Evening star., 1924-02-15
HOUSE DISCOVERS
PROPERTY TAXN
|NAUTO TAX BILL
Great Effort to Impose AS
sessment Defeated by Mis-
take, Leaders s-Say.
MEASURE NOW FORBIDs
SUCH PERSONAL LEVY
Move to Correct Omission Pre-
dicted by 0ldfeld-Senate
Gets Legislation.

Leaders in the House, both republi-
can and democratic, discovered today
that the House had perpetrated
huge joke on itself in the passage Of
the bill imposing a 2-cent gasoline
tax on automobile owners in the
District of Columbia
The whole fight over this measure.
both in committee and on the floor of
the House, consisted in imposition of
personal tax in addition to the
motor fuel tax. The committee, when
1t found 1t impossible to report
out the bill as originally submitted
by the District Commissioners. which
would shift the personal property tax
to the gasoline tax, amended the bill
SO as to grant an exemption up to
$1,000 on personal property taxes on
automobiles.
Bill Sent to Senate.
1t was discovered today that the
bill as passed by the House on Feb
ruary II. and attested by William
Tyler Page, clerk Of the House, as
read twice and referred to the Sem
ate District committee in the Senate
on February IS. does not contain any
provision for personal property tax.
but that, on the contrary, three lines
in the bill expressly wipe out any tax
except a registration fee Of Is cents
per horsepower and a tax OF 2 cents
per gallon on all motor vehicle fuel
sold.
Men of such prominence In the
House as Representative John .. TIL
bnr- <.f fnEa
ways and means committee. who is
recognized as parliamentarian oe
unusual ability, and who is law
lecturer in the Yale Summer School;
Representative John y. Garner or
Texas, minority leader on the ways
and means committee; Representative
Oldfeld of Arkansas, the democratic
whip, and Representative Charles L.
Cnderhill of Massachusetts, who orig
inally offered the amendment in the
House District committee to eliminate
the personal property tax exemption
all these said today that they fnd in
the bill as printed no provision for
imposing a personal property tax on
automobiles.
Excludes Other Taxes.
After providing for the registration
fee of Is cents per horsepower and
the cents a gallon tax on motor
vehicle fuel, the measure as sent to
the Senate by the House provides
that mo tax of any character or
description, except as in this act
provided, shall be levied or assessed
upon any motor vehicle in the Dis
trict of Colum bia."
The bill also says that all laws
inconsistent with the provisions of
this act be and the said are hereby
repealed" and the only proviso is
that nothing contained in the bill
shall be construed in any wise to
affect the provisions of the act cf
Congress relating to license taxes
Representative Tilson said today
that it was plain to him that nothing
in the bill printed as 1t passed the
House provides for a a. personal prop,
property tax was previously opera
tive this bill would wipe out such tax.
Representative Oldfield said that
the bill as printed and presented in
obviously not what the House intend
ed and that it would have to be cor
rected.
Another "Bug. Discovered.
Representative Fred N. Zihlman OF
Maryland. acting chairman of the
House District committee, who was in
charge of the gasoline tax measure
when it passed the House, admitted
passed by the House might be con-
strued as exempting District resi-
dents entirely from any personal
property tax on automobiles.
Another bug in the bill was found
today by House members making d
careful scrutiny of it's provisions.
This Is in section 8, which provides
that no tax on motor vehicle fuels
exported or sold for expectation from
the District of Columbia to any other
Jurisdiction or nation, shall be i'm
posed" 1t was pointed out by legal
sharps that expectation merely means
carried out of the District and that
''other jurisdiction" may mean any
other state, Maryland, Virginia, etc,
so that the effect of this section
might be that any one from Mary
land or Virginia could buy gasoline
or other motor vehicle fuels in the
District for use in Maryland, Vir-
ginia, or any other state without be-
ing compelled to pay the two-cent
gasoline tax.