Albuquerque morning journal. [volume] (Albuquerque, N.M.) 1903-1926, 1921-02-21

through the lack of similar taxes
in neighboring states;
CD The heavy taxes already
borne by business;
(3) The impracticability of
abolishing the present taxes on
business property which should ac-
company the establishment of n
business tax;
, "a The impracticability of per-
hitting offsets such as would be
demanded by the people of the
state in case q business tax were
enacted;
go The superior advantages of
property as a measure of tax la
bility as conditions now exist in the
state; and
COS The reluctance to ask I'M
reasonable things of the admins
! tration.
How does Mr.. Joerns dispose of
these objection? Read:
1.-THE argument is used by the
majority that owing to the excess
siye taxation now In vogue on In
comes by the United States gov
eminent, it would not be wise to
extend this tax to corporations and
business. / am reminded that IN
dividuals, while not subject to such
enormous taxes as business corpo-
rations have had to bear the bur
der of highly increased cost of liv-
ing. BUSINESS. as rule, is able tc
pass along any tax imposed on 1t anG
I would not favor this tax at al
unless corporations and businesses
are included with the individual
Furthermore, without the inclu'
sion of the tax on business corpo'
rations, the results would be. in my
opinion, negligible. Most OF the
stockholders of our large corpora
lions are non-residents of the state
of New Mexico and we would gel
scarcely any returns from the IN
dustries which might be able to pay
in income tax Gage 20
Majority Objections Stand.
That is all and l must confess
that / cannot find here anythlnt
which disposes of the objections O
the majority. The plain fact is
that to impose q business income
tax at this jun'cture would invite
Administrative disaster. Perhap
later, after the state has grown
equal to the task of administering
a simple personal income tax,
business income tax may be at
tempted. But that time has no
yet come.
The case against the Joerns re
port could well rest here. Blu
consider one more example select
reads:
supreme Court, l do not con
: cur in the recommendation of tn
$ majority for the reason that tn
same is based on rumor."
To my dull mind it seems that
Y person reading this alone woul
! gain the impression that Nj
I Joerns was sternly refusing to joi
: the majority in some more or les
/ grave criticism of the court be
:. cause that criticism was based o
: insufficient evidence. HOweve
Q when one looks up the recommen
1 dation referred to. he finds that tn
s majority has heard that there is
I movement on foot to increase tn
t size of the court and that it e1
n presses the opinion that such a
e increase is unnecessary. The fat
a that Mr.. Joerns is not certai
: whether or not such a movemeT
: is actually under way is assigne
/. as an adequate reason for refui
n ing to concur.
I MARROW, Captious Spirit"
Il The same narrow, captious spi
d il seems to hnderlie Mr.. Joern
criticism of the majority's concel
/ ton OF their task. He conside
IS the commission presumptious
n making survey of expenditure
i when attempting to formulate
e tax plan. l submit that no OF
i could make an intelligent recon
e mendation, as to whether. for exar
y pie, an income tax should be esta
1t lished without first coming to CO
o sion as to the nationally necessa
Is expenditure of the state. The Ia
Is undertaken by the commission W
'e an ambitious one, it Is true, al
IS there was obviously neither tir
- nor facilities nor necessity for
] complete and exhaustive survey
all the state activities. All tn
B. could be hoped for was for a 81
IS vey Of the high spots OF the sta