The times-news. [volume] (Hendersonville, N.C.) 1927-current, 1933-01-07
HOUSE FAILS
TO ADOPT TAX
RELIEF PLAN
State Measure Escapes De-
feat By Being Sent To
Committee
By J. c. BASKERVILL
The Times News BurCnu
Si~ Walter Hotel

RALEIGH, Jan. Tam c..
Bowie, the gentleman from Ashe,
was defeated in his first round in
the house when he failed in his
effort to get the house to pass his
bill to remove all tax penalties on
1882 axes and agreed to let the
bill be sent to the finance COM
mittee instead of pressing for a
vote. 1t is agreed that if Walter
Murphy, one of the co-introduc-
erS of the bill with Bowie and Ed
Flanagan Of Pit, had not moved
to halt debate with the suggestion
that the bill be referred to a COM
mittee instead of being put on its
immediate passage, that it un,
doubtedly would have been dea
feated. 1t is also doubtful wheth-
er Bowie would have agreed to
permit the bill to go to a commit
tee if Murphy had not suggested
this course as one of the intro
ducers of it. For while Murphy
is known as a fighter who believes
that discretion is the better part
of valour and as one who would
rather compromise than meet de-
feat. Bowie is much less inclined
to compromise.
Bowie had already succeeded in
getting a suspension Of the rules
for the consideration of his bill
which he said merely removed all
tax penalties on 1882 taxes, which
would start February 1. The out
look for its immediate passage
was bright until Representative O..
B. Moss of Nash county asked
Bowie if he would not be willing
to defer consideration of the bill
until the last part of this month
or the first of February, in order
to give the sheriff in Nash county
a chance to collect some morn
taxes. 2
81 do not know as much about
the other counties as in my own
county of Nash, but know that
if this bill is passed now, not an
other penny of taxes will be COL
lccted until property is advertised
for sale in June" Moss said. "For
as soon as this penalty is removed,
the larger taxpayers who arc
able to pay and who usually pay
their taxes just before the PEN
atty goes on. such as the ra"'-
roads and other large corpora,
tions, will wait until June too,
since their taxes will not be any
more then than now. This in turn
means that the counties will not
have any cash to operate on for
the next five months and will have
to borrow-if they can borrow"
But Bowie insisted his bill was
to aid those who could not pay
their taxes and who hence could
not pay any penalty and that he
wanted it passed now so that the
penalties would not begin in Feb
ruary. He insisted that the sher-
ifs still had the power to go out
and levy against the personal
property of delinquent taxpayers
and sell it if they refused to pay.
Moss, however. called attention
to the fact that when the sheriff
levied against property for collec-
ton Of taxes he added 5 per cent
as his fee. which had the effect
of imposing penalty much
oraater than that which Bowie
was attempting to remove. Rep
resentative Junius Martin of Bun
combe called attention to the fact
that under the present law, the
sheriff cannot sell the personal
property of a delinquent taxpayer
unless the taxpayer gives his per-
mission for such sale and points
out to the sheriff the particular
property he is willing to have him
sell, thus rendering this portion of
law virtually inactive.