Evening star., 1937-10-22
BY JAMES E. CHINN.

"
of the special subcommittee of the
House District Committee which
drafted the current emergency" tax
program, announced today he would
oppose any plan to substitute new
form of taxation in the coming fiscal
year for the existing widely condemned
business privilege tax.
81 think the business privilege tax
Is all right, though it may need
some perfections," declared Mr.. Ken
nedy. Il will stick with it until I'm
shown some other tax plan is better"
Meantime, Allen Brooke, director of
the business privilege tax division of
the District government, announced
his plan to discover tax delinquents
by door-to-door canvass would be
started in about 10 days He believes
there are at least 1000 business and
professional men who failed to file
tax returns.
Brooke's division has issued ap-
proXimately 10000 licenses, with
approximately 5000 yet to be ham
died.
Now the ranking ma jority member of
the District Committee, Mr.. Kennedy
Is slated to head the fiscal affairs
subcommittee at the coming session
of Congress, and in that position will
have charge of the new tax program
to be submitted. by the Commissioners.
To Fight Sales Tax.
Mr.. Kennedy said he is entirely out
of sympathy with the proposed general
sales tax and would fight it vigorously.
He indicated he would favor an income
tax as an alternative to the present
business privilege tax, if that levy
Is not continued after the close of
the current fiscal year.
The business privilege tax, Mr. Ken
nedy pointed out, is catching" in
its net many non-residents transacting
business in the District, who hereto
fore failed to pay anything for that
privilege. He cited several cases of
persons in Baltimore, where he lives,
who have lucrative business connec-
tions in Washington that in the past
escaped taxation. One case in particu-
lar involves a plumber who has q
home in Baltimore, but does busi-
ness exclusively in the District.
Sees Attack as Unsound.
"It's just those sort of people who
are doing most of the kicking" he
declared. "I haven't heard a sound
argument from any of them why
they should not be taxed for doing
business in Washington. These people
in particular have been getting a free
ride for long time, and ought to
be forced to pay something, as they
are doing now under sthe business
privilege tax"
If the business privilege tax is al
lowed to expire, Mr.. Kennedy said it
should be Immediately replaced with
an income tax, should the District find
it necessary to raise the s3,0o0,000 ad-
ditional every year that the former
levy Is estimated to yield.
II favor an income tax primarily"
he declared, because it will catch
those people who live in Washington
to escape similar tax in the States.
If the District does not get revenue
from them, some State will eventu-
ally"
Meantime. the Commissioners pre-
pared to give serious consideration to-
morrow to a proposal for substitution
of general sales tax for the business
privilege ia when they meet with the
special District Tax Committee to map
out new program of taxation that
will remain static for at least seven
years.
To Submit Several Plans.
The Tax Committee, headed by Maj.
Daniel j. Donovan, auditor and budget
officer, plans to place before the Com
missioners series of tax plans, and
let them select those to be recon-
mended to Congress.
1t is foregone conclusion the Com
nnissioners will not ask for continu-
alton of the business privilege tax,
and the list they will have to select
from is thereby narrowed down to the
following:
Income tax
General sales tax.
3--Increase in public utility taxes.
Especial sales tax on beer.
With the various tax plans, the
committee also will submit to the
Commissioners a tentative, skeleton
lied budget for the next seven years,
which, it is understood, will call for
total appropriations in excess of
$500. 100000.
Some of the details of the commit
tees program leaked out yesterday,
but Maj. Donovan emphasized they
were not official" He said the COM
plete report of the committee probably
would be made public Saturday after
1t Is submitted to the Commissioners.