 1909 the rate, for state and
greatly increased vaulation, the es-
innate calling for $572,000. This is
equal to a tax of $14.3O per capita,
estimating the population at 40,-
600. When the municipal taxes are
added to this the burden almost, II
not quite, reaches the unbearabqe
point.
If you owned stock in a corpora
tion whose affairs We're mismanag-
ed. and your dividends were unsat-
isfactory, you would either sell your
stock, or else take enough interest
in the management of the corpora
tion to get improved conditions and
better dividends.
stockholders in the largest copora-
tion in your county, which is your
county organization. In this county
corporation, however, you are called
upon to pay your proportion of what
is required to defray the expenses
of the county. This is taxation.
About once a year, when you pay
your tax, the average taxpayer finds
much to complain of, and he usually
expresses his dissatisfaction, and
wonders why it is that taxes are for
ever on the increase, while he can
see no tangible results in better con-
ditions. He grumbles for awhile
and then dismisses the subject from
his mind, and but very rarely gets
wrought up to the point of taking
active steps to bring about betters