The Bourbon news. [volume] (Paris, Ky.) 1895-19??, 1913-10-21
TAX LAWS IN KY.
CAUSES EVASION
Present Unsatisfactory Laws
Responsible for Small
Returns
Retard Development and Lower Stand
ard of INTERPRETATIONS To Secure
Better System of Taxation Has
Been Persistent for Fifteen Years.

Frankfort Ky.-(SpeciaD- The eff
forts to secure 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 a report of a commission APP
pointed in another state and it APP
plies in all respects to our present
tax system.
"The personal property tax is
farce. 1t falls inevitably upon the
comparatively few who are 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 its workings and un-
just in it's results. These recon-
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 it's
present form abolished.
$50 far as the personal property
tax attempts to reach intangible forms
of wealth, it's administration is so
comical as to have become a byword.
Such 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
l skillful enough to make non-taxable
investments"
The state referred to has changed
it's tax system and already the receipts
from taxation have increased enor
mously and the peculiar effect of il
has been to lower the taxes on lands
and improvements by securing great
. err revenue from personal property
which had formerly produced little Of
no returns.
Kentucky must increase it's revenues
to keep up its schools and public in
situations and it would be manifest.
unfair to make the property at preseu
paying taxes sustain this added bur
den, but under the present law Their
is no other recourse.
If the amendment carries and tn
legislature is empowered to classif
property so as to bring under the as
SCISSORS scrutiny the vast amount /
personal property now escaping taxs
ton the revenues can be increase
and taxes on lands and houses dimi1
ished and what is more important tina
all We will be able to develop our r,
sources, maintain our population an
attract capital and people who wi
help to build up the state.
Ohio has recently changed it's ia
laws and has already been benefite
and Tennessee is about to renounc
the general property tax. Othe
states have either long since aholishe
it or are preparing to do so.
- The present system in Kentucky We
popular when the country was your
and wealth largely confined to re
estate which could not be hidden.
Wealth is now largely in person
10 securities which the assessor can NJ
80 locate and in consequence this class
81 property escapes almost entirely.
mr. Can we afford to neglect this gre
We question and yet hope to compete wi
We neighboring states which are less
ng vored than ours naturally but ha
z the advantage Of cheap money and lO
I. taxes?
If the amendment fails to carry t
next census win low that Kentuci