The Kennewick courier-reporter. [volume] (Kennewick, Wash.) 1914-1938, 1925-12-31
STATE BUSINESS
is A BIG ONE
Moulton in an Interview
States His Position on
Legislation

Legislation
In an interview with the Hon. NJ.
M. Moulton, we got the following i'm
pressions: -.
First, that business is as usual.
and that the regular routine work is
carried thru with regularity and fair
despatch.
Secondly, that the governors rec
concentrations involve three major
propositions. 1, the total repeal and
Wiping out of the state reclamation
act, and land settlement act; 2. The
.discontinuance Of the millage for the
state educational institutions, and the
elimination of expenditures for build
ings and betterments, cutting all ex-
penditures down to bare necessities
rof operation; 8. A very radical cut
ting of expenditures for highways.
Mr.. Moulton considers it generally
known with regard to the highway
proposition, 3that the highway pro-
gram as originally planned cannot
be carried out unless we continue as
we have in the past And that s.'the
West side program is fairly well de-
veloped but the East side has hardly
been started, as far as paving is con-
cerned."
With regard to reclamation Mr..
Moulton says: "The question Of rec
lamation has practically taken care
of itself so far as this session Of the
legislature is concerned. There is
general feeling that we should take
stock of ourselves before we go any
further in the reclamation line, and
that we should also thoroly study the
situation before we discontinue rec
lamation entirely. The legislature has
made provision for a thoro study of
reclamation and land settlement, both
in the state and in its relation to
Federal reclamation, with view to
gaining general information, to be
submitted to the next session Of the
legislature, I'm order that at that
time the matter of state reclamation
may be abolished altogether. Or that
it may be placed upon a safe and
sane foundation"
Mr.. Moulton is convinced that the
principal point at issue in the legis-
lature involves the educational instu-
tions. To quote:
The governor as you know, has
vetoed the millage bill, and the bill
known as the capital outlay bill pro-
viding for certain new additions and
buildings. This to my mind is the
most serious thing the legislature
has before it.
The fact of the matter is that we
are endeavoring to cut down the bur-
den of taxation by depriving our ed
ucational institutions of absolute ne
cessities."
Asked for further opinion on the
subject Mr.. Moulton continued: 1T Is
absolutely impossible for them to
keep pace with the growth Of the
state unless we increase their allow
ance from year to year. We cannot
have first class institutions and de-
prive them of sufficient money for
operation, and for such new buildings
and additions as they require. My
own view is, that we have attacked
the problem from the wrong direc-
tion. We should not destroy our edu-
cational institutions by deprivlng
them of the essentials, but we should
reduce the tax burden by so adjust
ing our taxes, that all property IN
the state will become subject to tax
alton. In other words the burden OF
our educational institutions falls
heavily upon some because very
large portion of the state is allowed
to escape taxation. The governor, the
members of the legislature, and the
people of the state know that our
real tax problem is one OF dlstrlbu,
tion of the burden and not one OF
cutting off few hundred thousand
dollars in the state expense account.
Again Mr.. Moulton says, 1T IS
matter of common knowledge that II
we wiped out the whole burden OF
state taxation we would not material
ly reduce the entire tax burden. we
all know that the principal portlon
of our burden results from county
and local operations and that the Dur-
den cannot be reduced to any mater-
ial extent by reduction OF expenses.
Up to date we have been afraid
to tackle the problem of state taxa
tion and we have attempted to ease
our conscience by cutting Off feW
dollars here and there in the expense
account. Every man who thinks OF
the proposition at all knows that no
thing worth while can be accom-
plished in this manner"
Mr.. Moulton considered that real
relief must be sought by spreading
the burden of taxation, thus putting
the responsibility where it belongs:
In view of the governors proposed
policy to continue economy IN such