The independent-reporter. [volume] (Skowhegan, Me.) 1909-1955, 1924-02-07
Your Town Taxes

At the request of one of our inter
ested farmers we are publishing the
following article taken from the New
England Homestead, believing that 1t
contains many wise suggestions:
Most of the feeling against high
cost of government shoots wide of
the mark. You holler against the
way Congress spends money or at
the federal income taxes or tariff
taxes on imports. Perhaps you
squeal at the high taxes imposed by
your state upon your township. But
what do you do to insist upon lower
taxes right in your town and county
where you live?
If you are like most of the rest of
us farm folks here in New England,
the taxes you have to pay direct is
the bill you receive from the tax col
lector of your own township. To be
sure, 1t includes your proportion OF
so much of the state tax as may be
assessed upon your town, but better
than 80 per cent of your local tax
bill is represented by expenditures
in your own community by your own
selectmen, as authorized by the town
meeting composed OF the men and wo-
men OF the township itself.
so you see that the place for your
to begin to reduce taxes is right in
your own township. To do that in
diligently you must know how much
money your town raises in taxes and
what the town does with the money.
Then you have got to study wherein
you think it possible for the town to
spend less money, without detriment
TO the welfare of your people in your
own community.
/ Proper knowledge of this whole 81
tuation, and sound judgment in deal
ing with it are needed before you can
act intelligently about it at town
meeting.
Your duty therefore is to get at all
these facts weeks before town meet
ing Find out where you are at and
where the town is going to get off.
Know the whole situation, then you
can discuss it fairly, squarely and
effectively in your town meeting.
1t is easy enough to cuss the asses
sors or the selectmen. 1t is easy
enough to find fault Nothing easier
than to jibe at office holders and bu-
reaucrats. But it is not easy, on the
contrary it is mighty hard. to get
right down to bedrock understanding
so as to be able to show wherein the
town can spend less money. This
must be done before taxes can be re-
duced.
Hence it is that The Homestead has
started all this talk about town meet
ing some weeks before that event is
to occur. 1t is true that the New
England town meeting is the best sys-
hem of home government ever devised
by the mind of man. But 1t is equal
ly. true that too many of us are too
lazy, too lacking in civic interest or
too short of gumption TO master this
problem thoroughly and in earnest
BEFORE town meeting, so as to be
able to tackle 1t wisely AT town
meeting
In some townships, the grange.
farmers club. or merely a group of
taxpayers. already have Il committee
at work comparing the town reports
of 1913, 1918 and 1929 to see when,
why and how the towns expenses
ran up, what farmers got for their
produce in each of these years out of
which to pay their taxes, and where
this thing is going to end if a halt
is not called TO this whole era of
extravaganza in public affairs-local,
county, state, nation We hear of
one school where a class of the older
pupils is making this study-an in
stance of learning to do by doing that
will be appreciated by taxpayers per-
haps more than by the town officials!
Cabbage rates high as a healthful