New Britain herald., 1915-03-31
THIRD HEARING ON
 CORPORATE EXCESS
To Bc Held by Finance Committee
 at Capitol Tomorrow.

 committee of the legislature yester- day announced that on Thursday it will hold third hearing on the cor porate excess tax, in order to give the corporations of the state an oppor- tunity to present their opposition to d proposed substitute for the original bill. It is understood that the lead CTS in the fight against the tax have sent out circulars to all the corpora tions of the state, asking the officers to not only attend themselves, but to bring as many of their stockholders as they can get with them. The fact that the finance committee is consld- ering substitute bill is taken as an indication that perhaps they favor the general pricipal of the corporate eX- cess tax.
 This tax is considered the most inn portant issue before the legislature this year It has been bitterly 'op- posed by the corporations. The adop- ton of such a tax as proposed would increase the states revenue by large sum, larger than by any other method, it is claimed.
 The corporate excess tax is a tax on the intangible value of cocpora- t'ons represented by the difference between their capital and outstanding debts and their tangible property and real estate. The original bill pro- vided for a tax on one-half of one per cent. on ti.e so-caHed corporate excess.
 State Tax Hearing
 The finance committee yesterday held a hearing on the bill for the levying of a regular two-mill state tax. The bill was not as bitterly opposed as it was expected. Repre- sentatives from several of the small towns objected. however, to such a tax unless, the assembly has eX- hausted all other methods of rais- ling money. The bill was favored, however, by Judge A. Heaton Rob- ertson, and Arthur c. Graves, of New Haven, who said that this was the proper way for the state to raise money and not at the expense of the corporations entirely. Judge Rob ertson said he thought a two or three mill state tax would be a fair one
 Representative Perry asked if they thought such tax would be very popular in New Haven. Judge Rob- ertson said he didn't think it would
 Tax Commissioner William H. Cor bin and Deputy State Treasurer Marsh also favored the bill.
 Wants New Computing Method.
 Several bills for change in the method of computing the state tax were favored by Commissioner Cor bin He proposed in one of these bills to apportion the tax on the basis of the towns revenue instead of on t11oi, c.1 md 1iSfc Ta l., rl,{ the grand lists in many of the towns are lower than they should be. By levying upon the income, instead of the grand list, the state would get much more nearly it's fair revenue In the income he would include the amounts paid to the towns by the state as their share of certain cor porations' taxes. He suggested also that the grants by the state to the towns for school purposes might also properly be included as income in this sense.
 Another bill he favored would in- clude in the grand lists of the towns the stock held by residents of the towns in corporations taxed by the state. This would mean a large in crease in the grand lists of many O. the towns.
 filings Bill Up Today.
 The bill introduced by John w. filling of New Haven which provides that the revenue derived from the taxation of stock life and stock fire insurance companies go entirely to the state instead of mostly to the towns has been set down for hearing before the finance committee today. The bill would immediately increase the states revenue by about $750,0OO, it is claimed.
 Several hundred people from Nor wich thronged the capitol yesterday af- ternoon to attend the hearing before the legislative committee on new towns and probate districts on the bill to cut offssa piece of the present town of Norwich into a new town to be L,