The Birmingham age-herald., 1923-08-29
ALABAMA's TAX oUAGM1RE

In his moments of deep anxiety re- garding the states diminishing reveS% hue, Governor Brandon may forget that his own policy is the cause of his present dilemma. The very first thing advocated to the legislature by Gov ernor Brandon was the scrapping of the state tax machinery by means of which Alabama's finances had been put on a cash basis and most of her floating indebtedness retired. Under the operation of the system which Governor Brandon so ruthlessly cast upon the junk-pile, Alabama for the first time in years came out of it's financial difficulties and had suffi- cient revenue in sight actually to ex- tend the operations and projects of the state without additional levies Now, within eight months after the governors inauguration, all that is changed and there is agitated effort made to provide revenues for contem- plated expenditures at least no greater than formerly. That is to say, with no increase in the budget, the state finds itself with lessening revenues and widening deficit.
 This is, to put it mildly, not good business. If the existing tax laws of Alabama were properly administered, there would be plenty of revenue. Not only is there present failure to collect taxes up to the legal rate, but, through the scrapping of the tax ma chinery, collections will be less than those previously made. Repre- sentative Culver declares that the shrinkage in tax values since the abo- lition of the adjusters is $75,00O,OO0. That may or may not be an accurate appraisal, but the anxiety manifested by the executive indicates that the shrinkage has been larger than the executive cares to admit. The plan to supplement these diminishing reve- nues by resort to special taxes, such as gasoline tax, is subterfuge that even the least experienced citizen can see through. To place too heavy tax on gas is to penalize the develop ment of this state in which gasoline plays such an important part. Why doesn't the governor admit that he has made mistake and go back to the plan which met with such distin- guished success? It would perhaps require courage to do that, but it would also elicit the public admiration to a degree far more than compensa- tory. It looks very much as if the governor and his advisers had rushed into the tax situation without studying it beforeAaBd. There has since been no evidenc~ that the question is un- derstood now any better than it was last January when the first gigantic error was committed.
 This is the serious dilemma in which the state finds itself, through the mistaken but far-reaching policy of Governor Brandon and his tax ad- visers. Time and again, the governor and the legislature have been besought to let well enough alone, and to re- frain from tinkering with machinery the workings of which they have not appeared to understand. If the gov ernor and the legislature desire really to solve the tax situation, they will restore the tax laws they have abol- ished or amended and let them oper- ate until more light is given for fur ther advance. So far, the progress has all been. backwards, and the gov ernor has only constantly worsen- ing problem to wrestle with, and to show for all the legislation that has been passed during his term. Let tho legislature stop before it makes things hopelessly bad. Let the governor re- trace his steps to the firm financial ground on which he stood when he took the oath of office. He owes it to the commonwealth of Alabama to do this.