The Republican journal., 1912-03-28
STATE FINANCES.
Extracts From an Address by Hon. Vim. T.
Haines of Waterpille

Hanes of Waterville.
"But the subject of good roads is not
the only question that involves State
finances. The revenue of the State is
always the subject of political discussion.
In our State we have grown up system
of taxation, very simple in the beginning,
but which has become very complicated
and hard to understand by the average
taxpayer. 1t is the result of numerous
! efforts made from time to time to distri-
butte and equalize the burden of taxation,
and the present Democratic administra.
ton are trying to create an impression
that they are performing miracles with
State finances. For great many wears
prior to 1910, the assessments made
against the property of the State have
been from 2 IA to mills on a dollar and
we have developed during this period
system of corporation taxes assessed
against railroads, telephones, telegraph,
express and palace car companies, saw
ings banks, t.ust companies, loan and
building assoc atoms, insurance COM
panies and ge raj franchise tax which
in the year 1911 amounted to the mag
nificent sum of S 1872, 747.1S. There are
some other receipts which come into the
State treasury, but the public burdens,
so far as the State goes, are largely
borne from the direct tax and the fran
chlse tax, and these franchise taxes have
practlcal'v all come about within the last
twenty We years nd are increasing
every year, so that the part which has to
be p ID by direct taxation is growing
rel;. lively smaller all the time. When
we pay our tax of q mills to our tax COL
e-tors, IA to 16 mills of it generally goes
INTO our own municipal treasures for
our own town or city affairs and in ad-
dltlcn to that, nearly as much as the
total direct assessment made for the
benefit of the State, is paid by the State
treasury back to the different towns for
the benefit of the common schools. Thus
the State becomes practically clearing
house or a collecting agency for the
towns and cities, so that the real burdens
of the State, including the maintenance
of our charitable institutions, our hos
pitfalls, our public officers, our judicial
system, and our higher institutions of
learning, are all paid, and more than
paid, from our corporation taxes.
Our present Governor and State Au-
dltor are making strenuous efforts to
convince the people that they have real
ly something to do with the amount of
money that is being spent by the people
of Maine in its government.
"By the last appropriation bill of 1912,
the result of the work of the last, and |
can say perhaps the first, land l hope to
say later the only Democratic Legis-
lature that the State has had in modern
times, this bill for the year 1912. amount
ed to So. 044, 592. l think there has been
none since the Civil War, except that O.
1000 uhicb
passed the 81, 900, 900 mark, and you will
remember that the Legislature of 1902
took upon itself the burden Of establish
ing the school for the Predetermined, OF
rebuilding the State house and raising
extraordinary large app OPERATIONS for
the Eastern Maine General hospital and
other hospitals and educational institu-
tons which the people of the State de-
manded.
i "a Governor may exert his influence
upon the question of economy and he has
the veto power, but the matter of State
, expenditure rests with the peoples rep
resentatives in Legislature assembled,
and they are very likely to follow the de-
mands of the people whom they repre-
sent; and the year 1911 brings us the first
Governor, attorney general and secre-
tary of State who claim to have paid all
ChC Diiio tAOihoClVSo, anu Vic lISL otdt6
auditor, whose reports contain stump
) speech, in which he shows that those bills
cannot be paid without his consent, and
the rate of mills on dollar which was
assessed for the year 1911 by the Demo-
cratic Legislature upon all the property
of the State took the greatest sum Of
money from the peoples pocket by di-
rect taxation that has been taken by any
Legislature for the purposes of State
government since the days of the Civil
War. 1t may be true that more appro-
priations were made by the Legislature
of 1909, and no one remembers of any
objection being made by Democratic
} leaders or the Democratic press to any
especial appropriation, and have yet to
. hear from the present Democratic ad-
ministration any criticism of any par
ticular item in the appropriation bills for
! that year. Certainly it has not been
made against the repair of the State
house; and the claim by Gov. Plaisted
that since he took office, that he had
paid over million and a half for dead
horse, and saved over a million to the
people of the State, is simply juggling
of figures and pure buncombe for politi-
cal purposes. The Legislature makes
the appropriations and the Governor and
council pay them out as required by law,
and in no other way, and the auditor au-