The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1916-02-16
HIGH TAXES.

as to high taxes between the editor
of the Medium and the local editor
of the Associate Reformed Presby-
terrain, in which the one charges that
taxes are higher than they should
be, and that the amount which the
taxpayer is called on to pay is con-
stantly increasing, and in which
the other says that taxes this year
are lower than in 1911.
We think that both are correct in
a way. But we call to the attention of
the editor of the Medium that the
taxes for the last three years are
higher than at any other time in the
last forty years except the n year
referred to-. In that year the levy
was one-half mill more than the past
year. But in that time there has
been a new assessment of the proper
ty of the county for taxation, and
in a great many cases the assess
ments were raised, and a man today,
while paying on a smaller rate of
taxation, may be and sometimes is
paying more taxes than in 1911.
Taxes may be raised either by rails
ing the rate, or by raising the as
sessment; and by raising the assess
ment, the taxpayer may have the
rate lowered and still pay more taxes
than formerly.
For the information of the people
of the county, we have published on
the front page of this issue, a state
ment of the tax levies for the past
forty-two years, in order that the
people may see just how taxes have
grown, and how much nor they are
paying now than forty years ago,
even though at that time there were
charges of gross Encouragement of
the county affairs. In 1890, the
Reformers came into power, winning
their fight on the assertion that taxes
were too high, that the government
was in the hands of "plunderers"
and the state ~"permeated with in
cipient rottenness." They have
in large measure been in charge of
the government.
But during all these years there
was little difference in the amount of
taxes levied for current expenses in
Abbeville County.
The first year that the current ex-
penses of the county called for a levy
of as much as four mills was in
1910, when the levy was increased
to that amount. In the following
year, the levy increased to six mills,
and we paid in addition one and me
fourth mills for past Indebtedness,
the county being forced to borrow
of the sinking fund commission the
sum of twenty-thousand dollars to
pay past indebtedness, which repre-
scented money spent in previous
years over the income of the county.
In 1912, we paid four mills, and
since then we have paid five mills
each year for current expenses, and
in the four years we have paid the
additional aggregate levy of five and
one-half mills for past Indebtedness,
amounting to about thirty-three
thousand dollars.
We undertake to say that the
county of Abbeville can be run on
as small a levy as in 1878, 1876,
1890 and other years. The county
was then almost twice sd large, it is
true, but we believe the figures will
show that prior to 1880 the entire
taxable property of the county was
only about six millions of dollars,
and that the county was then run
for something like twenty thousand
dollars, including the pay of officers
in that part now included in Green
wood County. In 1876, there was
only one bank in the whole of Abb
beville County, we believe; there
was no railroad except the Southern;
there was not a single cotton mill;
nor an oil mill. These corporations
are now paying to the county of
Abbeville more taxes than it took
to run the whole county prior to
1880. We spent last year some
thing more than fifty thousand dol
lars in one-half the territory where
we formerly spent only twenty thous-
and dollars. Why the difference?
We will undertake to tell you next