The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1931-02-20
TAX REDUCTION
ASSOCIATION AIM
MINNESOTA TAXPAYERS ASSOCI-
ALTON Is MAKING CAMPAIGN
FAVOR OF CUTTING DOWN ON
THE OLD ONES.

Minnesota's biggest problem is tax
reduction.
No other issue Is so pressing, so seri-
GUS or so general.
High taxes in this state are damag-
ing industry, burdening business, ruin
ing agriculture and crushing individu-
ais. To secure things we think we
want, we have assumed burden we
cannot carry. The proof is bankrupt
business, closed banks, and millions of
acres of land, once privately owned,
now confiscated for tax delinquency.
The danger of the present situation
can hardly be over-estimated. De-
flated sales values on farms have
pauperized farmers, ruined bankers, and
put business everywhere in the red.
These ruinously debated values have
been accompanied by low prices on
farm products and high prices on what
the farmer buys. To these have been
added taxes SO high that they cannot
be paid, and assessment inequalities
glaringly unfair.
Is the existing general dissatisfaction
in any way surprising?
With the present situation con-
fronting it, the legislature is met on
every side by demands for increased
appropriations for every kind of pur-
pose, while reduced revenues, particu-
larly from gross earnings taxes, will
make available 100000 less money
to meet these demands.
Could anything test more thoroughly
the moral stamina of senator's and
representatives than the problem of
meeting increasing expenditures from
decreasing revenues?
Advocates of increased expenditures
as basis for their demands are urging
three possible methods: /. increase
taxes, 2. impose new taxes, 3. borrow
money.
Increases in present levies are urged
in the tax on gross earnings Of public
service corporations, such as railroads
and express companies, increase in the
tax on moneys and credits, increase in
the gas tax.
New taxes suggested include sales
tax, which inevitably would throw an
added burden on the poor, and a poll
tax which also would burden the poor
but be trivial to the wealthy. An in
come tax has been proposed, to re-
neve the burden on realty and person.
atty. The income tax is always urged
as a replacement tax, but history re-
cords no instance yet where it has so
served. Always and everywhere it has
become an added tax and just another
burden, melting to increased and un-
wise expenditures. Another new tax
suggested is a license tax on chain
stores, and another a footage tax on
bill boards.
A third group seek to finance the
improvements they advocate by bond
issues, warrants, and certificates of in
debtedness, securing the improvements
now and rendering the bill to posterity
for payment. Improvements urged,
to be thus financed, include highways
and armories. The State Fair manage
nsent proposes a direct levy, sufficient
to raise $250,000.00 annually for ten
years and friends of the Teachers In
surance and Retirement Fund propose
an increase in the levy for that fund
from 100 to lilo of mill.
In the entire galaxy Of tax spenders,
no one thus far has urged tax reduc-
tion-a definite decrease in public
spending and tightening of the UNI
bearable tax burden.
To fill this void, Minnesota Taxpayers
Association has stepped in. Its pro-
gram proposes: lower taxes, less debt,
elimination of extravaganza and proper
use Of public funds. It urges that the
public spend less that they may pay
less, and borrow less to avoid the in
terest charge. 1t IS organized in forty
eight counties of the state.
The Association has no selfish mo-
tives. It seeks only to serve. It be-
lieves it can best serve by tightening
the tax burden and equalizing assess
ments
Each Saturday evening at tbs Mr..
Reed, the president of the Association,
discusses the tax problem over WCCO.
Swing particular attention to the de-
velopments of the week. Readers of
this paper are invited to write him
relative to their own ideas or for in
formation vrhfch thew want