The Bottineau courant. (Bottineau, Bottineau County, N.D.) 1895-1929, 1919-05-08
TAX COMMISSION
GIVES FIGURES
OFFICIAL REPORT SHOWS IN.
REASE WILL BE ONY TRIFLE
OVER S. A QUARTER

The total tax for all purposes this
year in the state cannot possibly ex-
coed $25,924,016 as against $2O,399,-
682 collected last year, according to
an official report recently made by
the North Dakota Tax Commission.
This statement which includes the tax
es to be raised for state, county, school
township and road purposes, proves
that the total increase in taxes can
not exceed % per cent and complete
ly refutes the wildly exaggerated re-
ports circulated about the state to
the effect that taxes would be from
three to six times as much as they
were last year as the result of the
Nonpartisan League program.
AS a matter Of fact the increase in
taxes probably will not be % per cent
for the estimate Of the Tax Commits
| sion was based on the largest possible
levy under the new laws and assumes
that county and township general tax
es will be increased 10 per cent and
that county and township roads and
school taxes will be 20 per cent high
! er. This is the maximum increase al
lowed by law. The estimate also as
| sumes that the state tax will be SEX
eral hundred thousand dollars more
than propably will be actually COL
lected.
Many Wild Guesses Made
Opponents of the Nonpartisan league
have let their imaginations run riot
in predicting increases Of taxes. This
has been done for political purposes.
Foes of the League program hoped
to brighten the farmers into voting
against the industrial program and
for this reason declared that taxes
would be two, three, four, five and
even six times higher. The report of
the State Tax Commission shows how
absurd and false these rumors are.
In the first place, the revenu COL
lected for state purposes is a very
small proportion of the total tax to
be paid. Last year the state got less
than nine cents out of every dollar
paid out by North Dakota tax payers.
The rest went for county, school, road
and township purposes. The largest
single item was for schools. The
schools got IS cents out of every dol
lar paid in taxation in North Dakota
last year and the counties came Sec
ond with an average of 80 cents out
of every dollar. The townships and
cities each took 13 cents out of every
dollar. ACKNOWLEDGMENT lie
dollar. This proves how impossible
it would be to double the taxes of any
individual even if the state taxes were
two or three times as great, for the
state taxes are a very small proper
ton of the whole sum paid.
League Program Costs Little
AS a matter of fact, this year the
state will get a trifle more than 16
cents out of every dollar paid in tax
es. The schools will get about 37h
cents, the counties nearly 27 cents,
the townships about IL cents, and the
cities and villages about eight cents
The actual cost of the Nonpartisan
League -program-that is the terminal
elevators and flour mills, the state
bank and the home building act-wil
be less than three cents on every dol
lar paid for taxes. This proves how
preposterous it is to blame the Non
partisan League for the slight in
crease in taxes.
The state taxes alone will be doubled
this year, but this will only ar
increase of eight cents on every dollar
paid in taxation. The increase il
state taxes is not caused by the League
industrial program , but is brought
about partly by the normal growth Of
the state with a consequent increase
in expenditures, partly by the in
creased prices in all lines, and part
ly by the neglect of previous admin
istrations. Many of the state insti'
tutions were allowed to run down ane
fall into disrepair by previous admin
istrations and the last legislature was
compelled to make large %appropria'
tions to bring up the state institu:
tions to the required standards.
~-~s~ Lk ~n Eo-~no~o