Ashland tidings. [volume] (Ashland, Or.) 1876-1919, 1912-10-24
GRADUATED TAX.
Homer Billings Opposes the Gradu-
ated Tax Amendment.

Editor Tidings: No measures
submitte dto the voters at the No
vember election call for closer study |
and the exercise of greater caution
than those affecting the revenue
policy of the state. By far the most |
radical of these is the bill designated
on the ballot as 364-65 and familiar
ly known as the graduated single
tax This measure aims to provide
all or a part of state revenues by
graduated tax on franchises and
rights of way of public service cor
porations and on land and natural
resources in excess of 100000" The
assigned first to the payment of the
countys share of state revenues, and
any residue may be used for the sup
port of common schools, for the con-
struction and maintenance of roads
and highways, and to meet other ex-
penditures of the county in the order
named. The bill further provides
for abolishing the present board of
state tax commissioners and creates
new commission consisting of gov
ernor, state treasurer and secretary
of state. BY far the most important
and distinctive feature of the act is
the clause which eXempts all person
al property and Improvements on
land from taxation except where the
people of any county decide by direct
vote to reimpose such taxes.
1t is against the deceptive features
of this act that the voter should be
warned. The first main provision of
the measure seems to rest on the
sound principle of a graduated tax.
The weight of economic opinion fa-
vors the application of the progress
sive principle as widely as possible.
1t is generally conceded that ability
to pay taxes (Which is the true
measure of ones fiscal obligation)
grows at rate more rapid than in
come. Larger incomes may properly
take a higher rate than the smaller
ones barely sufficient to meet the
expenditures for necessities of life.
But it must be remembered that the
principle of progression is sound
only when it applies to the total in
come of the taxpayer regardless of
the several sources from which it is
derived Income from corporate in
vestments, ownership of buildings,
stocks of merchandise, factories,
even salaries represent ability to pay
quite as much as economic rent de-
rived from the ownership of land
To impose a graduated tax on land
values alone is to discriminate, not
against all those receiving liberal in
: comes Ia form of discrimination
which within limits is permissible)
but to lay an extra burden on those
who are rich in one particular class
of property. The grounds for sucf
discrimination against land owner!
will be examined presently. Suffice
it to say here that the general doc
trine of progression lends no supper
to measure when one particula1
constituent in mans income is sin
gled out for special treatment ant
liberal accessions to his income from
other sources are altogether ignored
, The graduated feature of the tax a
. well as the liberal exemption allowed
rests on no sound principle and i
: obviously introduced to avoid the op
i position of small land owners,
This attractive feature of the bill
is thrust into the foreground to dis
guise and render more palatable
provision, which, to its advocates, i
0 unquestionably the core of the who'll
measure and which must be recog
l nized by its opponents as most dan
gerous and vicious in its tendency
BY a clause which is not made prom
inent but is purposely kept in tn
!. background the act exempts all per
sonal property and improvements
e not only from the operation of tn
specific tax imposed, but apparentl
from all other taxes imposed by stat
= and county governments. 1t is thi
+ inconspicuous paragraph, which t
r the casual reader might seem harm
d less, that converts the whole pre-
e gram into an out and out single ta1
Framers of the bill are known to b
'e avowed disciples and paid apostle
of the single tax creed and openl
Y and publicly have endorsed the phi
n losophy of Henry George in it's mos
+ radical form. Mr.. U'Ren, Mr.. Was
De non, Mr.. Stone and others have n
he peatedly declared in press and
he public meetings that they hope ult
H. mately to see all expenses of natioi
IN al, state and local governments mt
by tax on the unimproved value I