The Dawson news. (Dawson, Ga.) 1889-current, 1920-09-14
THE TAX QUESTION.

THE TAX QUESTION.
The Moultrie Observer, in noting the diff
ferences which have arisen between the
state tax commissioner and the Terrell
county board of tax equalizers, says:
The state tax commissioners authority
will soon be put to a test, we should
guess His instructions to the tax assess
ors in Terrell county to increase the as
sessments forty per cent. have not been
complied with, and, furthermore, the state
commissioner, Mr.. Fullbrght, has been
informed that no further steps will be
made to increase the assessments. The
state commissioner, in his get-to-gether
! meeting with tax officers last winter, found
! that Terrell property was assessed below
/. the average, and he asked that the assess
ments be brought up this year to the
! average, which meant an increase OF Tor
! ty per cent, as stated above.
Our Moutrie contemporary states the
matter correctly with the exception that
Terrell couny property was assessed be-
low the average" heretofore. That is not
our understanding of the matter at all. The
fact is Terrell county property has hereto
fore been returned at higher valuation
than in the average farming county. In the
eternal quest of more money for the state
it was ordered that tax values in every coun-
ty be increased, and a certain percentage
was fixed for each to bring it up to the
average. 1t was the failure of Terrell coun-
ty to increase its taxes to this average which
has brought about the controversy with the
commissioner.
With the state tax up to the limit and
with everything and everybody imaginable
being taxed in every way conceivable
the board of tax equalizers feel that,
with assessments already higher than ever
before, Terrell county is paying reasona-
BILE amount of tax to the state and as much
as should be exacted.
The people of the state everywhere are
complaining of the ever increasing tax bur-
den and are beginning to inquire why the
interest of the man who pays the taxes is
not given some consideration. The object
of solicitude seems to be the institution or
department that spends the money-never
the man who pays it. AS Speaker John N.
Holder said in a recent speech at Dawson,
in declaring his unalterable opposition to
placing one penny more of tax on the citi-
zen's home or farm land, no one has ever
seen lobby in the state capitol during the
sessions of the legislature in the interest of
the taxpayers the men who dig into their
pocket for the money to foot the bills of
the government, whereas at every session
the legislative halls fairly swarm with lob
byists for new and larger appropriations.
Mr.. Holder has been member of the house
many years, and, as does every one else
who has served in the legislature, knows
that to be a fact.
Notwithstanding the ever increasing flow
of money into the treasury the states fl
nancial condition is now the worst in its his
tory. Expenditures are still mounting be-
cause an indulgent legislature appropriates
money without regard for results 1t sup
plies money without insisting on economy
and competency. 1t violates almost every
business principle, setting an example that
is almost religiously followed by many who
handle the peoples money. Officials, after
they have spent their allotment, finding they
need more money, get it for the asking. If
corporate and private business were con-
Quoted on the same plan crash after crash
would follow and financial ruin would get
the most of them.
1t is time to cut out the extravaganza,
time to cut out the politics which has run
riot everywhere since the beginning of the
late war, and get down to business