The Oroville weekly gazette. [volume] (Oroville, Wash.) 1905-19??, 1922-12-01

Mr. Laube notes that Washinston,.
lax burden las increased $50 mar c.r,
since 1910, while assessed valuations
nave gone up but 80 per cent ana
remarks that While the states nonu.
iation and industrial life have been
growing, the increasing burden n
government cost has continued to rest
On property investment alone. This
burden he adds, especially smothers
.he home-owner and the farmer the
Two classes upon whose stability and
welfare the stability and welfare q,
the state SO much depend"
MI. Laube cites the plight of Aso-
TN county farmers, whose total wheat
yield Will amount to about s225 nm
while their taxes will approximata
iSze9,SS6, or some $4,000 more than
their crops are worth. Stevens county
mas 5000 descriptions on the delino.
eht iist,' Mr.. Laube declares, "and
quotes one Of the commissioners of
benton county to the effect that 20
per cent of that county's AGRICULTURAL
land Will be off the tax rolls within
six months.
Ihose who have placed their in
Vestments in property have seen its
valuation disappear. The farmer par-
tlcularly is In hostile frame of mind
His confidence in government is dis
appearing. He finds the values that
ne has wrought from the heavy labor
OF years confiscated to the state for
what he believes to be extrayapant
and unnecessary uses" the writer re-
marks. 1T bodies i'll for a state when
Its agricultural class loses courage.
and become antagonistic to govern
ment. The radicalism of the unprop-
ertied Is sufficient menace"
Mr.. Laube sees the cause of the
property owners plight and his in
sistence upon tax reform to relieve
him, in Washington's system of the
general property tax This system is
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. when such
ownership represented the ability to
pay. Now We have passed into a new
economy in which values other and
much larger in volume than property
values. have developed, but the gen.
eral property tax still continues,
reaching "the tax paying ability of
one class only. We are in the condi-
ton of state half taxed and half
Free" the writer concludes, land no
state can in that manner 60 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 cost
rests upon too narrow base, that of
property, but that the revenue base Is
too narrow to have undertaken the de-
NelOpments which we have under
taken, or to have financed them in the
manner in which we have financed
them,
Statistics further show, de 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
Oregon. The same is true" he holds,
Of the per capita levy. Yet purely gov
ernmental 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 developments which
could have been better timed have
been enterd upon.
Il believe in the movement now
making such progress, for the limita-
ton of the millage on property" Prof.
Laube concludes, adding that, "the re-
form of the system alone would not,
however, be sufficient An adequate
of administration must be
developed" he says. THE present de-
centralized administration, with in
expert service, makes for gross dis
elimination between individuals and
counties, varying in unconvincing val
uations, and general failure Of the
and efficiency"