Askov American. [volume] (Askov, Pine County, Minn.) 1914-current, 1938-05-26
State Capitol News
BY A. I. HARRIS

The state property tax levy is the
lowest for 1887 than at any time in
the past seven years while county
and municipal taxes are showing
steady increase, figures in State
Treasurer c. A. Halverson's office
show. This reduction was made de-
spite the fact that the state increased
substantially its aid to local COM
munities.
at is a credit to the state admin
istration that it has reduced its levy
for 1887 while the local governments
have increased theirs" Treasurer
Halverson declares.
It's the same trend all over the
state-county taxes are going up in
practically every county. Local Of
ficials have been able to lower taxes
in some years when state taxes have
increased. "In times like these, when
local units are demanding help from
the state, it is remarkable that the
state has been able to reduce its
levies while local units have been
compelled to increase theirs" is Mr..
Halverson's analysis.
One excellent reason that the state
property tax levy has been reduced
this year is that the increased taxes
on iron ore approved by the last
legislature are going to provide more
than $10,00O,000 in revenue to the
State-three times that collected for
the previous year.
Half of this ten million dollars col
lection goes into the general revenue
fund, as replacement for some of the
taxes formerly collected through the
state property levy. The balance goes
into permanent school funds, from
which state aid to schools is Indirect
ly drawn.
The Halverson figures, using Hen
nepin and Ramsey counties as illus
trationS, show that state property lev
les for both these counties were low
er in 1887 payable in 1881 than
at any time since 1881. Meanwhile
the county levies for both Hennepin
and Ramsey have risen several mil
lions of dollars.
At the same time, Halverson points
out that Ramsey and Hennepin
counties are receiving large sums
from the state for direct relief and
old age assistance. Schools are also
receiving their share of state aid
and state income taxes, which to-
gether total nearly $40 per pupil this
year"
Summed up then, it is apparent
that even while the state has been
able to reduce the state property tax
to the lowest figure in the past seven
years, it has been able to provide,
due to the tax reforms won by the
1887 Legislature, greater sums to
county and local welfare and school
funds; at the same time, county and
local property levies show an almost
universal increase.
Governor Benson nailed the fiction
of "Farmer-Labor spending" in a
recent speech in Rochester in man.
ner well worth repeating-if for no
other reason than that the daily press
failed to make note of the Governors
remarks.
Benson said, eff you bear in mind
one single fact, and that is that a
Republican-controlled Senate finance
committee approved every single
item of state expenditures, you will
have no difficulty in understanding
the truth of the tax fight"
The Governor went on to declare
that the tax fight during the last
session of the Legislature centered
on the question of whether or not
"the common people of the state
shall pay more in taxes to enable the
steel trust, the public utilities and the
wealthy to pay less in taxes"
Had the Republican tax program,
offered by the conservative Senators
during the last legislative session,
been enacted into law, the Governor
said, the state levy on real property
would have reached the staggering
total of a tax of % mills for state
purposes"
Governor Benson called attention
to the fact that the state property
levy, instead was reduced by more
than $4,OOO,OO0 although the daily
press has been very, very silent about
that matter.
Pressing the fight against encroach-
ment on the butter market by sub
stitutes, Governor Benson sent
Charles Ommodt, state commissioner
of Agriculture, to New Orleans last
week to present the dairy farmers