Omaha daily bee., 1922-02-24
Tares

| Elgin Review: The special session
OF the Nebraska legislature cut the
appropriations for the year more
than two million dollars and this
means that the levy for state taxes
will be reduced accordingly. This
is good lead for county. township,
city. village and school boards to
| follow. Gentlemen. cut the levy,
and cut 1t until II hurts. and then
keep the expense of running the diff
| ferent branches of the state. within
the amount the levy will produce.
BY doing this you will earn the
everlasting gratitude Of the taxpay-
ers. Lets get back to earth"
McCook Tribune: The defeat of
the gasoline measure. in the Trib-
une's view, is just a bit peanutty.
We note the usual excuse for its
doom is that ancient and wormy
chestnut, unconstitutional" in
voked frequently by legislative
boneheads who wouldn't recognize
constitutional measure IL they met
one head-on in mid-highway at
high noon.
Alliance Herald: Those critics of
the special session called by Gov
ernor McKelvie and which came to
a close on February 9, on last
Thursday, who have said that a
special legislature would only add
cost to the government, will have
to find something else on which to
harp for that string is out Of tune.
The special session of the legisla-
ture actually Topped off over two
million dollars of taxes, a thing
which political parties will have a
hard time to camouf1age in the eyes
Of the voters. According to Mr.. Nc
Kelvie, this is the first time that
governor ever called a special ses-
sion In order to cut down expenses
and Mr.. McKelvie attributes the
power of doing this to the new code
system which has proved a money
saver for the state.
Before Mr.. McKelvie had issued
the call for the special legislature,
he had had a meeting with the vari-
Gus heads of the code system and
other important officials of the
state. They had gone carefully
over their budget and practically
every department had reported that
~ WOulu Dt poSSlDIc IpI iu61lt W cut
down their appropriations that they
vie then urged them to "cut until 1t
hurts" and be ready to report this
cut to a spcial session of the legis-
lature which he expected to call.
When the legislature met and the
governors message was given to
them. it proposed a reduction of
s2,793,755.s5, while the laws passed
by the legislature and the appropri-
ations cut the tax to the extent of
s2,051,750, or a little over 700,-
900 dollars less than the gov
ernor had asked. In defense or ex-
PLANTATION of the action of the legis-
lature in seeming not to cut as much
as possible. it needs to be explained
that the governors message and re-
duction, included the placing of a
tax Of / cent gallon on gasoline.
which he believed would provide the
$750,000 required to complete the
road building program adopted by
the legislature in 1917. However,
the lower house refused to pass the
gasoline tax by a vote of more than
two to one and the senate REFUSE
to abolish the road building pro-
gram, putting the s75o,000 back
into the bill When it came to the
time of acting thereon in joint COM
mittee, a compromise was reached
with $750,000 for road building
which accounts for the difference in
the actual reduction and the reduc-
ton asked by the governor.
This reduction means that the
states taxes have been cut almost
one-third as the state taxes mean
1880 on 1000 worth of taxable
property. II is to be seen that this
means decrease Of about one dol
lar on every $1,000 worth of prop
erty and lis a decided decrease.
which will meet with the approvaN
of people of this town. 1t is claimed
that none of the neadful work of
the state has been cut nor hampered
and il this be true. the budget sys-
tenn has undoubtedly been great
benefit to Nebraska.
or course, we are also interested
in the reduction in our own county |
OF $4,000 made by our own county |
commissioners. This is again light
ening the burden of taxes. How
ever, they, too. receive $3.50 on the |
thousand. The large items of our
taxes are $3.50 for other taxes per
thousand. 1t may be possible yet
for school boards and village boards |
to cut our taxes even more.
BY students of economics, 1t Is
believed that this reduction in taxes
is rapid step back toward nor
malcy. The lowering Of prices over
products that are needed, the slow
but stubborn lowering of wages. the
decline in taxes. are all indications !
of the drift toward solid financial
footing and is much appreciated by |