The Birmingham age-herald., 1913-05-24
Finance and Taxation Com
mittee of Chamber of
Commerce Reports
CALIFORNIA PLAN
is RECOMMENDED
Revenues of Birmingham Smaller
Than Any Other City of It's Size,
Ii is Said-To Call Meet
ing to Discuss Report

Declaring that the real trouble with
Birminghams finances is due to the fact
that our tax laws, like SO many of our
other laws in Alabama, were framed to
serve a rural population rather than a
city population and with the growth of
the towns within the last 15 years, must
be reformed" and that a remedy to this
lamentabe condition "can be found by
adopting the California plan, the report
of the finance and taxation committee of
the Chamber of Commerce, H. U. Sims,
chairman, was made yesterday, and de-
cared by President Harding to ''be the
ablest document ever presented Ito the
Chamber of Commerce"
The report is very extensive, and was
made at the board of directors meeting
of the chamber yesterday afternoon, 1t
goes fully into comparisons with taxation
methods from cities all over the country
which are about the same size as Bir-
mingham and similarly situated.
California Plan Recommended
The California plan suggested by the
committee as a remedy is local property
taxation for local purposes and corporate
franchise taxation for state purposes" "
This the committee states is the plan in
use in California cities, and which is
proving a complete success.
Ii is predicted that the report will be
made the basis of future legislation in
Alabama looking to a reform of the taxa
tion laws and statutes. The committee
recommends through the report that a
campaign throughout the state be started
for the adoption by Alabama of the Cal
ifornja plan, that the chamber requests
n "a q
to work out the plan in detail and pre-
mare a constitutional amendment to be
presented. to the legislature at the next
session. Such an amendment, 1t is said,
is the only real means of relief.
The report states that the city of Bir-
mingham has an annual deficit between
its expenditures and its income of $S3,-
S61.34 Unjust blame has fallen upon the
. present city administration and the com
mission form of government. states the
report because the commissioners have
not been able to conduct the city's AFFAIRS
within the cty's income. This is due
says the report, to the very simple TACT
that the city's income is far too small
The chief sources of income of the en-
tire list of cities picked by the committee
is property tax Property tax in Atlanta
is S, ,5SS, 900; in Oakland, $1,65S,000; in Wor-
cester, s2S7 900; in Syracuse, 21i3,OOO; in
Memphis 81 ,632, 900, and others of the same
size ranging around million and half
The property tax in Birmingham is
s436,0o0, states the report.
Revenues Too Small
The report claims that the revenues of
the city of Birmingham are far smaller
than any other city of its size in the
country and that the constitution of the
state prevents an increase being made in
property taxes. Another table is shown
to prove that Alabama cities do not get
a fair share of the state taxes, accord
ing to methods in use in other states.
The report states that no relief will be
given by reducing the limits of the county
to the limits of the city, but that many
inconveniences will accrue therefrom. 1t
then enters into the details Of the Cali
fornia plan and how it can be applied
to Alabama.
The report in fun will be published in
tomorrow's Age-Herald.
Secretary Radcliff was authorized 10
call a public meeting of the chamber to
discuss the report. Mr.. Radcliffe stated
the meeting will be called the first of
June, probably June 3. Final action on
the report will he taken then. The re-
port enthusiastically received by the
directors yesterday, but Mr. Sims stated
he wished them TO have ample time to
rt' slider il before any vote was taken.