The Washington herald., 1915-09-26

ington in the comparison of Washing
tons city taxes with the total of city,
county and State taxes in other cities
is in the inclusion of the general gov
ernment" item of State and county taxes
in the tax burden which Washington is
to duplicate. Washington enjoys none
of the privileges or benefits of a State
or State government of its own. When
Washington is part of the State and
enjoys the expenditure within it of its
due share of the State fund to which
thousands of State citizens outside of
its limits contribute, it will be equitable
to permit full State taxation to enter
into its comparative per capita tax
figures. When Washington has Senators,
Representatives and a State legislature
and government it will be equitable for
it to pay for the continued enjoyme mt
of such luxuries in the shape of a
State tax for general government" But
1t is obviously and grossly inequitable
for the purpose of this comparison to
include the amount which the taxpayers
of other cities = pay as State taxes
specifically for valuable benefits and
precious privileges which are absolutely
denied Washingtonians.
Comparison Is Creditable.
Subtracting' the item of general gov
ernment' per capita State expenditures
from the totals of city, county and State
taxes, Washington's city tax alone aver
ages creditably in comparison with the
per capita of total taxes of city, county
and State in other cities. When the per
capita interest payments are subtracted
from the figures for all the cities to as
certain the needs of the present and
future alone, Washington's tax-burden 10
distinctly as heavy as those of the cities
with which it is most appropriately COM
pared
For example, subtracting from the
total per capita of all city, county and
State taxes, only the State expenditure
item of general government and
omitting the interest payment item from
the figures for all the cities including
Washington, Washington's comparative
taX-burden. thus measured, is greater
than that of such cities as Philadelphia.
Cleveland, Baltimore. Cincinnati New
Orleans. Newark, Jersey City, Indian
apolis, Providence. Denver and st. Paul.
and is only little less than that Of
such cities as St. Louis, Milwaukee.
Minneapolis and Seattle.
g. Washingtons equitable tax-burden
should be among the lowest per capita
in the country. 1t is conceded by the
reasonable that non-industrial. non-com
mercial Washington, with the small tax
payers in government employ constitut-
ing the city's financial backbone, is
poorer in taxable resources than the
average American city of its size, and
is less able to bear the same tax bur-
den. No other city has so large a per-
centage of property exempt from taxa
ton as the National Capital, with a very
large fraction of the city's realty held
fr~ IT,. h. -,,tt .o%1
and within that exempted fraction of the
city's only great industrial plants and
factories. Extraordinary exemption of
taxable values make the same burden
weigh the heavier upon the taxpaying
fraction of the community. No other
city, perhaps, has so large a percentage
of non-tax paying transients who figure
in the census but not in the tax lists as
which from its very nature.
as the Nations city, is unstable and
shifting in population. Nearly 30 per
cent of its people are colored and this
fraction pays a far smaller proportion
than 30 per cent of the total taxes. The
disa bilities, commercial, Industrial and
political. which attach to legal residence
in the nations city, tend to cause those
who live within its boundaries to secure
or retain legal residence elsewhere and
to keep off the city's tax list. Thus the
non-tax paying census population which
reduces the nominal per capita tax levy
without reducing 1t in fact by cash con-
tributions, is al maximum and the tax
able resources at a minimum, with the
result of serious disadvantage to the
District in per capita compa risons. How
much per capita of tax levies could
Baltimore. New Orleans.
Cleveland or Milwaukee afford
to pay if its largest tax payers, the own
ers of it's mills and manufacturing plants
were omitted from the calculations; i'll
one-half of the built-up section of the
city were exempt from taxation, and
If an extra ordinarily large percentage of
it's population were transients or nom
taxpaying for other reasons?
Above the Average.
It is conceded also that the tax-burdens
Of many American cities contain factors
which represent conditions not found
here. and that in estimating equitable
of the Washingtonian the
sums representing these factors may be
since its government by Con-
gress, under national safeguards, pre-
vents graft and renders unnecessary and
unfair any compulsory tax contribution
to meet expenses of this character. There
are also certain expenses of sustaining
government which do not |
need to be raised by Washington, since
it is denied all representative govern
ment and which ought not to be duplicat-
ed in figuring its equitable tax-burden. |
1t is conceded that on the whole the |
equitable per capita |
ax-burden should be somewhat less than
that of the citizen of the average in
dustrial, commercial American-city ap- |
Washington in size, location.
and general conditions.
The figures which have been given
show that Washington's per capita tax
burden, instead of being below the aver
age, is distinctly above it: and that the
few among comparable cities which ex-
ceed il in tax burden exceed it only
and that many cities that ought
to bear and are able to bear far
heavier burden fall below it, even when
standards OF comparison are employed
which in effect imply the unfair taxation
of the Washingtonian for what he does
not get.
10. The burden imposed by Congress
upon the local taxpayers is fully as
heavy as that which the average self
governing municipality imposes upon It.
self, and, in view of the Capitals lack
of taxable resources and other peculiar
disabilities under which the District of
Columbia labors. its tax is harder to
bear than that of the average American
Under the operations of
the "half-and-half' law the Washing
tonian is clearly paying all the taxes
that he should. His per capita tax-bur-
Of the ''half-and-haif'' law and
NJ he