Americus times-recorder., 1920-06-01
$40 HEAD TAX
URGED TO MEET
SCHOOL DEFICIT
Club Committees Agree
on Plan For Rec
ornmending

dehnIte plan whereby the city of
Amerlcus would raise $4,000 need
ed to defray the added expense of
keeping the clty's schools open next
year was evolved and decided upon
today at meeting of the joint COM
mittee appointed by the Rotary and
/ klwanis Clubs, named to suggest a
| solution of this veXing problem.
/ Present at the meeting were r. p.
Stackhouse, chairman; w. W. Dykes,
Walter Rylander, Rev Silas Johnson,
Alton Cogdell, j. A. Hixon and E. Y.
| Andrews.
The plan finally adopted was joint
ly suggested by w. w. Dykes and j.
A. HiXon and the needed money, if
the plan be adopted, will be raised
! through the imposition of head
or commutation tax. This tax, it
was tentatively agreed, should be
placed at $40 per annum, and levied
upon every male inhabitant of
Americus between the ages of 18
and 60 years. The only persons who
would be made exempt under the
plan are those who are already ex-
empt from communication taxed under
the provisions of the Georgia statute
The tax will be made payable semi
annually, with the first installment to
be collected next October.
W. W. Dykes, who is vice chairman
of the Board of Education, explain
ed the needs of the schools, which are
already familiar to the people here,
adding that for the first time in the
history of the Board of Education
the board had been compelled by the
pressure of necessity to fix the sal
aries of teachers in advance of the
election in order to secure sutholsnt
applications from competent persons.
The money necessary to keep the
schools open, he said, would be bor-
rowed by the board, but it is impera-
tive that whatever relief is to be CIV
en- must be given promptly -,
Several plans to advance taxable
values sufficiently to bring IN the
revenue necessary to supply the needs
of the schools, and to also raise the
rate, were all discussed and tound
either unsatisfactory or impractical
as was also the suggestion that So
called ''invsible property" be made
to bear more than it does now OF the
community burden This plan, it was
asserted was wholly impractical
while the raising of taxable values,
it was shown, would require the rals-
ing of $4,000 in revenue in order TO
supply the $4,000 needed by the
schools. The proposition to raise
taxable values in the city higher thah
those in the county brought out the
fact that such a course might result
in a man having two affidavlts as 10
the value of the property, both con,
tanning different figures, on recors
here at the same time.
1t was recognized that the matter
of taxation is always a dlsagreeaDle
one to handle, and that few If any
solutions flax problems have ever
given complete satisfaction, but II
was the concensus of opinion that the
imnosition of a commutatlon tax OF
fers the best solution. The resolu-
ton adopted by the joint committee,
will be incorporated in report TO pc
made to the two organizations with
out delay, and the city authorize.
will then be invited to confer with
the two clubs and work a hnal plan
for raising the money which all rec
ognized is necessary to keep the
schools open next year.
After the adoption of the resolu-
ton J. A. HiXon was appointed a
committee of one to prepare Dill 10
be introduced in the legislature legal
izng the proposed plan and to begin
advertising the proposed local law I'M
mediately.