Arizona republican., 1921-12-17

| P0lQdAAy III iltu Ol Lnt IdASS would be collected upon the property if it were built by private enterprise
 The opening speech of the after noon session was delivered by Dr. John E. Bacon of Miami, chairman of the session on taxation. He urged a new constitutional convention as the most needed beginning for lower taxes. and also spoke in favor of a shorter ballot. He then introduced Rudolph Kuchler, state land commits sioner, whose subject was simply Taxation" His address, which was one of the most important of the conference, follows in part:
 Rudolph Kuchler Speak.
 Arizona is a new and great state While it's development is in almost purely an embryonic stage the re- sources with which nature has en- dowed it have only been touched in the past those same resources added to the almost unlimited ambitions and energies of our people leave no question as to the opening assertion.
 True government cannot exist without taxation. Nor can govern ments be supported except through some industrial efforts The benefits of the one can exist only as a burden upon the other. The relation between | all problems of taxation and every industrial condition is thus direct and obvious. There can be no interven- ing element of big business or little business, of mass, class, favored few or favored many. in any purely un- selfish attempt to analyZe attendant conditions which at present must be so analysed, to relieve, if 1t is pos sible to afford such relief the indus trials of the state from a constantly increasing burden of taxation. There l. that every question of unnecessary burden of taxation affects each and every citizen of our state, just as : surely as that citizen would be af- fected, were the wheels of govern ment to clog in their efforts to run, or be temporarily ineffective, or sus- pend entirely.
 The question of taxation is so closely allied to the prosperity, prog ress, wealth and happiness of our people as whole, as to be empha- tically direct question of personal interest to each man, woman and child as directly so, as would be the question of any attempt to attain 5 the same ends without government itself
 On all sides it is apparent that the public has concerned itself with the 2 question of taxation. All seem to &C., q NCPl eo U QC lildL DuDllC ldAeS IldN t reached stage, beyond which, if in- creases continue in the future at the same proportionate rate of increase l as in the past, the actual truth of the saying, that: An unlimited power to tax if exercised to it's full extent, includes the public power to con- fiscate private property for public purposes.
 fl In the main, it is my firm belief 1n frf1n ,errn F.--v, xr-I,f f1l, %-< g approach anything like results in lessening the direct tax burdens of t the taxpayers of this state, is to make that approach by considering the real s necessities of an for an efficient gov ernment.
 The main scheme as to the neces- , sities of government has remained e unchanged for over a century. Those . necessities, whether applied to fed- [, eral, state, county or municipal forms : of government, have Nincluded the r legislative department to enact the . laws; the courts to construe the y laws; execute officers to enforce and e administer the law. That plan also ], includes the necessity for schools s and higher education; police and fire . protection for lives and property; l necessary public charitable institu- h tions; reformatory and corrective in- o stitutions; with departments il . charge of the construction of streets = highways. bridges. and other means y of travel and intercommunication . among the people. Beyond that ground work for governmental activ- a ities thus wisely provided, there has = been appended and attached so many e side structures, that 1t may be pos : sible that the real essentials hay, = been lost sight of, or obscured to such ! an extent that people may now be- II lieve it is to be actually required thai | successful governmental activitie.
 can be carried on only through side l agencies in the form of commissions | for this and boards for that, particu-
 lar activity, and fail to seriously con.
 slider the availability of the old. time
 tried, and tested, tools of government II the legislative, the executive ant
 the judiciary. They fail to appreciate
 that within the powers of those de.
 partments, every problem as connect
 ed with public affairs, necessitie.
 and requirements could yet be han.
 dled. even were many special depart
 ments, board and offices for specia
 purposes, abolished entirely.
 II Whether or not there are too many
 commissions, or too many depart
 ments. whether or not there has beer
 a tendency toward too much of salu
 tary, regulatory, and side features
 whatever, appended to the indispens
 ible requisites of and for a govern
 ment which will meet the require.
 ments of general welfare of the peo
 pie, secure to them the blessings O
 liberty and incidentally provide fo
 their common defense in an extrem,
 necessity, is a question but incl
 dentally drawn into the subject unde
 consideration. The real requisites
 and the necessary activities thereof
 and the cost of continuing those ac
 tivities, is a subject broad enough tt
 exhaust the limit of the present dis l cussion thereof as connected with tn
 effect of the aggregate of such cost upon the industrial situation in Ari
 Zona.
 Those general activities, may b
 again divided into such as are GOV
 cred by what it termed, genera
 fund" purposes: street. highway an,
 bridge purposes; educational pur
 poses; public buildings and improve
 ments: and again divided, into gen
 eral subheads covering original costs
 and continued maintenance
 The general fund purposes. wheth
 CT it be as connected with state
 county. or municipal purposes, in tn,
 main includes the current, continu
 ing, and more or less steady lover
 head' expenses of existing govern
 ments. Salaries of officers, expenses of offices. departments. commis
 sions, public board and institutions
 as a general proposition. find provi
 sions somewhere in the general fun,
 appropriations for payment. In thi