The Hartford herald. [volume] (Hartford, Ky.) 1875-1926, 1920-12-08
STATISTICS SHOW COAL
COUNTIES TAX PARASITES
Records Show They Do Not
Match State Aid for Own
~
Common Schools

pefiuchI Oidso, uldNiuS liOm luS /
State treasury money to support
their schools and courts in excess of
the amounts they contribute in
tases, only half reveals the extent |
OF their dependence, according to |
sta stistics in the Department of Edu- |
cation.
Everyone of them draws from the |
State for the support of its schools |
more than it contributes to them
itssif. Floyd draws four times as
much, Knox nearly four times, Bell,
Johnson, Letcher, Laurel, Mullen
berg and whitley three times, Har-
Ian, Hopkins. Ohio and Perry twice
as much, and McCreary nearly
twice as much.
sContrasted with these is Mason,
which produces nearly three times
as much by local taxation as the
State gives it for schools, and little
counties. like Robertson, Grant
Garrard, Carlisle and Robertson.
contribute more locally than their
schools receive from the State.
Farm Counties Pay More
Among the typical large agricul-
tural counties, the local budget in
Graves exceeds the State revenue re-
ceiy5d Tor school by $1,000. III
Henderson by $4,000. in Bourbon by
S12, 900, in Clark by $4,000, in Dav-
less by $4,000, in Warren by $11.-
OOb
The coal counties differ greatly
from agricultural counties in regard
to their school fund. Wealth and
population in agricultural counties
measure up proportionately, and
where they have little local school
revenue because there is little
e.,sssth, il invariably folloys that ;the
population is sparse, and they draw
little revenue from the State school
fund, which is distributed among
the counties and cities on per
capita basis.
In the coal counties population
multiplies increa sing the proportion
they draw from the State school
fund, but wealth on the tax dupli-
cate does not multiply so fast Con-
sequently, the greater the popula-
ton, the more dependent their
schools are upon the State fund,
which is drawn from agricultural
counties and the cities.
Amendment Is Planned
For the purpose partly OF rectify-
irg this situation and partly to en-
courage local support, a constitu-
tional amendment will be submitted
in November, 1921, to permit the
distribution of 10 per cent of the
State fund among counties on some
basis in proportion to the local ef-
fort to support the county schools.
Judging from the figures availa-
Bile for the fiscal year from July l.,
1919, to June so, 1920, no other
section suffers as much in this re-
spect from coal development as the
native population of the coal coun-
ties. They derive from local taxa
tion for schools little. il any more
than they did before, while the in
creased per capita drawn from the
State fund on account of the growth
of population, largely goes into the
independent graded districts, which
surround the coal operation.
What proportion of the assess
ment of these counties is embraced
in the graded districts and exempt
from school taxes is not known, but
the new law requires this TO be set
forth in the tax sheets for the as
sessment now being recapitulated,
and State Superintendent George
Colvin had sheets prepared for this
purpose.
Unjust to Rural Schools
The custom has grown up in the
mining counties, as elsewhere
throughout the State, to vote grad
ed districts in the richest sections
OF the counties. The people and
corporations in these districts pay a
tax to support their own local
schools and, are exempt from con-
tributing to the support OF the coun-
ty common schools. Some OF the
coal counties. particularly IN >the
mountains, contain camrs larger
than most OF the fourth-class cities
but un'ncorrorated owned in their
entirety by one concern, which rents
houses to the miners, conducts the
''ores and owns the hotels and sun
norts and controls the graded
schools MANY have hrst-ciass