The Telegraph-courier. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1888-1946, 1913-11-06
WAS AID TO THz GOVERNOR
Milwaukee Man Declares that Taxes IN
the State Continue to Grow and That
All Parties with Hand in Law Max
ing are to Blame for Increase.

Ellis Usher of Milwaukee hits sharp
~ at the taxation question in his
weekly news letter sent out from Mil
Waukee. Mr.. Usher has been close
student of state problems and his dis
cussion of the question will prove in
teresting. He says:
The melancholy days have come,
the saddest of the year 1t is tax fix
ing time this month. Next month it
will be tax paying time. 1t is time
therefore, for little heart to heart
talk with the readers of these letters.
| have several years kept repeating the
warning that every sort of taxation
was growing, by leaps and bounds,
and that at the same time indebted
ness, especially municipal indebted
ness, was growing as fast or faster
than taxes. In other words, the high
er our assessments the more tax
money we were spending in every
grade OF government, and the more
W. Woio OOi1UWluS. Il AuUW GAlS Gun
tinual talk has given some readers the
tired feeling" and they have
thought me "a Crouch and a pro-
fessional Pathfinder, and have pleas
antly gone on record to that effect.
Now it appears that the truth has not
been told, because it was nowhere to
be had. When Governor McGovern
RENTED the state tax, last year, this
correspondent pronounced it cheap
campaign move. When the governor
compelled a showing Of the details of
the last legislatures appropriations
these letters commended him. There
is no choice of politics in the taxa
tion measures of last session. Demo
Gratis, republicans and socialists were
practically all in favor Of all the
measures that increased expenses.
This week the state tax RENTED
last year has proved up for me. 1t
has been added to this years tax, and
a state tax of about $8,000,0o0, is the
pretty penny the people must "pony
up beside the income tax. Don t let
the figures be shrunk to $70O0,000.
That S the old game OF throwing dust
in the eyes of the public. The state
treasurer has said that he paid out
for the fiscal year, ending June 30th
last, over $16,000,000. The treasury
was short nearly 100000 that was
RENTED last year. So, adding that,
as has been done, to this year s taxes,
the expenses of Wisconsin are going up
to about 500, 100000 for the year that
will end with next June, and even then,
we are told that whole batch of state
works must be postponed. Who has the
authority to postpone works for which
the legislature has provided Every
new condition of the taxation situation
is worse than the last. The facts no
longer rest on anybody's assertion.
They will now be embodied in this
years tax bills.
This high cost of living' is, good
deal of it, put into the cost of the ma
chinery for running the. state. Not
many years ago Wisconsin got on fairly
well, without a tax commission Dur
ing Governor La Toilette s first admin
istration the tax commission cost $31,-
564, for the two years. Ten years later
the biennial cost Of this commission has
grown to $180,281. That increase is
about neck and neck with the ratio of
increase in our state assessment. The
railroads will alone pay about as much
IN taxes, this year, as the entire re-
ceipts of the state treasury in 1890.
1t makes no difference what complexion
man s politics may have, or to what
faction of either of the various parties
ne may belong, if he is a tax payer
and has any sense, he must see that
this sort of extravaganza is full of
peril. Every man pays taxes, unless he
IS pauper or criminal, and therefore
supported wholly by the state. If he
pays board, or pays house rent, he is
paying his landlord taxes. Nobody
escapes. 1t is all found in the high
cost of living.