The daily independent., 1936-10-14
WHAT OTHER
EDITORS SAY
A GOOD AMENDMENT
TO VOTE FOR

The most important vote which
North Carolinians will cast on No
yember 3. so far as the proposed
changes in the State Constitution
are concerned, will be:
For increasing Limitation of In
come Tax Rate to Ten per cent.
Against increasing Limitation
of Income Tax Rate to Ten per
cent.
This change is dictated by simple
Justice in a State which is un-
limited in its power to tax sub
sistence of the people but until
this amendment is adopted IS
poWerlesS to tax any income no
matter how large in excess Of 6
per cent.
For fairness in taxation, vote
for the increased limitation.
There ought not to be any limi-
tation whatever on the power OF
the State to tax the incomes Of
| it's people. The faireSt tax yet de-
vised is that which eXaCtS taxes
on the basis of ability TO pay and
there is no better measure of a
mans ability TO pay taxes than
! the income which he receives.
But while there should be no linz
itation on the Legislatures power
in this regard a limitation Of 10
per cent is far to be preferred to
! the present strict limitation Of 6
per cent.
No question has agitated North
Carolina in recent years more
deeply than the general sales tax
levy which in the last biennium
has fallen on every purchaSable
commodity in the State, upon the
least necessity of the poorest man.
AS administered, that tax, though
formally a 3 per cent levy, has
often been as high as a 10 per
cent levy. In practice, indeed
! the less a man brought the more
he was taxed.
This sales tax has had no
stronger defenders than the
wealthy persons and corporations
of the State. And it should not
be difficult to understand their
approval. When the real proper
ty tax levy was cut in the name
of the small property owner, the
chief gamer by far was the large
corporate or individual property
owner. And when the sales tax
was adopted in some sense as
substitute for the reduced pro-
perty taxes, its chief burdens fell
upon the small man, property
owner or not, who spent the larg-
est proportion Of his income on
these purchases subject to tax
Indeed, SO conservative a publiCa-
ton as Business Week not long
ago collected figures on the con-
SumerS' market. These figures
showed that a man with an in
come of $1,000 a year spend 6O.9
per cent of that income for COM
moditieS upon which the sales tax
falls. At the other extreme a man
having an income of $1,000,C00 Q
year North Carolina has one or
two Of them will spend only one
per cent Of that income on COM
moditieS on which the sales tax
falls. An on the basis of a 8 per
cent eXemptionleSS sales tax. such
as North Carolina has. the $1,000
man pays in sales taxes $500 per
thousand while the million dol
lar man pays 80 cent per thou
sand. . North Carolina needs
and needs desperately revenues
for the support of it's vast debt
structure and the increasing
needs OF its people. The extent
Of that desperation was indicated
when the State stopped to levy
on the dime which the poor man
spent for food. Having some so
far to seek a penny, the State
would be ashamed if it insisted
still that the incomes of the we'll
to-do be guarded as sacred under
the old 6 per cent limitation on
income taxes.
Sy all means the limitation