The Leon reporter. (Leon, Iowa) 1887-1930, 1912-01-25
TAXES ARE 100 hIGH:

Says senator J. U. DT0wn !" opccC''
Before Iowa Tax Commission
at Des Moines Last Week.
Senator J. D. Brown. of this city,
was one of the prominent men or
the state who appeared before the
Tax Commission at Des Moines last
week. Senator Brown is of the opln-
ion that the farmers of Iowa are
taxed too high in proportion to other
property, and he did not hesitate to
speak right out on the subject. His
speech before the commission Great
ed considerable of sensation and
the Des Moines papers gave consider
able space to him. The following
account of the meeting is taken from
the Register and Leader:
Members of the last general as
sembly who were active in securing
the passage of the bill providing for
the appointment of temporary tax
commission, appeared before the
commission in session at the state
house yesterday to discuss the rev.
enue laws of the state and propose
remedies for conditions that have
been cOmplalned or.
Those who addressed the COM
mission were Senator John F. Web
ber of Ottumwa, Senator H. w.
Spaulding of Grinnell, Senator John
D. Brown, of Leon, Senator A. G.
Savage of Adair, Representative L.
E. Crist of Osceola, Representative
Robert Odendahl of Carroll, and
Representative w. P. George or
Ames.
Yesterdays hearing was the last
! of the series of public meetings that
have been in progress before the
tax commission during the last two
weeks The commission adjourned
last night, and will not meet in Des
Moines again until next month. In
the meantime the members will work
over the many suggestions relative
to tax reform that have been offered
: by those appearing at the hearings,
and will revise the bills which have
been prepared for submission before
1.-The next general assembly, to incor-
porate the best of the suggestions.
NJ. H. Cohen, chairman of the COM
mission, said he believed the public
hearing had been Of great assistance
" luc COLu1u uloo4OlI. IIC oalu IuC AiOia
who appeared had ideas about the
machinery of tax laws and tax meth
ods that will be of important use to
the commission in preparing their
final recommendations in the way of
/ legislation. Mr.. Cohen said the hear
ings have been so we'll attended, and
productive of SO much good, it is pos
sible. another series. of hearings asA
be arranged. :
Senator Brown made the most i'm
passioned speech that has been heard
by the commission during it's sitting.
Senator Brown got the mistaken i'm
preston that Senator Webber, who
had the floor before him, argued in
favor of an increase in the taxes of
farm property. Senator Brown has
considerable farm property himself.
He said he was paying all on it he
could afford and that if the state did
not find way to reduce the tax levy
the, people would move away from
Iowa in greater numbers than they
have in the past. He said he might
be driven to move to Oregon him
self. if the taxes continued to grow
in the future.
Senator Brown is against the office
of county assessor and township as
SCISSOR as appointive offices. In en-
phatic terms he warned the commits
sion to leave the power of choosing
these officers in the hands of the peo-
pie.
A revision that will work to in
crease the tax on property and de-
crease the tax on improvements, is
Senator Spaulding's idea of one of
the largest items in the tax reform
movement. Senator Spaulding be-
lieves the encouragement of building
by low taxation is one move toward
keeping Iowa money at home and en-
courage building.
In the opinion of Senator Webber,
law taxing terminal properties of
railroads locally will never become
a fact in Iowa. He says the rural
members of the legislature never can
be induced to give up the pro rata
idea that benefits the township
through which the road runs, to aid
the cities.
Mr.. Webber's solution of the rail-
road taxation question is to turn the
revenue derived from the railroads
into a general tax, a state tax, to be
used in defraying the expenses of
state government, in such way de-
creasing the overhead tax of each
Individual" Mr.. Webber's sugges-
ton regarding the general tax is the
same as that advanced by Henry Wal
lace recently, which is employed in
several states in the country.