The Western news., 1933-11-30
Many Object
To Proposed
Sales Tax
Montana Merchants Associ-
alton File Strong Protest
to Measure.
ALSO AGAINST
ATTACHMENT BILL

When the special session of the legis-
lature opened last Monday the Associat-
ed Merchants of Montana protested the
passage Of Governor Cooney's proposed
sales tax, John A. Lovelace, president
of the association stated today. He has
just completed series of conferences
with merchants In various parts Of the
state on the sales tax and the governor 5
proposal to exempt salaries of $40 or
less from punishment This the mer-
chants also oppose.
During my entire visit have found
no merchants who favor sales tax, for
the following reasons" Mr.. Lovelace
says, and enumerates the seven objec-
tons Of the merchants:
The sales tax Is an evil and discrim-
inatory tax, the merchants feel, wheth-
er it is paid by the merchant, or
through mandatory clause is passed
on to the consumer. Governor Pinchot
in message to the legislature asking
repeal of tax in Pennsylvania the end
of the first six months stated clearly
the results of the latter method: "A
sales tax is bad, because it is simply
one more devise to put the tax burden
mainly on those that are least able to
pay. 1t denies the sound principle of
equality Of sacrifice, because it bears
more heavily in PROPORTION on the poor
man than on the rich. A sales tax is,
in effect, graduated income tax re-
persed, for under 1t the smaller man.
income, the larger the percentage Ct it
goes to pay this tax. A worker or a
farmer spends something like half of
his total income for consumers goods
on which sales taxes are levied A rich
man may, and often does, spend as
little for those same goods as five per
cent. There is no justice in such an
arrangement It is merely another way
to free the rich man from taxation A
sales tax has been urged as means to
provide further unemployment relief 1t
is not necessary. There are better ways
of obtaining this revenue recommend
strongly that the emergency sales tax
shall not be renewed and that no other
sales tax be substituted for it,
Farmers particularly will be penal
lied by such tax. They can pass moth
ing on to the consumer yet they must
pay this tax as consumers. Farmers and
labor viii be the victims, if sales tax
with a mandatory clause that the con-
sumner must pay, is passed
If the Governors bill does not con-
tain a clause making it mandatory that
the tax be paid by the consumer, it
will close fourth of the retail bust
nesses in the state, within six months,
which will add to unemployment and
the need for relief
Mail order house goods cannot be
taxed since it would be an infringement
on interstate commerce Out of state
competition in its various forms---mail
order houses. door to door statesmen,
manufacturers agents--is already
serious problem for Montana merchants
and the sales tax on Montana sales
would double it,
IF not passed on to the consumer the
sales tax of one per cent would cost
every merchant $10O on $40 900 Of sales,
which is many times larger than any
licensing or privilege tax for any other
type of business in the state, and is,
therefore, unfair to retailers, wholesal-
ers and manufacturers.
"A retail sales tax means a very
large number of insignificant tax ac-
counts whose checking and supervision
is excessively expensive. Without an en-
tirely new police system Of tax inspec-
tors some merchants would paw and
some would not This proved to be the
case in Mississippi, where at the end
Of the first six months only 1854 out of
1900 retail concerns had reported or
paid the tax"
Merchants also oppose the exemption
Of attachment according to Mr.. Love-
lace. quite as much because they real
ize it will cut off the credit of all per-
sons receiving $40 week or less, and
work great hardship on honest workers.
since it will encourage so-called dead
beats" to refuse to meet their obliga-
ton for the credit which merchants
have been extending without stint the
past three years,