The Colorado statesman., 1922-07-01
WANT ALL CITIZENS TO SIGN
PETITIONS FOR AMENDMENT
TO CONSTITUTION.
COUNTIES ARE ACTIVE
WOULD ALLOW LEGISLATURE TO
ENACT A STATE TAX ON
INCOMES.
Sign up and d it now -


That is the appeal of the Colorado
State Tax Revision committee TO all
citizens of the state desirous of OBJ
tanning more equal distribution or
state tax burdens.
1t refers to the proposed amend
ment to the state constitution which
would authorize the State Legislature
to exempt intangible property from
taxation and to enact, in the place
thereof, state income tax law. Pc
titions for the proposed amendment
are now being circulated in every
county through members of the tax re-
vision committee, county officials and
others.
The time to obtain the necessary
signatures, however, is short. Almost
24,000 citizens will have to sign their
names to the petitions in time for
their presentation to Secretary of
State Carl Milliken on July 6. There
fore the request, DO it now!'
Every effort must be made by all
interested persons, says the tax revi-
sion committee, if the measure is to be
voted upon by the people at the No
.fIllDtT elcCllbll Olhtl hlSC "tiA
be II two-year delay before Colorado
can take any step toward remedy of
taNuIion evils.
Because the time is so short the
committee has been unable to conduct
a publicity campaign to acquaint the
people generally with the object of
the proposed amendment, although the
Farmers Grange. civic organizations
and other bodies have been studying
the taxation problems for some time.
In brief, the proposed amendment
follows suggestion first publicly
made last spring by Prof. Herbert S.
Hadley of the University of Colorado,
who was formerly governor of Mis-
souri,, and under whose administration
there state income tax was put into
force.
1t is intended to meet one of the
oldest and hardest problems that all
tax officials have had to face, the tax
alton of unseen" or intangible prop
erty. This consists of credits, notes.
money in the bank and similar prop
erty which the taxing officials can not
reach or find out about Millions OF
dollars of such property go untaxed in
Colorado every year. Persons fa-
miliar with taxation difficulties re
gard attempts to assess intangible
property as practically impossible.
If adopted, the proposed amend
ment would allow the Legislature to
do away with the fruitless efforts to
tax intangible property and to pass IL
law enacting Il state tax on incomes
instead, the taxes on the incomes of
various sizes to be fixed by the Legis-
lature finds wise. Thus the peoples
representatives themselves would de-
termine what the income taxation
should be.
BY this means, it is believed, the
taxation burdens would be more
equalized. At present lands and per
sonal property pay about 80 per cent
of the taxes of the state. A person
who owns no land but has Il large in
come, pays practically no state taxes
if any. Under an income law he
would have to pay his rightful share.
All parts of the state are repre-
sented in the Colorado State Tax Re
vision committee, which is circulating |
tne petlllOnS. III Il referendum vote |
the committee went ON record by ii
large majority in favor of the pro-
posed amendment George w. Loomis |
of Denver is chairman of the commit |
tee, which has offices at 605 Chamber |
of Commerce building, Denver. Farm |
ers' organizations are represented on |
it by Il. X. Bliss of Greeley, mining |
interests by Bulkeley Wells One of |
the prominent members advocating |
the measure is Frank N. Briggs, bank
er. Others include Ex-Governor e. NJ.
Ammons and Prof. Hadley.
Many of these men unhesitatingly |
express the opinion that enactment OF
an income tax is the most constructive |
taxation Improvement Colorado can
make.