The Powder River County examiner and the Broadus independent., 1922-05-19
<EEP YOUR EVE ON BACK YARD
TAXES-LOCAL BURDEN, STATE,
CITY AND COUNTY GREATER
THAN GOVERNMENTS DEMAND
FOR AID,

CITY AND COUNTY GREATER
THAN GOVERNMENTS DEMAND
FOR AID.
BY ROBERT d. CAREY.
Governor of Wyoming.
Edicrt's Note.-Robert d. Carey. Eov-
ernor Of Wyoming, gives you food for
thought in the following 1t Is the
popular thing just now to find fault
with national taxes and to mutter
dark threats about what one will do
next election" The governor points
out that the national demand for tax
pennies 10 not nearly as important to
your poclketbook az the state, city
and county's demand for tax dollars
On account Of large expenditures in
cident to the recent war and the in
crease in cost OF state and local gov
ernment, taxes have been greatly in
creased and people in all sections Of
the country are objecting more and
more to paying taxes. The average
taxpayer has little idea of govern
mental expenditures and is inclined to
blame the state government for any
increase which may be levied against
his property. The fact is, that out
side of Fsdral taxes. those that are
the largest are to a certain extent To-
cal taxes which the people themselves
could regulate in many instances if
they would but make the effort.
Generally speaking. the greater por-
tion Of money raised by taxation is
for the support of schools and fer
n n nj Tv ut
each 500 paid by the taxpayer n our
two largest cities is distributed as fol-
lows: City government $39.93. schools
$29.4O. county government $17.57 and
state government 1910. 1t will be
seen from the above that the cost of
state administration is comparative
Iy small which is also true of the
county. while the cost of maintaining
city Is far out CT proportion to that
of either the state or county. It ap-
pears that the smaller the subdivision
OF government. the greater the cost of
the same.
AS to schools, there Is little chance
of reducing expenses as we are de-
mandfng and expecting better schc OILS
and, in fact, it would be a very poor
policy to fail to provide funds that
they may be properly financed and i'm
proved While the cost of supporting
them is great. no right thinking per-
sen should object to paying his share,
and no expenditure of public money
will in the end bring greater returns
eNcessarily the cost Of government
has increased IN proportion to the in
creased cost of living and everything
costs mere than it did few years
ago. Consequently both officials and
employees must be paid higher sal aries
or wages. supplies are costing more
and 1t Is much more expensive to care
for an inmate bf penal or charitable
institution. Further, new and in
creased demands are constantly being
made upon the state. and the state
today Is engaging in many activities
that 1t did not formerly. Perhaps the
greatest burden that the states have
assumed is the building of highways,
The Federal highways acts have caus-
ed every state to organize highway
commissions which are necessa rily
large and expensive organizations and
which are spending vast sums of
money This to large extent trans
1ers to the state an expense which
was formerly borne by the county or
local community and while it neces-
sarliy Increases the state expendi-
lures. there is no question but that it
is bringing about better highways and
IS saving large sums cf money for
merly wasted upon poorly located and
i'll constructed highways
Unfortunately, at each session of a
Legislature each community and inter-
est demands from the legislature an
propriations for it's particular benefit.
Few members CT a legislature have a
general knowl edge OF the state or its
institutions, and frequently have to
take 1t for garnted that an appropri
alton is necessary and through lack
of knowledge money is some times
voted unnecessarily. AS usual thing
during the first session of legislature
after a governor has assumed office
he has had little or no time to inyes.
tfgate the needs of the different state
institutions and on this account is not
able te advise the legislature as il
possible after he has been in office fol
some time. There have been instances
in this state when money was voted
for unnecessary improvements fol
| state institutions and recently tn,
| state has abandoned an expensiv,
light and water plant which was pro
vided for cne of the institutions fo
the reason that it was much more ex
pensive to operate it than to obtai,
! light and water from an adjacent city
This is an example of member o
the legislature getting through an ap
preparation simply because he want
ed something and this was about al
l hn i,,l- S,f Mt
| Another cause for the increase il
taxes, is the voting of bonds whicl
has become most popular and whic