The herald and news. [volume] (Newberry S.C.) 1903-1937, 1920-03-30
WHY PAY THE OTHER
FELLOWS TAXES
Rv Senator NieIs Christensen.


An address delivered by Senator
Christensen at the Reconstruction
Conference held in Columbia re-
Gently.
i IS presumed here that all make
nroper tax returns. 4 great many
do not. They are 'the other fellows.
You find your tax rates for schools
CITY. county and state purposes
mounting at an extraordinary pace.
Sunday you read the news OF an IN
crease of 33 Is per cent for state
activities, and extra tax on all OF
US for road and bridge bonds put on
by the counties, each carrying local
levies averaging, perhaps, five mills,
in addition to state, school district and
conntv increases. Does not that jar
vou? 1t ought to. If it does not just
think what is coming to you next
wear if this thing keeps on.
Is it not time to find cut if you and
the other fellow are on the same foot
ing? Is anyone putting anything
over on you?
Complaints about high taxes have
heretofore come principally from
those who pay little or nothing to the
tax gatherer, men stirred by dema-
poeues with charges of extravagant
appropriations. Before the taxes did
not bother the enterpris!ng. Today
the demagogue is being joined IN his
complaint by the heavy taxpayer.
There may be some money wasted
by those who are spending it for the
state. Such waste should be looked
after and STOPPED. We have come to
a point where extension of the field
for public service should find a tenn
porary limit. But the principal prob
lem of our public finances has to DO
with outrageous methods Of getting
taxes, and not with our reasonably
decent tax expenditures. We will not
get far by criticizing appropriations;
unjust, unscientifc, slipshod tax ra's-
ing lies at the back Of our high levles
and the Just complaint of unfalrness.
Complaints come and go leaving US
officials high and low pledged to cut
appropriations, but the taxes steadily
increase under irresistible pressure
from the needs of a fast developing
commonwealth.
We need campaign for rewriting
the laws for getting our taxes. Inc
laws we now have do not operate and
our assessments of the property OF
individuals are for the most part
their voluntary contributions. Men
pay what they choose The result IS
chaos. Buildings of equal value
standing side by side in our towns,
adjoining farms of equal value along
our country roads, are down on the
tax books for amounts that have no
relation to their relative values.
There is a big lumber plant returned
at less than ten per cent of its worth
and a nearby country bank returned
for forty-two per cent. There are
sandy farms worth less than ten dol
lars per acre and ,rich farms in the
same township that could not be
bought for two hundred dollars per
acre. returned for eight dollars per
acre.
This is the result of our assessing
system formed generations ago for
conditions long since passed.
Under our system much property is
escaping taxation that is supposed to
return. Sources of revenue used by
other states are not used by us at all.
It is estimated, after careful IN
ouiry, that considerable percentage
of the real estate IN South Carolina
IS not on the tax books. In some Sec
ticns the percentage has been estl-
mated as high as twenty-five per
cent. A survey of the state showing
all property lines would cure this
situation and is feasible project. It's
cost could be paid out Of the taxes on
the recovered lands during the next
five years.
Millions of intangible properties
entirely escape taxation. We are re-
CURED, under our constitution, to re-
turn these properties at the same rate
as all other property and as this is
thoroughly impracticable it is not
done. To tax cash in banks on the
same basis as real estate and mer-
chandise would drive cash out of the
state. L would mean taking twenty
four per cent of the earning power of
mortgages and forty per cent of the
earnings of monies in savings banks.