The Brunswick news. [volume] (Brunswick, Ga.) 1906-2016, 1921-05-19
TAX REFORM in GEORGIA.

aSlue nom strict routine to make
protest against the recommendation
of the State Tax Commission whicl
favors classification of property
with a rate Of taxation on each elias
which it is able to hear, as a substi
tute for the general tax act. Gel
Wright says THE uniformity scheme
OF taxation falls equally upon all tn,
property owners of the state.'
The Comptroller General of Geor
gia is held in high esteem, but it I.
difficult to see how he or anyone else
can oppose the modern method of tax
alton, recommended by the State Ia,
Commission, and now adopted by the
most progressive states of the unior
and the most civilized countries of the
world, says the Macon News.
DR.. ]. r. T. Mcpherson, professor OF
political science in the University OF
Georgia and a member of the State
Tax Commission, in an able erticle
which was published in the Macon
News Of Sunday, makes a reply to
Gen. Wright and an argument in ia
vor CT the new tax project which
seems to be unanswerable. The az
guments are not new, to be sure, for
they have all been presented in the
columns of this newspaper when we
were urging the Legislature to let
the people vote on this proposed
amendment to the Constitution. But
the arguments cannot be repeated too
often, and We feel grre that this is
one of the reforms that will continual
ly come up for discussion until its
adoption brings relief to the tax pay
ers of Georgia.
DR.. Mcpherson makes one illustra-
ton which almost embodies the en-
tire situation in az paragraph. He
says:
Now it is precisely because this
tax is grossly unfair that all
modern economic authorities con-
denim it. Let US see for ourselves.
Fairness in taxation consists in
distributing the burden in proper
zion tc ability to bear it. And
ability is measured not by proper
~, but by net income. Lei us
imagine five men in Athens, each
owning $1,000 worth of property.
One of these men has his $1,000
in a savings bank, and draws $40
year interest. che lazy requires
him to pay $32 tax, or 80 per cent
If his income. Another man has
mis- loaned on mortgage at per
cent. His tax is 40 per cent of his
income. A third has his invested
1928 a year. His tax is 25 per
cent Of his income. A fourth and
fifth from fortunate business in
Testments receive $500 and 500
year respectively. Their tax
amounts to 10 and IS per cent of
their income. Here are five men
whom the law treats alike be-
cause they have equal property,
yet their tax exacts proportions of
their incomes varying from 5 to
so per cent.
Could anything be mere clear and
conclusive than that? Is there any
equality" in the incidence of the tax
ON those five taxpayers?
The general tax act is the most I'M
fair system ever devised and we re-
peat that it is almost incredible thst
men of intelligence should adhere to
AN outworn and deceptive formula.
The Comptroller Generals solution
fer the problem of increasing the pub
lie revenue is a drastic" enforcement
of the law. Efforts have been made
IN other states to enforce the law as
''drastic3lly" as the wit of man could
devise. DR.. Mcpherson cites the case
of Ohio, where an army of spies was
They were nick-named
'tax-ferrets.' They pried and spied
to their hearts content. Fines and
prison terms were imposed. But what
was the result? 1t is true that GER
tain additional amount of intangible
. operty was placed on the textbooks
= but the Gext year 1t disappeared
again, just 'as it is bound to disappear
in every other state where the tax
rate. if collected, would practically
ibsorb the entire income. Worst Of
al, it has bee nestimated that in one
year the drastic enforcement of the
tex law drove more people from Ohio
to New York than would equal the
entire population of the city Of Cleve
and.
These are the plain teachings of OK
ncrience Other st1tes in the union
" hich tax property according to its
.arning power have doubled and trip
ed their income The best political
economists in this and other countries
have denounced the general tax sys
.e,u-Which hardly survives anywhere