The Adair County news. [volume] (Columbia, Ky.) 1897-1987, 1913-10-29
TAX LAWS IN Ky.
CAUSES EVASION:
Present Unsatisfactory Laws
Responsible for Small
Returns.
Retard Development and Lower Stand.
ard of NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS. To Secure
Better System of Taxation Has
Been Persistent for Fifteen Years.


forts to SECURE a better system of taxa
ton for Kentucky have been per-
sistent for fifteen years but owing to
the ironclad restrictions in the state
constitution it is exceedingly difficult
to secure any change.
Tax commissions have repeatedly
been appointed by authority of the
legislatures and these commissions
have unanimously condemned the gen.
eral property tax which was adopted
by the last constitutional convention
and as the law is constitutional it has
been impossible for the legislature
alone to repeal it.
However, the last general assembly
undertook to amend the constitution
as provided by law and this amend
ment will have to be ratified by the
people at the November election and
if it fails to carry it cannot be voted
on again for another five years.
The effect of the present law is to
drive people and money from the state
and to prevent other people and money
from coming in and building up our
industries.
This is how the general property
tax is regarded by outsiders as indi-
Gated in report Of a commission ap-
pointed in another state, and it ap-
plies in all respects to bur present
tax system.
1.-THE personal property tax is a
farce. 1t falls inevitably upon the
comparatively few who vare caught.
The burden it imposes upon produc-
ton is out of all proportion to the
revenue it produces.
Year after year state and local as
sessing boards have denounced it as
impracticable in it's workings and un-
just in its results. These recon-
mendations have for the most part
passed unheeded or have led to in
effectual attempts to bolster up the
law. 1t is time the situation was
faced squarely, and the tax in its
present form abolished.
$50 far as the personal property
tax attempts to reach intangible forms
of wealth, its administration is so
comical as to have become a byword.
Such a method of collecting
revenue would be a serious menace
to democratic institutions were it not
so generally recognized as a bowling
farce.
"But it is not a farce to those who
are fully assessed. These are chiefly
the widows and orphans who are
caught when their property is listed
nj the probate court, farmers, retail
merchants and others, incorporated or
unincorporated, with stocks of goods,
and the small investors who are not
skillful enough to make non-taxable
investments.
The state referred to has changed
its tax system and already the receipts
from taxation have increased enor-
mously and the peculiar effect of it
has been to lower the taxes on lands
and improvements by securing a great
er revenue from personal property
which had formerly produced little or
no returns.
Kentucky must increase its revenues
to keep up its schools and public in
situations and it would be manifestly
unfair to make the property at present
paying taxes sustain this added bur-
den, but under the present law there
is no other recourse.
If the amendment carries and the
legislature is empowered to classify
property SO as to bring under the as
SCISSORS scrutiny the vast amount of
personal property now escaping taxa
ton the revenues can be increased
and taxes on lands and houses dimin-
ished and what is more important than
all We will be able to develop our re-
sources, maintain our population and
attract capital and people who will
help to build up the state.
Ohio has recently changed it's tax
laws and has already been benefited
and Tennessee is about to renounce
the general property tax. Other
states have either long since abolished
it or are preparing to do. so.
The present system in Kentucky was
popular when the country was young
and wealth largely confined to real
estate which could not be hidden.
Wealth is now largely in personal
securities which the assessor can not
locate and in consequence this class of
property escapes almost entirely.
Can we afford to neglect this great
question and yet hope to compete with
neighboring states which are less IA
vored than ours naturally but have
the advantage of cheap money and low
taxes?
If the amendment fails to carry the
next census will show that Kentucky
has moved down another peg or SO in
its standing among the states and
those at present paying taxes will in
evitably have to pay more on the
same propertv while others will AaI