Eagle River review. [volume] (Eagle River, Wis.) 1890-1927, 1925-03-12
Economy Administration
Will Bring Tax Relief
PROPOSED CHANGES IN INCOME
TAX LAW OFFER NO TRUE
RELIEF IN TAXATION

come the most important issue be-
fore the present session of the gen.
eral assembly and the far-reaching
question of how revenue for expenses
of state, county, municipal and town
government is to be raised is receiv-
ing increased attention from the
members of the legislature and the
changes in the state income tax law
l have already expressed myself in
these pages as believing that the
taxpayers of the state will receive
little or no important relief from the
proposed amendments to the income
tax law Even if the claims made in
behalf of the new income tax law
Chat it would shift some Of the bur.
den of taxation to the business inter-
ests of the state and would relieve
agriculture of an appreciable amount
of direct taxation) were founded up
on fact any possible relief from this
source would be SO small as to be al
most imperceptible.
The burden of Wisconsin taxation
cannot be reduced by the proposed
increase in the amount of taxes to be
collected through the, new state in
come tax as advocated, or by any
other increase in the amounts OF rev
enue collected. In the future, as well
as at present and in the past, those
citizens of Wisconsin who cannot
pass their taxes on to the consumer
in the form of increased cost for SER
vices, or decreased payments for the
wages or raw materials, will con-
tinue to pay, directly or indirectly,
the great bulk of the taxes of the
state
1t was Benjamin Franklin, who,
when in London in the days before
the Revolution, was called upon by
the British ministers for advice on
the best method of raising new rev.
enues for the crown. His answer is
just as true today as it was then. He
told the advisers of King George
that mo matter what means you may
devise to levy taxes, be sure that the
community itself will pay them"
There is, as l have before stated
only one way to get relief from high
taxation That is found in spending
less money. The Wisconsin State
Tax Commission itself, in special
bulletin issued in 1921, expressed the
truth about the tax situation when it
said.
If there is to be relief from high
taxes, taxpayers must look near
home for the remedy, and apply it
when the next tax levy is being
made Facing facts may be less
agreeable than fighting windmills,
but it is more likely to produce re-
suits"
1t is, of course, an easy and often
popular course on the part of public
officials of all degree from township
officers up to the congress of the
United States, to stage spectacular
fights upon windmills when the tax
payers themselves begin to rebel at
at heavy costs of government. 1t is
much more difficult to face the bitter
facts, and to tell the disagreeable
truth that lower taxes can only come
through the strictest economy on the
part of public and officeholders alike.
Yet these same facts, as clearly
shown by official Wisconsin taxation
statistics of recent years, clearly
show the futility of attempting to re-
duce the tax load any considerable
degree by lacking a few mills upon
the tax burden of one element of the
community and taking few mills off
of another element. The real tax
problem of Wisconsin is not the ques
tion of whether an additional four or
five million dollars shall be raised by
means of changes in the income tax
laws This added revenue, whether
it be considered as a replacement
tax, shifting or burden, or vain
effort to dodge the real facts involv-
ed, is not sufficient to materially af-
feet the general situation in the
state. The root of high taxation is
found in the constantly increasing
expenditures and disbursements, not
only of the state government but of
the counties, cities, towns and school
districts.
present herewith figures taken
from the official bulletins of the Wis
consin State Tax Commission show
ing the constantly increasing receipts
and disbursements for public pur-
poses from 1918 to 1928. These fig
ures prove that public expenses in
the state have grown from $86,718,-
954 for the fiscal year of 1918 to the
astounding total of $173,615,371 for
1928, and that the revenues raised to
meet these expenditures have grown
from S92,959, 1913 in 1918 to $183,48
276 in 1928.
1t is easy to attempt to reply to all
these, figures by the statement that