Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1920-04-07

TAXABLE personality. 1d.O0SS1O 3o.u
II Washington had been taxed
in 1918 ~ per cent instead OF u in its
city tax levy alone 1t would have ex-
ceeded the state. county and city tax
levies Of such cities as San Francisco,
New Orleans, Minneapolis, Newark, Gin
cinnati. Milwaukee, and Seattle. and its
per capita would have exceeded that Of
every great city in the United States.
except Detroit Detroit's 1918 per cap
!tas are out Of proportion with those Of
other cities, largely because the city. by
extensions has nearly doubled in tax
able area since 1910 adding 39.43
square miles). while the increase Of pop
ulation since 1910. as estimated by the
census. takes no note Of this doubling In
mate for Detroit. the figure used in cal
culating the per capitas. was only $685.
600, while in that year Detroit was
claiming vigorously over $4,000 and in
1919 over a million population. Obviously,
Detroits per capita is undnly ENLARGED
as result of crediting it in 1918 with
less than two-thirds of its actual pop
ulation.
1t appears from the table that If the
2k per cent tax rate had been substt-
tuted for the ~ rate in 1918 there would
have been collected from the 81. 1888 res
idents> Of non industrial, nOn-commer-
cial, comparatively resourceiess WASH
ington, from its restricted personally
and a fraction of it's realty almost as
much in city taxes alone as the 594.637
citizens Of great. rich and busy Bait
more paid in all kinds Of taxes-city.
county. state. school district ETC., etc.
and its city tax per capita would
have been 81 per cent more than Balt1-
more's per capita Of total city, county
and state taxes.
- Population. pep MA ion capita apt =;
saisimo a so '..... ss4.sss 1898. sos ss.os
Let US make similar comparisons
with some others of our great. rich.
commercial. industrial cities. practi-
tax list and which do not suffer elimi-
nation, as Washington does, Of 36S mil
lions of exempt realty.
Washington city property taxes
alone would be more than the COM
bined city. county And state take. Of
by s2.375,627. OF Minneapolis by
$2.356,Sss. of Cincinnati by $1.7SS.456,
of Seattle by $1,662.09O. Of New
Orleans by $5.767.786, of Indianapolis
by more than six million, OF Kansas
City by five and a half or six millions,
ably more than double ST. Paul and
Louisville. a little more than In
dianapolis and st. Paul combined
In per capita the other cities would
have to be increased from % to "a per
cent to reach that OF Washington.
Seattle is an exception. Its per
capita would have to be increased only
12 per cent. Like the other great
Pacific coast cities. Seattle produces
big things. big vegetables. big fruits,
big thoughts. big projects. big expendi-
lures, big taxes: Even the smaller
Pacific coast cities have caught this
spirit. San Diego. for instance, shows
in the census the largest property tax
per capita in the United States. Wash
ington is not in the Pacific coast city
class for the purpose of these COM
parisons Comparable cities are its
conservative neighbors of Atlantic
slope and southern and middle west
environment. -. .-.- 49,
State and City Tax C0mparisons.
Let US compare Washington's per
capitas under both the I u and the pro-
posed 21z per cent rate with the total