The Lamar register., 1922-10-04
KICK RIGHT PERSON
People Voted High State Taxes and
Should Kick Themselves if They
Want to Kick.

The people OF the state OF Colorado
voted themselves the right to legislate
for themselves under the initiative and
referendum. They then voted by more
than three to one to raise the consti-
tutional rate Of levy from 4 mills to
5 mills, and voted the extra mill to the
state educational institutions. They
then voted by over three to one again
to give s350,O00 to hospital in Den
yer, and then by nearly two to one that
five million in bonds be issued for
good road construction The Register
is not criticising any of these votes
but does criticise those who assisted
in securing favorable votes on all these
propositions and yet today kick be-
cause the state tax levy has been rails
ed. They raise a great smoke screen
and try to make believe that the state
military and rangers are the cause of
the raise. The facts are 43 per cent
of state taxes goes to educational in
stitutions, 23 per cent to roads, IS per
cent to institutions for care of insane,
blind, etc, and penal institutions, and
less than 2 per cent for military pur-
poses. The following letter from C. A.
Lemmers, state budget and efficiency
commissioner, will give our readers the
real cause Of the present tax levy, and
show that the democratic candidate
for governor, who was ruled out OF
the race because he said it would be
impossible to reduce state taxes, was
the real honest one of the bunch:
Editor Lamar Register:
In the Lamar Sparks last week ap-
peared an article headed, "Now Kick,
Mr.. Taxpayer" in which the evident
intent was to create dissatisfaction, for
political effect, among the taxpayers of
your county, because of the probable
increase Of taxes next year. The ed
itor Of said paper leaves the impress
sion that these increased taxes are
due to the creation of boards, bureaus,
commissions, departments, etc, Of
state government, il the writer ana
lyses the following excerpt correctly:
"The present state levy is .35
of mill above the limit set by
the trainers Of the constitution,
who thought they were allowing
for more than the state would ever
require. That, however, was be-
fore the creation of the seventy or
more boards and commissions, and
before the people began piling adj
ditional taxes in the form of mill
levies over and above the original
constitutional provision"
OF course the presumption that
boards, commissions, etc, are respon-
sible for the increase in taxes is in
correct, but assuming that it is cor
rect, do the people of your county
know that Of the sixty-five boards,
bureaus, commissions, departments,
ETC., created by legislative enactment
since the constitution was adopted in
1876, thirty-nine were created by Dem
ocratic legislatures and twenty-six by
Republican legislatures, and that eight
Of these branches of government last
year brought in revenue to the amount
Of 81 100000 more than the cost Of
maintaining the entire bunch Of
boards, bureaus, commissions, etc?
The increased taxes of which The
Sparks speaks, giving the Denver Post
as authority for the statement, are due
to several causes, .o-wit:
decrease in the assessed valua-
tion. making necessary an increased
levy to produce the same amount OF
money as was demanded by the levy
for this year.
2.-Increase of interest payments
1885 ,0O0) due to interest on highway
bonds and benefits for the blind voted
by the people at the elections Of 1920
and 1918 respectively.
3.-About one-haf of the increase
(s176,500) due to the first payment on
insrrrection bonds issued in 1909 by
reason Of the instructions in Cripple
Creek and Telluride in 1904, when the
governor had no Rangers to anticipate
trouble and prevent instructions and
depended on the state militia, as Can