Macon beacon. [volume] (Macon, Miss.) 1859-1995, 1918-05-03
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Letter From Big Bud.
Mr.. EDITOR:

Letter from bIg bud'
Mr.. EDIToR
As some of my constituents may
want to criticize Noxubee's representa-
tives for appropriating nearly thirteen
million dollars at the last session of the
Legis la .ure for the biennial period of
1918-l9l9, thought l would let them
See that this will not cost them very
much and that this amount was neces-
sary, as we had to increase the appro-
priations for nearly all of the state in
sttutions. Everything has advanced
SO much that we could not run on the
same money. Our last Legislature
p edged to reduce the expenses of the
state and had Inappropriate about $500, =
900 more than the income of the state
and this has been done for long time
and bonds issued to ray this excess,
and that is why the House urged the
passage Of an act making the tax levy
six mills as this would have brought in
enough money to have paid the ex-
penses but we hope with the increased
assessments and collections from the
intangible property that we have never
gotten on the tax roll we may pull
through without boEd issue. We had
to provide for the tuberculosis Hos
pital. the Reformatory, and new state
Hospital at Laurel, all these had been
established by the Legislature two
years ago. but had not gotten into
operation, but our county did not have
to pay anything on all these for the
past two years. Here is the state
ment from the Auditors report for
1917
Received from Noxubee County from
all sources. $39, 022 g. and paid back to
Noxubee County
For Public School Fund 49,. 1898, 539 40
For Pensions. ,...,.,.,..,... 5463 64
For A. h. School. .......... 1,727 81
Total .............,,..,..,$40 $40, 730 95
Deduct the overplus received
by county ...............S3 S39, VIZ 62
81, 708 33
Now this shows that every dollar
paid by our citizens for taxes is spent
in our county and we get from other
counties 81, 70S 33 and besides this the
other counties pay the $4,000 and mile
age paid to our Iour representatives
0ktibbeha gets S5, 986 SO more than
she pays in.
Fifty counties in the state pay in
the treasury $762, 719 SO more than they
get back and thirty-one counties get
back 1882 97l 45 more than they pay
in. 'Now this ought not so to be "
Each and every county ought to at
least break even. 1t is bad enough for
our county to be parasite, but | think
it is bad. for rich county like Monroe
to get S8, 6l4 36 more than she pays in
and has no Agricultural High School,
Winston County gets $40, 1889 more
than she pays in, Kemper gets $8,-
202 04
Our judicial district, composed of
Noxubee, Oktibbeha, Winston and
Kemper is certainly dandy, for this
district gets $26,6l2 10 more than it
pays in and besides the state pays the
salaries of all the representatives and
senators, iuoge, chancellor and district
attorney. We ought not to grumble,
if the other counties can stand it, we
can too. So do not say word ABOUT
high taxes, just regulate your county
affairs and all will be well.
| was very much in favor of an eff
cient state income tax, bnt it was
killed by the Senate, as it would nave
touched good many of their pockets.
The present state income tax, as ad-
ministered, is farce. | told Gen.
Vance that Kyle told me he was worth
a million dollars and he said, "No, sir,
Cavett, if my debts were paid | would
not be worth over Sl00, ,000." | felt
real sorry to know he was so poor.
said, ''let US see what income tax was
paid by your county (Panola) last
year." and the record showed that
$2.45 was paid to the sheriff, but the
revenue agent raised this to 1921 81,
and while | was laughing at him some
one suggested that we would see how
much income tax the great County of
Noxubee paid, and we found that Nox
ubee did real well, for we paid to the
sheriff $44 SO. Il wonder who paid this.
| did not pay any part of it, The
revenue agent came along and raised
this to 1929 81. The total income tax
paid in the whole state last year was
only $25, ,O68. % and Sill, 1913 So had
to be collected by the revenue agent
who got big commission for collect
ing this. Our cultivated lands are as
sessed at an average of Sl3S7 per
acre. Monroe's cultivated lands are
assessed at Sl9 48 and Lowndes cult
waited lands at $40 90 per acre. Oktib-
beha and Winston did not give in a
single gun. No one in these two
counties had more than one gun. Ok
tibbeha had thirty-eight hogs and
Winston had 78 for taxation (allowed
ten head all pigs under three months
old Monre had no diamond jewelry at
all while Lauderdale had $4,000 worth;
Lowndes did not have single oxen,
but had So, 065 worth of jewelry other
than diamonds. Lowndes county had
INV S1.2t0 monev on hand, while Nox-
ubee had S6, 493, 0ktibbeha had 81, 260,
Monroe $500 90 Noxubet had SIS, 700
in stove furnitnr' aud Office fixtures.
Lowrdes had S2S, 1896 while Nome oe
got along with only $500 90. Noxubee
h $lS,4 43l on deposit, while Oktib-
heha had not a co lar, NoxubGe had
IS, ,625 worth of furniture over the
S250.00 exempted. while 0ktibbeha had
only $500 90.
IIVerily think the above will con-