The Redwood gazette., 1935-03-21

CKTEEN proposed tax law changes which
=. will produce $24,OOO,OOO and do away
with the state levy entirely besides al
lowing $40 per pupil additional state aid are
Incorporated in an omnibus" bill now be-
fore the legislature
Joker in the new deal' tax deck is the
fact that of the 16 sources, two per cent
retail sales tax is designed to produce ex-
actly half the revenue. Not only does a
large part of this revenue come from the
poor man, but taxes on cigars, soft drinks,
cigarets, tobacco, candy, checks, amuse-
ments, hotel and restaurant bills, cosmetics,
natural gas, electricity and telephone bills
are scheduled to bring in another $500, 900,
a large part of which would be paid by per-
sons in the lower income brackets. What
little balance remains in the $24,000,000 bill
is to come from incomes, telephone earnings,
inheritance, and corporate excess taxes.
While this bill would relieve property
owners to some extent, very worthwhile
aim, shifting the burden to sales and nuis-
ance taxes isn't most peoples idea of tax re,
form. Only argument in it's favor is the old
one which is perhaps true, that the consum-
er pays all taxes eventually.
On this subject the following remarks
by the editor of the Sleepy Eye Herald-Dis
patch after a recent trip to Iowa are en-
Tightening.
The writer returned Saturday from
Iowa, the Gland where the tall corn grows"
and where the sales tax flourishes.
They are proud of their corn down
there, but the sales tax is something else
again. Heralded as a substitute for most
other taxes, it has proven anything else
but" It hasn't even taken the place of the
state levy, to say nothing of county, city,
township and school levies. It is a drop in
the bucket, so far as tax relief is concerned
but it is burden and nuisance itself.
Two per cent of the sale is the tax paid
by the purchaser with every transaction
If man has large income has credit at
all the stores, charges everything until the
end of the month and pays everything at
one time, he pays only two per cent. If his
credit isn't so good, or if he has learned by
experience that one can make money 60
further and last longer by paying cash for
everything, and pays that way, his sales
tax may amount to three, four or five per
cent. For example, every time one buys
fifteen cents worth of crackers he is charg-
ed one cent tax, if he buys twenty cents
worth of meat he pays another cent, quar-
ter's worth of coffee adds another cent,
twenty cents worth of cheese means an
other cent, and twenty cents Tor Dreau
pushes the tax up another cent to total
of five cents for dollar spent. That's five
per cent taxation instead of two per cent,
and it's the five cents the poor man pays.
The Minnesota legislature is even now
debating the sales tax and the conservative
majority seems to have enough strength to
put it over Governor Olson is bucking it.
If you believe it's good tax measure, don't
worry, you'll probably get it. If you agree
with us that it is obnoxious and abomin-
able, write Senator Romberg and Represent
atives Zwach and Havemeier, urging them
to fight it.
No one will deny that we must have
money to run the state government, but
let's get it by means of higher income tax
from people who can afford to pay, not from
the very poorest of the poor.