The Leavenworth echo. [volume] (Leavenworth, Wash.) 1904-current, 1922-12-01
TAX SYSTEM
MUST BE RE-
FORMED

There is now so completely devel-
oped in our state concensus of opn-
ion that the tax system should be re-
formed at this session of the Legis-
lature, that failure to meet this ex-
pectation may be fraught with the
danger of unfortunate social and po-
litical consequences, declares Prof
Frank j. Laube, political science de-
partment of the University of Wash
ington, writing in the current issue of
The Buesiness Chronicle, Seattle.
Discussing the underlying causes
of the statewide demand for tax re-
form, Mr.. Laube notes that Washing
toms tax burden has increased $50
per cent since 1910, while assessed
valuations have gone up but 80 per
cent, and remarks that "While the
states population and industrial life
has been growing, the increasing bur
den of government cost has continued
to rest on property investment alone
This burden" he adds. Especially
smothers the home-owner and the
farmer, the two classes upon whose
stability and welfare the stability and
welfare of the state so much de-
pend"
Mr.. Laube cites the plight of Aso-
tin county farmers, whose total
wheat yield will amount to about
S225,000, while their taxes will an
proXimate 1859. 1886, or some 0,OOO
more than their crops are worth
Stevens county has 5000 descriptions
on the delinquent list" Mr.. Laube lie
clares, " and quotes one of the corn
inissioners of Benton county to the
effect that 20 per cent of that coun-
tvs agricultural land will be off the
tax rolls inside of six months
"Those who have placed their IN
vestments in property have seel its
valuation disappear. The ia mel par
ticularly is in a hostile frame of
mind. His confidence in government
| is disappearing. He finds the values
wrought from the heavE lah,r of
years, confscated to the state FIR
what he believes to be ext ave CANT
| and unnecessary uses the griter re-
marks. at bodies i'll for state when
its agricultural class loses courage
and become antagonistic 70 rGVern-
ment. The radicalism of the unpI on
eitied is a sufficient menace"
Mr. Laube sees the cause of the
| property owners plight and his insist
ence upon tax reform to relieve
him, in Washington's system of the
general property tax. "This system
is a proven failure. bringing disaster
wherever it has been used" he de
clares, because it was developed be-
fore the present industrial era, when
ownership was entirely in real and
tangible personal property, and when
such ownership represented the abil-
ity to pay. Now we have passed into
a new economy in which values other
and much larger in volume than prop
erty values, have developed" but the
general property tax continues,
reaching the tax paying ability of
one class only. We are in the condi-
tion of state half taxed and half
free" the writer concludes" and no
state can in that manner go forward
in security and progress"
"The statistics of tax levies and of
government per capita COSTS" Mr..
Laube says, demonstrates not only
that the burden of government costs
rests upon too narrow base, that of
property, but that the revenue base
is too narrow to have undertaken the
developments which we have under
taken, or to have financed them in the
manner in which we have financed
them.
statistics further show" he de-
clares, "that in the state millage levy
on property for state purposes alone,
the rate runs more than three times
as high as in such states as Mime
sofa, Iowa, Illinois, Montana and Ore
gon. The same is true" he holds,
"of the per capita levy Yet purely
governmental expense, outside of
outlays, is little higher, and in some
cases not so high.
"Both state and city have wrongly
visioned development and necessity"
Mr.. Laube believes Tax millages
which could have been deferred have
been levied, and developmnts which
could have been better timed have
been entered upon.
II believe in the movement now
making such progress, for the limi-
tation of the millage on property"
Prof. Laube concludes, adding that
"the reform of the system alone
would not, however, be sufficient, An
adequate machinery of administra-
ton must be developed" he says.
''The present decentralized admins
tration. with inexpert service, makes
for gross discrimination between in
dividuals and counties. varying in un-
convincing valuations. and a general