The times-news. [volume] (Hendersonville, N.C.) 1927-current, 1933-05-15
FINAL HOUR BILLS
FLOOD ASSEMBLY
Continued from page one)

NCOntlnueu from page OHeJ
longeL by the addition of numer-
Gus acts Of almost as great i'm
portancc. But it is agreed that
the most important legislation
had to do with the balancing Of
the budget, the maintenance Of
the schools and the reduction of
taxes on property, and it was
about these measures that the
principal controversies ragged in
both houses.
The first major controversy
arose over the appropriations bill,
with the extreme economy bloc,
headed by Representative Tam c..
Bowie Of Ashe. advocating an APP
preparation bill that could be fl
nanced without recourse to any
new form Of taxation, especially
without recourse to q sales tax.
The appropriations bill proposed
by Bowie, it is now agreed, would
not have provided for more than
four months operation Of the
public schools and did not pro
pose more than siX-mOnthS
school term. It would have re-
duced the salaries of all state
employees ii per cert below the
1881 level, instead Of only 80 per
cent below it, as the bill finally
enacted provides. Although Bowie
and his group, by forming coali-
ton with the more moderate
economy group headed by Rep
resentative Z. Greco Cherry of
CASTOR, succeeded in getting his
bill adopted in place Of the COM
mittee appropriations bill, it was
amended to such an extent before
the house finished with it that it
bore little resemblance to the or
iginal Bowie bill. The total APP
preparations it called for was in
creased from a beginning o.
about $1S,000,000 to about $22,.
100000. When the senate got it,
an additional S2,000,0O0 was add
ed to it for an eight-months
school term, and more for other
purposes, making the total appro-
priatiOnS amount 10 approximate
" $25.O00,000 a year from the
general fund, and to about SILL
100000 a year for everything, in
the state highways and
debt service. This represented =
net reduction Of more than $10,-
Il year in the appropria-
tons compared with the 1881
2llotments.
The next major fight develop
cd over the framing of revenue
bill that would yield the $25, 00O,-
600 year needed with which to
finance the appropriations bill
and hence balance the budget.
The contention Of the Bowie cX-
tieme economy bloc all along had
been that unless the most drastic
economy were practiced a sales
tax would be necessary. The
others had maintained from the
first that a sales tax would be
necessary any way, if the state
removed the Is cents property
tax, and that a still larger sales
tax would be necessary if a state
eight-months school
term were adopted. The finance
had been working for
weeks trying TO write a revenue
bill without 4 sales tax, and had
been unable to raise enough reve-
nue. without some kind Of sales
tax.
But the house at first refused
to consider the sales tax section
in the revenue bill and threw it
out. trying to raise the revenue
from other sources, despite the
fact that Governor Ehringhaus
had previously advised the levy
ing of some sort of a sales tax as
an emergency measure in order
to balance the budget. After
around for several days,
the house named a special sub
committee to draw up a plan that
would yield enough revenue and
it came back with a recommends
ton for a 2 per cent sales tax.
An effort to substitute luxury
sales tax for this failed. The
house finally adopted the 2 per
cent general sales tax Ian, and
sent the bill to the senate. The
senate decided that even this
would not balance the budget and
put in the 3 per cent sales tax,
with few exemptions. which all
agreed would balance the budget.
The house finally accepted this
and the main fight was over.