The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-02-21
SMITH ID OPPOSE STOLLENWERCK BILL Goes to Montgomery in In-
 terest of City WOULD DECREASE TAX Which Birmingham Now Collects From B. R., L. & P. Co.-Trac-
 tion Company Is Com
 mon Carrier
WOULD DECREASE TAX

For the purpose of endeavoring to
 defeat bill in the house which would deprive Birminham of a large amount of tax collected from the Birmingham Railway Light and Power company, Assistant City Attorney James Q. Smith left yesterday for Montgomery. He went with instructions to explain to the lawmakers what the law will mean if
 adopted and will probably remain there
 all this week.
 The bill Is one which regulates the
 mon carried with intrastate work. Such a bill was defeated once, but another exactly similar has been introduced by Representative Stollenwerck of Mont gomery county.
 The measure provides a scale of cities
 based on the population. Tue privilege
 tax is placed accordingly. h the case
 of Birmingham. were the bill made q law, the greatest amount of special
 privilege tax, colectible against the
 Birmingham Railway, Light and Power company would be about $2000. At the present time MT. Smith says the city of Birmingham collects what he terms a just tax, about $50,000 or $60, 900, from the street railway com- pany. As the charter of the company expressly stipulates that 1t Is com
 mon carrier. and as 1t performs an in- tra- state business, the proposed enact ctf af a large sum of taxes and exempt the
 company from the payment of all money
 except the trifie of $2000.
 In the bill no city is listed with even 10000 population, and as Birmingham
 has twice this amount and then some, it is hard to see, according to MT. Smith. why the bill was so crudely drafted. MT. Smith in talking of the measure yesterday said he did not know what
 interests were behind the legislation
 and did not charge the local railway
 company with the bill's action. At the
 same time MT. Smith said the company could come out from the heavy Bir-
 mingham tax and take refuge under | the protection afforded by the proposed measure
 City Attorney Romaine Boyd is also interested In the measure, and while he does not care to be quoted as to the ef- fects of the bill. it Is known that he picked out the comforting passage 70,
 forded the common carriers of '-. ne
 cities and instructed the assistant city
 attorney to go to Montgomery and
 protect the city, It is probable that Captain Boyd will himself leave for
 Montgomery if the bill's passage be-
 comes at all imminent.
 Another measure which has called for
 condemnation from the city attorney office Is a measure repeating the pres ent road and bridge tax. Under the present statute, In the opinion of the
 supreme court, the city is entitled to
 about $35,O0O from this fund. The Board of Revenue, it will be recalled,
 resisted the payment of that tax, but
 was forced to pay 1t when sued by the city of Birmingham.
 A measure has been introduced for the repeal of that and if 1t goes through Birmingham will lose this sum
 Inasmuch as the city is now in po-
 sition to use all available funds, the city officers do not look with favor upon any measure designed to deprive the municipality of real money. MT. Smith, in his capacity as assist
 ant city attorney. will also point out in Montgomery the wrongs of that pro- posed measure and will try to defeat its
 enactment by the lawmakers. If he
 succeeds in preventing the passage of these two laws he will have saved the city of Birmingham probably $75.0O0 or
 more per year.
 The two measures are to be acted upon this week. and 1t may be that the civic bodies will be called upon to as-
 sist in their defeat should danger signs
 be hung out by the Birmingham repre- sentatives in Montgomery