Great Falls tribune. [volume] (Great Falls, Mont.) 1921-current, 1922-07-23
SUBSTITUTE TAXES

w only way in which farmers and
real estate could find reliet
from excessive taxation was by the
government spending less money.
Cut down state expenses and you
reduce state taxation. In the Con-
ley trial at Helena, it came out that
while the cost of clerical assistance
during the Norris and Stewart ad-
ministration for the Consolidated
boards was $4,000 per year, under
the present administration 1t was
about ten times that amount. or
S26, 500. You can find nearly the
same increase in other departments
in the state capital. There is no
way of increasing state expendi..
lures year by year and decreasing
state tax burdens at the same time
This talk about shifting the burden
of taxes from one class of citizens
to the shoulders of another class is
ninety per cent bunk, because 1t
can't be done. The class which is
called on to pay the additional bur
den promptly adds it to the price
it charges for goods or services,
and the consumer of these goods
or services has to pay the extra tax.
Nor do the old taxes grow less.
Any real estate taxpayer knows
that they do not, and that year by
wear he pays more in spite of added
new taxes passed with the promise
that they would relieve his tax
burden. AS a matter of fact, the
new taxes were eaten up by new
expenditures and were not enough
for that purpose either, so that the
real estate taxpayer had to pay
more money besides assuming the
new tax burden.
Mr.. A. A. Frankie of the Mon
tana Tax Association league makes
that argument plain in the Lewis
town Argus when he replied to the
New Era club, a Dixon organiza-
ton, which claimed certain taxes
would be Substitution taxes" He
says:
THE New Era club, Of which
Terry Locke is presumably the
guiding spirit, recently re-stated
the position of the club on the
various tax measures it is sponsor
ing. When several Of the news
papers of the state concluded edi-
torially that the failure to sign the
initiative petitions for the income
tax bill was an indication that the
people would not stand for any adj
ditional tax measures, Jerry Locke
jumped to the front end of the plat
form and in a lengthy statement
sought to put these papers right.
Said the indomitable congressional
candidate. Jerry, of the New Era:
1.-The tax on oil. on coal, on
cement, on gasoline, and the added
license tax on metal mines as well
as the proposed income and inheri-
lance taxes are not added taxes;
they are substitute axes. The
burden of direct property tax on
agriculture, livestock, city realty
and merchandise can be reduced in
the amour that will be produced
by these measures
Now, if we may be p%ardoned the
expression, we would like to ask
Jerry, Where did you get that
stuff Is it really true that you
are as uniformed on this matter
as the above statement would indi-
cate or are you only saying these
things SO that you might make the
new ta;: measures seem possible and
desirable? Which is it, Jerry?'
I'VE already have the oil and
coal and cement and gasoline and
metal mine license tax. These
sources have brought many thou
sands in revenue. When the fight
for their adoption was on, we re-
member well the argument of the
proponents was that of a substitu
ton tax. We would heartily thank
anyone who could point out to us
where these have substituted foI
any other tax and lifted ever to the
weight of an atom the tax burden
from any form of property. In the
face of these substitution taxes.
our tax bill has grown by more
than two million dollars a year
These clearly are not substitution
taxes but additional taxes. There
can be no argument to that. The
public tax records of Montana dom
happen to be debatable.
And who pays these 'substitu'
ton taxes of the New Era clubs
Who pays the gasoline tax, for in