The Birmingham age-herald., 1915-04-10
LETTERS TO EDITOR
Bowie Replies to Copeland
le Editor of Tn eAge-Herald.

To the Editor of Tn eAge-Herald. | l note, pr. Copeands letter in your is- l, sue of the 7th inst. My speech at the au- | dtorium was not intended as a review of | pr. Copeland's letters in The Age-Herald I merely referred to one statement which 1 he made in his letter of March 1S as fol- 1 lows:
 "In the first place. it would be necessary
 to raise the tax rate mills on the dollar
 before the money could be realized on these bonds"
 1 This statement is not correct. To the contrary, one-half of all the property l taxes, or mills, is made to bear the en- ! tire burden of the city government, which includes the maintenance and care of streets, police and fire protection, schools, 1 libraries, parks and playgrounds health
 and sanitation and all other municipal ac- 1 tivities, and the remaining mills is | used, exclusively first, for the purpose of paying interest on the bonded indebted
 ness of the city, and what remains is 1 required to be applied to a sinking fund This forces upon the city the burden of paying the interest upon the floating debt
 out of the general fund which is already
 overwhelmed, and if the bond issue car 1 res, it will transfer it to that fund in which there is a large annual surplus at | this time. Moreover the rate of interest which the bonds will bear will be ma
 terially less than the rate of interest which the floating debt bears. It, there
 fore, would not be necessary in any event
 to raise the tax rate in order to float these bonds.
 In his next statement, he says: "I wish
 to quote Judge Oscar R. Hundley and
 Hon. Felix Blackburn as saying that these
 two measures were adopted by the com 1 mittee of 100 as twin measures" l If Judge Hundley and MT. Blackburn
 made such sta tements they were equally
 in error. The resolutions indorsing the bond issue and the proposed constitu- l tional amendment (which did not raise
 the rate of taxation, but merely author | ized the people of Birmingham at a sub
 sequent election to do so if they thought well of iD, was divided into separate
 parts, and the demand of Judge l Hundley himself vote was separately 1 taken on each. because they were in fact ! different and in no way dependent one on l the other. Judge Hundley opposed the l constitutional amendment, but neither he nor MT. Blackburn offered the slightest | objection to the resolution indorsing the l bond issue. Upon the contrary, the lat 1 ter resolution was adopted without dis l senting vote and without objection ex- pressed from any quarter
 To show pr. Copeland that he Is in er- TOT in saying that the propositions are twins, 1t is only necessary to state that the bond issue was brought forward by separate independent subcommittee. It was introduced in the house and senate as and .l a separate measure, and is being voted on by the people of Birmingham separate measure.
 The proposed constitutional amendment came from a different subcommittee and
 has never been passed by the legislature,
 but, upon the contrary. as am informed, there are serious objections to it from some quarters. Whether 1t will ever pass the legislature or not. don't know, but if 1t does pass the legislature, it will not affect or increase the tax rate To the contrary, it will first have to be ratified by majority of all the voters of the state, and thereafter in 8 separate eleo- ton. by an express vote of the people of Birmingham.
 Dr. Copeland insists that we should have equalization of taxes before the peo- pie of Birmingham will ever have an op- portunity to vote for an increase of taxes. Should the constitutional amendment pass the legislature and be ratified by the peo- pie we will have had an opportunity to try out the question of whether equaliza- tion of taxes will produce the revenue
 which the city of Birmingham needs. The committee which recommended the const-
 tutional amendment also recommended
 equalization of taxes. The latter will come
 through an act of the legislature, which
 is bound to take effect before the consti-
 tutional amendment can take effect.
 The subcommittee on permanent relief
 in its report to the committee of 100 on
 this point expressly said:
 If sufficient revenue to run the city
 should at any time be realized by equal
 ization (and many citizens insist that equalization will produce sufficient rev. enue), there would be no necessity for the voters of the city to authorize, and they could refuse to authorize, tax levy in
 excess of the present rate of per cent. under the constitutional amendment pro- posed, if adopted"
 Consequently, if equalization of taxes will give the people the relief which some suppose, then the question of increase in the tax rate will never arise.
 I take issue, however, with Dr. Cope land on the point that if we could get equalization of taxes, the bond issue would not be necessary.
 In the first place we have had a great deal of machinery for the equalization ot taxes at work in this state and county the first things undertaken by Governor Comer's administration. Since that time tax values in Jefferson county have been raised more than $94, ,000.O00 and tens of thousands of cases have been tried dur ing that period either before the state tax commission or before the county board of revenue or the courts of the county b