, 1922-09-26
Do the People Rule?

Reduction o. tax revenue q =
state OF Utah by reason Of the fact
that property owners allowed their
property 70 be sold. rather than pay
their 1921 taxes. amounted to s52s.-
sss.fo according TO a t~abuiafion pre-
pared In The office OF Marx Tuttle.
state auditor.
In Montina a leading state paper
SAYS. The graduated income AK.
which : n OF the schemes
for adding to the burden of taxation
in THU state Montanal. Is also up for
Ss=Fosai OF the voters in oregon.
Already tie PROPOSED measure to-
gether with other laws penalizinx can.
itai IN Oregon has driven outsiders
and II the income tax carries.
Oregon will be set back another ten
or twenty years. Yet here in Mon
tana we are starting in TO 20 the
same disastrous route"
John S. Chambers. former con
troiler OF the state Of California SAYS.
The principal cause OF the tremen-
deus increase in the cost Of the state
government Is due to the assumption
OF new functions known under the
OF commissions. These mex.
functions. In the main, are worthy
ones. but in addition TO new agencies
having been created 10 administer
them instead OF Assigning them to re-
lated existing units OF government.
with resultant overhead and other
additional costs. they have been az
sumed too rapidly: that is to say,
without due regard to revenue and so
Il has been necessary TO greatly m
crease the tax burden"
Estimating five to a family. Henry
Ford's Weekly figures that about
$1,000. 900 people are supported from
public taxes. Reliable statistics
show us that there are about 2.soo.-
900 persons on tae public payroll
state and nation.
The Idaho Falls Times Register
The per capita tax in Idaho
for all purposes is s{s.25. incluNng
school, state. city. county and high
The tax for state purposes
alone Is SIP per capita
The people CT Nevada pay the
highest state per CAPITA tax-siS.4g|
for state purposes only. not including
city. county. school and highway tax.
The Taxpayers association OF New
Mexico shows n present total OF s4,-
SEQ. 900 in uneiollected taxes ranging
from s1iS.o 900 in-1ei2 to $3.50. 900 for
1913. 5 i.2so.O0o for 1920 and 81 .ooo.-
600 for the first nan OF 1921.
Commenting on the proposed state
income tax in Oregon which the PEG
pie will vote on in November the
Afedford. Oregon, Record Herald says.
"of course. there would be no re-
= It,
additional funds collected by the pro-
posed state income a y. The army
of tax eaters would be given positions
at the public Pie Counter, anc more
so-called tax commissions would be
created"
Conditions have reached a point
I'm the state OF Washington where a
direct cut in the cost of government
of 25 per cent is necessary II bust
ness in that state is not to be dis
couraged.
In the state of Colorado. a commit.
tee OF one hundred IS wtrking to
figure out ways and means to neduce
TIN, tax load which industry and the
co-amon citizens must bear.
In face Of such conditions our
present lawit permitting the constant
Issuance of tax exempt public bonds
go unamendec and hundreds OF mil
OF dollars of his class of Sc
curities are being constantly issued
and the holders Of this paper escape
all taxation. thus doubling the load
on the remaining taxpayers.
To cap the climax of governmental
extravaganza IN issuing tax exempt
bonds. professional politicians in h
OF California have placed on the
ballot for the next election in Novem-
Der a measure authorizing h state
to issue $500. 900. 900 OF bonds for the
purpose OF building state owned wa
ter and power projects. At one rae
II is estimated this would increase
the state debt of California sever
times.
The demand for reduced taxation is
general In western states. Results
rest largely with the people in com
ing elections.