The Birmingham age-herald., 1923-09-02
BRANDON'S TAX BLUNDER


 BRANDON'S TAX BLUNDER
 Governor Brandon appears to for get that one of the principal blanks in his campaign platform was his promise L not to increase taxation. Yet the en- tire policy of his administration has been calculated to increase taxation in a direct manner; also in an indirect x manner that is gradually being laid bare. The sfirst act of the governor was to cast aside as of no value the tax-adjusting machinery by means of which escaped taxes were being dis covered and under-assessments cor rected. This process was annually adding hundreds of thousands of dol lars to the state revenues without in- creasing the tax rate or adding to the sources of revenue. The floating debt was being rapidly retired and the state purchases were for cash. The deficit in the general fund was fast being reduced to minimt m, and there was every promise of abundant funds to meet even additional appropriations.
 Now that all this efficient machin- cry has been junked, what is the re- suit? Hear it from the governors own statement. There isN already in prospect a mounting deficit totaling over million dollars annually for the coming four years. And in addition to this, glossed over by the governor as "deflation in assessments,p is the shrfnkage in tax values due directly to the withdrawal of the tax adjusters and the crippling of the successful tax machinery. If there is deficit of million dollars based on present fig ures, how inestimably greater will that deficit be when the valuation shrink age reaches it's inevitably greater pro- portions? Not even the governor can calculate that. Let the people not be deceived by such phrases as "defla- tion In assessments" The phrase proves the case of those who protest the abolishment of the adjusters. There has been no shrinkage in actual values. Alabama's wealth is>gr'eater than ever before.
 How does the governor seek to meet this deficit? He is pledged to a pro- gram of no increase in taxes. Yet he advocates a four-mill tax! He ex- cuses the levy by saying that the cause of education in Alabama des- perately needs 1t. Does that necessity after the fact that 1t is direct and open increase in taxes such as the governor promised not to permit? Why is the four-mill tax required? It Is not because of 8 lack of school funds specifically. It is because of general lack of all funds, which the governor chooses to lump and describe as school necessities. It could just as we'll be catalogued under some other head, or distributed proportionately under all heads, the school need bear ing no more than its due share of the deficit distribution. Any bookkeeper can detect the fallacy in the gov ernor's statement.
 The four-mill tax is> advocated be. cause of the shrinkage in general rev. enues the governors mistaken policy has caused. Who will pay the four mill tax? Those taxpayers upon whom the heavier burden has already been shifted by those who evade their taxes, who are taking advantage of the aboli- tion of the adjusters still further to. evade their taxes. Are actual prop erty values in Alabama shrinking? Everybody knows that such an idea is preposterous, and that property values in Alabama are increasing more rapidly than ever. If any one doubts this, let him compare tax as sessments with the prices at which property is held.
 It is true that the governors policy has made taxes easier-easier for those who have taken advantage of the loop-hole he has given them by junking that system which was so ef- ficiently reaching out and gathering in taxes from those who previously had securely eluded the assessors and col lectors. These persons will also elude the four-mill tax or any other tax that is not fortified by some unacceptable machinery for assessment and collec- tion. The persons who are already paying taxes will bear that additional burden.
 Let the people of Alabama not be