The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1934-04-20
RETAILERS HEAD
SEEKS REPEAL
OF INCOME TAX
Staggering Bond Debt Also
Blamed for Distress of
Taxpayers.

G. Fred Wiedman, president of
the Associated Retailers of Indiana,
meeting today at the state fair
grounds, asked the assembled re-
tailers yesterday to indorse a legis-
lative program looking to repeal of
the gross income tax.
Mr.. Wiedman suggested replace
ment of the gross income tax, if
necessary, with a wide-ba tax
enactment, to finance the mainte-
nance and administration of the
public school system and savings on
governmental expenses, through re-
organization of governing ma
chinery and a moratorium on the
issuance of public bonds.
Our assemblage here from the
various trading centers of this state
is a demonstration that the retail
industry is unqueStionably opposed
to an unfair and an unjust taxa
ton burden" said Mr.. Wiedman.
That we might not be accused Of
a selfish motive, but rather that we
might by this demonstration create
type of thinking that will spell
tax relief to the entire citizenry Of
our state, you will here today in
dorSe a program that shall con-
tribute to the correction of a dis
located tax responsibility"
Law Is Reviewed
Mr.. Wiedman reviewed the his
tory of the enactment of the $3.50
tax limitation law, saying that it
came as a direct result of the de-
mand for tax relief and that while
the honesty of purpose which IA
thered the tax limit law can not be
questioned, the Short-sightedness of
wisdom and vision demonstrated lin
this session of the legislature can
find no haven" e.
AS a result of the tax limit law,
he said, governmental units found
themselves facing a serious deficit
and breakdown of public welfare
agencies and public education
threatened. Enactment of the gross
income tax law is traceable to these
conditions, he said
THAT the gross income tax law
in its present form is the most
vicious tax levy ever legiSlated need
not be gainSaid. This tax has proved
to be nothing short of conf1Scation.
The retailing industry in Indiana
today finds itself confronted with a
dollar and cent tax load increased
to point as high as 400 per cent,
greater than in any previous year.
Failure Is Charged
This present gross income tax law
has failed miserably in its claim
that it would equalize the distribu-
ton of the tax load by spreading
the tax base. What it has actually
accomplished is the shift of the
major portion of the tax burden to
other shoulders, making it class
legislation in fact, if not in theory.
1t positively is essential that this
present gross income tax law be re-
pealed Immediately at the converting
of the next session of the legis-
lature.
ITO demand repeal of the gross
income tax law is one thing, but to
make possible its repeal demands
another thing, namely, that this
association exert it's influence in the
name of such governmental reforms
as to accomplish an actual dollar
and cent tax relief for every
Hoosier. Therefore this association
should today support in its resolu-
ton a corrective of another serious
factor to the problem of reducing
| the dollar and cent tax load.
Bond Debt Is Curse
"The serious factor is the curse
of our bonded indebtedness. Herein
have our ancestors Sinned against
this day, and herein are we sin
ming against the day of our pos
| terlty.
The speaker explained that in his
home county of st. Joseph the pub
lie bonded Indebtedness amounts to
$50 a person, to which must be
added the huge interest payments
that must be made before the debt
is liquidated. Wisdom, he said, was
exercised when prohibition was
placed in the state constitution
against state bonded indebtedness,
but this wisdom was not carried
through to the lesser units.