Aberdeen herald. [volume] (Aberdeen, Chehalis County, W.T.) 1886-1917, 1912-05-06

a broad and general statement of
principle, such as, for instance, Penn
sylvania;
All taxes shall be uniform upon
the same class of subjects within the
territorial limits of the authority
levying the tax and shall be levied
and collected under general law"
Those constitutions have not ham
pered the people in adopting tax re-
forms, but they may do that which
is denied to us in taking advantage
OF the experience of other states in
tax matters. The best system OF taxa.
ton that was ever devised is lost
to us by reason of our constitutional
chains that bind us solely to the gen
eral property tax system.
Ideas Change.
In building constitution, no one
could write provisions on the subject
of taxation that he could be sure
would be applicable to the needs of
the people 20 years from the time it
was written. Certain it is, that our
state now feels the necessity of rid
ding itself of this constitutional re-
straint. A constitution, after all, is
but the will of the people nodded into
law and expressed in a written instru
ment, and it should be subject to
change whenever the minds of the
people change, and whatever is good
in the lines of taxation that has been
tried in other states, we should be
allowed to take advantage Of
Take, for instance. the question of
the separation of the sources of state
and local revenue. This matter has
been thoroughly tried in Wisconsin
and in Connecticut and is benb put
to the test in California. So far as
we are able to learn, the results have
been most satisfactory and beneficial
We believe that the legislature has
authority under our constitution to
adopt this system without any amend
ment to our fundamental law, but
that is a question upon which lawyers
differ However, nearly all the people
who understand what this means are
in favor of it. 1t means simply home
rule for the different counties on the
subject of taxation. 1t means that in
place of meeting an investor from
another state, on the threshold of
his Investigation as to the ACCESSIBILITY
If locating within our borders. with
a high tax levy, which is a matter of
record. we could shoW a very low
levy, and thus make his residence u
certainty. OF course, we always say
to persons seeking investment in our
state that our property is assessed
at only small percentage of it's value
but to the ordinary man this is hard to
prove. He absolutely knows what the
levy is, because it is a matter of
record, but he has only the bare state
ment of interested persons as to the
value of the property involved The
separation of the sources of state and
local revenue would mean, then, that
one county would not be depressing
it's values for the purpose of avoiding
revenue would be collected from pub.
lie service corporations and from the
indirect sources of revenue, such as
liquor licenses, inheritance taxes,
taxes on insurance companies, etc.
There are so many reforms that our
study of the question has convinced
us would be beneficial to the people
of our state that it is impossible to
treat of all Of them in one paper.
because people generally are prone
to pass lightly owe: matters regard.
ing taxation, and any paper that at
tempts to deal with the subject in
it's entirety would cause the average
voter to balk before beginning TO
read it,
We hope very much that the evident
interest being taken in the subject
Of taxation will continue and that the
time is not far distant when our
people will regard this matter as one
of the greatest importance-so i'm
portant that they will study it and
inform themselves to the end that
when it comes to vote they may
a true verdict render"