The Prescott daily news., 1909-05-18
THE TAX COMMISSION.

commission. The law creating the commission is mod.ed after a similar law in the state of Ala bamc which has worked " ,nders in that state. In Texas tLey have a law something similar to this also, It is reported that the com mission in Alabama succeeded in adding the princely sum of $7OO,- GOO. to the general revenue funds the first year and more than a million the second year. There is a great similarity between these sums and the amount that it is feared we will lack of having anything in the course of the next twe.ve months.
 The governor has just appoint ed three of the best business men of the state as commissioners and they have already organized and are preparing for the ard uOus duties before them. The law gives them plenty of power. They can assess the railroads. They can supervise the tax system of the state. They can search for the hidden property, or property in the state that is not being paid on at present. They can. sup ervlSe the equalization of taxes in all the counties of the state and see that the same percentage of a,ues is paid on in all coun- ties. They will see that one coun- ty is not paying on 25 per cent Of It's va.ueS and another on 60 per cent. It must be frankly ac- know .edgedf that there are many things about our tax system that need improvement. There is no reason why the tax commission should not set about the task with enough Of vim and enthus- iasm, yet with enough conservat- ism and sound business judgment to make a success of the ven ture. It cou,d not be called an experiment. It has been tried in other states and has been found to be a success. It will be a sue cess In Arkansas if proper y hand leG,
 The g.aring inequality in the propOrtionate amount of taxes paid by different counties and classes of the state heretofore shows the weakness of our sysn tenn. The man with Georgia p-ow stock and a roan mule, a few pigs and a heifer or two. and a mortgage on his little farm has evidently borne his share Of the burden In some in- stances he may have borne more and in a few cases not enough. but he IS far above the average when it comes to paying his, part of the governmental revenue. The fellow with stocks and bonds and mortgages as an investment and lie insurance policies and p|te3 most ike v has failed to bear his part, The larger mer- chants In many eases have thou sands or dollars worth Of goods that are not paid on. at al. It is an evident fact that in the, coun- ty or Pulaski the assessment on general merchandise for the year 1905 did not exceed that actual amount owned and in the pos session of sing.e large mercan- tie establishment in the city Of Litt,e Rock. while there were not more than 300 or 400 wat ches in the county according to the tax books. There is something wrong with a system that a. lows such things as these to be.
 Let the tax commission get to work in dead earnest and bring the revenue system of the state out of the kinks. They will per- haps have a rough road to trav- el for few years, but they are equal to the emergency. The
 first thing they should do and the first thing they will very likely do is to go to some other states which have similar sys- tems and examine carefully into the workings of these systems. In other words they will prepare themselves for the work and get all they can from the experience of others. The people of the. state will watch the workings of the tax commission with a great deal of interest and if it proves a suc- cess 1t will be Ond of fthe strong fI<S Aurv, ~f 4 l.