Arizona republican., 1914-06-04
LICENSE TOPIC VERY LIVE 0NE
 IN THIS TOWN
Citizens Learning Some thing of the Old Ordi- nance by the Light Shed Upon That Neglected In strument by the New

The people of Phoenix have learn ed more recently apout license taxes and kindred matters than they sup posed was to be learned The li- cense tax in Phoenix since ad urbe cOndita has been a rather nebulous affair in which the ordinary house. holder had little concern. Now the average householder is taking an all most proprietary interest in the new licenseordinance and is acquiring some information regarding the old one.
 Without waiting for the new to become operative, the city manager set about collecting what was due under theol6andthereisa great deal due, perhaps as much as $8,000. Those in arrears are coming in, that is, some of them are, having learned that the city manager means busi ness, and already several hundred dollars have been paid, some of the arrears running back several quarters. ! One man called yesterday to make a protest against the license tax of the new ordinance as it applied to his business. It was outrageous he said; he would not stand for it. He might have saved money by staying away from the city hall. It was shown to him that the new license so far as it concerned his line of human endeavor was precisely the same as the old, whereat, he mani fested surprise. His ignorance of the amount of the old license tax aroused suspicion and reference to the books showed that he was in ar rears for so long a time that he owed the city $45.
 Word was sent to him to come in and lquidate On his failure to ap pear policeman was sent with in structions to bring him in Then he came and paid the city it's due.
 It was shown by City Manage: Parish yesterday that the new ordi- nance insures greater equality as among occupations of the same class than the present one does. There was a concrete illustration of that fact
 One merchant learning that the city had determined to enforce the col lection of the license tax under pres ent ordinance called at the hall to make payment. He said that he came under the $1,5O0 class; that is his quarterly sales, he thought amounted to $500. The license tax for such a store is $6 a quarter. It
 was the opinion of the collector that the business was better than that and
 n the merchant and nuke further in Iquiry. The merchant repeated his
 statement Whereup the notary said
 that he would ask him to make an
 affidavit as to the truth of it. The
 merchant said that in that case he would have to have more definite in formation as to the extent of his
 business. He did so and found that
 his sales for the preceding quarter
 were between $25OOO and $26,O00
 That put him in the $22 quarterly ; class and the city was saved $l6
 for single quarter.
 Under the new ordinance there could be no guess work, every man would be put into the class where he should say under oath, and
 where his report would show him l to belong. , There has been a good deal of
 speculation as to the amount of money that will be raised by the < new license ordinance. Auditor , Cooper yesterday said that it would , be impossiblet make even a rough ? estimate of the amount by reason g of the uncertainty of the amount Q that would be produced by the mer- !, chants tax. Under the old or pres e ent ordinance, if all the license taxes 0 were collected there would be abou e $600O0 But only about $52,000 wa.
 collected last year. Tn new ordi S nance which fixes many of the taxes e higher and brings in many occupa t tions not hitherto taxed would 0 : lcourse, raise considerably more. e But the chief gain under the nev O ordinance will be made rather in tn V number of new ocupations taxed an'
 the higher merchants tax than il e the general increases of the taxes o e all ocupations for in a majority o e them there has been no increase a $ all Many of the clauses of the ol
 Continued on Page Six.)