Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1921-03-30
'SIEHOeRAPalC REPORT


A0SOOOeSs~S sSSO ssSs WV
h!,i csakiaoed frun paoo FSvs)
l-so De~fs0w Hsao Bowdoin Col
tAn@a Q hAy We s0pesEea. There
lSoe Interest business men
go IN oser the State who appeared In
5aDanoeapA. I'D ameog the0 was the
sRusEnxy a tAe American Federation
- xaher at tho State OF Maine. who
.~B ssnk here by kts association to
,enr AGAINST this bin. The lady
vhe- appeared brought out n the hear
fhe eha4 she thought the women OF
- State did not vote fntengently
u,ou this amendment hast September.
! 1T I think can provo 10 you that
: s2,sy rpust have known and understood
when they were voting. You will re-
member that there were four amend
n,ents voted upon at that time. On
that ballot there was square In
which to vote yes" and on the other
end of the paper there was square
IN which to vote mo" On the nrst
two amendments they voted yes, and
they made their cross on the left-hand
side of the paper; and when they came
to the third amendment, which was
for the income tax, they went over to
the right-hand side of the paper and
voted no, and then they came back
and voted yes on the fourth amend
ment, so that they must have known
what they were voting for.
On my way to the session this morn
ing | picked up a morning paper, the
Boston Herald, and just to show that
YOU cannot tel how high tax rate
YOU are going to face if you vote for
an income tax, ! would like to read
short sentence from an article in that
paper, and they have an income' tax
IN the state of Massachusetts. The
heading of this article is Jumps in
come tax one percent. Cuts exemption
to $500" In the course of the article
! find this sentence: since this in
come is now taxed at the rate of one
and one-half percent, passage of the
pending bin would mean that every
person with income within that CLASH
fcation would have to pay this year
So 2-S percent more income tax than
he figured" because they are going to
raise it one percent. SO you see even
with the income tax in the Legis!a-
tur, the people of the State would not
know how high a rate of taxation
they would have to pay. This bill was
given thorough hearing ana the COM
mittee talked it all over and conSid-
cred the fact that il had been voted
upon in September, which seemed to
the committee to indicate that the
people of the State of Maine did not
want it. l hope the motion of the
gentleman from Gardiner, Mr.. Gardi-
ner, will not prevail.
Mr. DAVIS of Freeport: Mr.. Speak
er, l think if you want to keep people
from coming into the State of Maine
to do business and if you want to drive
people that are in the State out of
business, you couldn't do any better
than to pass this bill. and l hope the
motion will not prevail.
Mr.. MURCHlE of Calais: Mr. Speak
or, | am as hungry as anybody, and
for that reason I will try and be very
brief in what / have to say with ref
erence to this measure. l was in
taxation
would offer something that l would
call a good reason why this bill ought
not to pass; if l have heard correctly
all the statements which have been
made in the way of objections to this
BILL they were these: First, the loss
to the municipality that would be sus-
tanned by having a tax on this class Of
ondly, the DOGGY of taxation raised by
the gentleman from Poland, Mr.. Rick
or, and the gentleman from Freeport,
Mr. Davis; and finally, the question
that is as old as any constitutional
amendment or referendum, that it has
already been settled.
think it is true, Mr.. Speaker,
that in every State where the income
tax law has been adopted, that ma
chinery has been put into the income
tax law SO that every municipality is
protected in getting from the income
tax fund an amount of money equal
at least to what has been collected
from intangible personal property
II this constitutional amendment IS
submitted and adopted, it is still
open to the Legislature, when it is
deemed wise, to enact legislation to
put tax law in effect, to see to it
that the city of Eastport and the city
of Augusta and the several other cit
les and towns in the State are fully
protected so far as their local rev.
enue is concerned. The gentleman
from Poland, Mr., Kicker, says that
If we have an income'tax law we can
never tell what our rate of taxation
is going to be; bat 1 submit, Mr..
Speaker, it is a good deal better for
us to know, regardless of what our
tax rate may be, that it is going to
be uniform, than to leave it in the
present condition with 95 per cent.
not paying. 1 am amused also to
find the gentleman from South Port
land, Mr.. Hinckley. uniformly con-
sistent, as he explained to this
House the other day. telling this
body this year that it was improper
to resubmit question when two
years ago he stood upon the floor of
this House and voted for Federal
suffrage amendment, which three
months before his constituents had
1 hope the motion of the gentleman
from Gardiner, Mr.. Gardiner. will
not prevail, and I ask that when the
vote is taken it be taken by the yeas
and nays. (Applause.)
Mr.. BARwISE of Bangor: Mr..
Il of srkN 80