Palisadian. [volume] (Cliffside Park, N.J.) 1906-current, 1921-05-14
REPEAL PERSONAL PROPERTY TAX,
THEN RAISE MORE REVENUE ON Land,
The MOST EQU|T ABLE OF ALL TAXES

Newark, May 9.-Repeal of the per-
sonal property tax throughout the
state and more revenue for better
schools better paid teachers and bet
ter roads in the rural and smaller
town communities by taxing the I'M
earned increment in land value in the
larger cities is proposed by the Manu-
facturers and Merchants Taxation
League of New Jersey. The president
of the league is Charles H. Ingersoll,
manufacturer of IngersOll watches, and
the secretary is Joseph E. Stegner,
president of the Newark Cut Glass
Company. The proposal follows:
"a large part of the federal taxes
are collected in the east and other
sections where the population is dense
and where the land value happens to
be large, and the revenue is spent for
various purposes in the south and 9TH
err sections where the population is
more sparse and where the land value
happens to be small.
"This is done through the income
tax, the import (tariff) tax. the fed
eral aid to highways, and it is in the
bill for federal aid to education.
whether this principle, which is
now an accepted policy of our nation
al government, is right in justice anc
equity is fairly open to argument and
depends on how one looks at it. The
defenders of that principle say that
we are people of one large country
and the advantages or disadvantages
which may happen to be inherent in
one section or another should not at
tach to a particular section but must
be spread over all the country; that it
embraces the ideal principle of coop
Grafton, fellowship and brotherly love
and of 'one for all and all for one
eff this principle is accepted for
raising and spending federal revenue,
why is it not just as logical for raising
and spending state revenue?
"FOr instance CD. enormous land
value, not counting improvements, ex-
ist in the cities ($5,000,000 an acre in
the center of Newark and cities of
equal size), created entirely, by the
mere presence and activities of peO-
pie and not by anything that the land
holders themselves have done; (O
land value. not counting improve
ments, in rural sections is very small.
"The rural sections have been drawn
on to supply food and raw material
for clothing and shelter and have had
their young people enticed away to the
cities which still further increased
population and land value in the cities
at is contended that this land value
should be taxed for the benefit of the
entire state and not for the benefit of
lust few localities where it happens
to exist, so there may be more state
revenue for more and better schools
and other educational facilities, in
Guiding better paid teachers. public
vocational schools and public libraries
in the country and smaller towns, and
so there may be better roads with suf-
ficient maintenance fund throughout
the state. These things are for the
benefit of not merely the rural sec
lions. but are of statewide impor-
lance in the development of the state
and advancement of the people as a
whole.
SIT therefore seems reasonable that
the enormous land value in the cities
which have been automatically created
without any effort on the part of any
one, should be drawn on to provide
those things for the benefit of the peo-
pie of all sections of the state.