The Emmett index. [volume] (Emmett, Idaho) 1893-1925, 1911-12-14
THE TAX BURDEN

COuuuCIluS SOII VI OAu SlS'AA 4OAACo
''town-meeting" lin print) on the
tax problem. l have been away
up in the mountains, however, and
have not seen The Index for sever
al weeks, so l do not know what is
the present status of the discussion
or how the speakers stand, or what
particular aspect, if any, of the pro-
blem is now before the house"
1t occurs to me, however, that
at least three significant and perth
nent declarations might be made,
each pretty obvious to one who
has thought much about it., yet each
worthy of a separate article of the
dimensions in which participants
are supposed to express themselves.
These three declarations are,
these: (a) That we would not OBJ
ject so much to high taxes if we.
felt that we were getting good re-
turns for them, dollar for dollar,
in public service; OBJ that it is
poor public policy so to distribute
the tax-burden as to discourage i'm
provements by private owners of
land; and (c) that a disproportion-
ately large share of the taxes goes
to the school fund.
A discussion of this last aspect of
the tax problem would involve con-
siderable criticism of the Idaho
school system and its present mark
ed tendencies. So for the present l
VIII let that pass, merely remarking
that the recipient of the only tax
notice that l have so far studied
(have you studied yours?) is as
sessed $1,000 on homestead of $50
acres (only Sc an acre. and
$4,000 on the improvements-eve
cent, in wages and material that
it would cost to duplicate them.
The recipient o. this tax notice
is taxed S104 and $40, nearly half
o, it, is for the state and district
school fund, and We are not build
ing of paying for a schoolhouse,
either. The standardized" school,
in a district lie this, on Idaho
models, is a menace to thrift, and
a corrupt incentive to the teachers,
as well as a farce from the stand
point of true education.
Letting that pass, for the pre-
sent, let us see where some more
If the money goes to. In the
,ase before me (and the proportion
holds very nearly in your
,wn case) $14 go for annual ex-
,enditure on roads and bridges.
That would not be an unreasonably
arge amount for a small lands
'wner to have to. pay every II
months for repairing the highways
it is only four or five cents every
weekday, holiday and Sunday in ,
he year,, provided somebody would i
ee that the contractors who get I
light hundred or a thousand dollars
year for mending the roads really !
made good" But l have not yet
dleu WIN OuS VI lhSSC I.
grafters, who thinks,
nd l have talked with several who n
cry freely declare that they do b
OF think, that the men who are s
aid to repair the roads really earn d
heir wages. About the only thing q
lat we can do under the present
wv to increase the efficiency Of II
lese road-menders and most other q
ublic servants, is to arouse, a
aiken, unlease public opinion. " a
nd that is the valuable public y
,rvice which The Index Is =,
ow helping perform. Some of >
le big metropolitan dailies, that 9,
orse than waste more space than b,
Iere is in the whole Index, should &C
nulate it's example. l.
Certainly this matter of the lassi- L
de of state-paid Cor tax al
lid road-menders and all =.
q other holders of petty
,litical jobs that are too small
attract public notice, is an ample
that the masses"
ho countenance graft before ,