Evening star., 1938-05-04
SENATE APPROVES
PARLEYS REPORT
ON D. c. TAX BILL
PaImisano Gathers Forces
to Kill Entire Measure
by Vote in House.
LIVELY FIGHT FORECAST
IN LOWER CHAMBER
Work of Conferees Probably Will
Not Be Discussed Until
Next Week.
Without discussion, the Senate to-

Without discussion, the Senate to-
day adopted the conference report
on the 1889 District revenue bill,
At the same time, Chairman Pal
misano of the House District Com
mittee made preparations to appeal
to every member of the House to
aid him in his move to have the
entire measure killed.
Only House approval of the con-
ference report now remains to COM
plete legislative action on the bill.
but in view of Chairman Palmisanos
plan to make final attempt to kill
the bill, a lively fight over the report
is anticipated in the House. The
report. however, probably will not be
called up in the House until the latter
part of this week or early next week.
Levy Obnoxious to Him.
Mr.. PalmiSano wants to destroy the
measure because it provides for con-
tinuation for another year of the busi-
ness privilege tax on gross receipts-a
levy that is obnoxious to him prI-
marily because it will affect his Bal
timore constituents who do business in
Washington.
Mr.. Palmisano made an initial at
tempt to kill the measure in confer
ence yesterday by forcing a deadlock
The other conferees, however, turned
deaf ears to his proposals and agreed
on conference report after making
a few last-minute changes in the
business privilege tax section of the
bill.
In defense of his position in fcht-
ing the bill Mr. Palmisano declared:
The business privilege tax is all
wrong. There is no reason why firms
outside the District should be forced
to pay tax for the privilege of doing
business here. And I don't believe
Washington business men want 1t. ]
went to a meeting here not so long
ago and heard 1900 business men
denounce this form of taxation
Whats going to happen if this
tax is continued for another year?
Why. every outside firm doing busi-
ness in Washington is going to attempt
to escape the tax by going into the
mail-order business. These firms will
withdraw their statesmen and abolish
their local branch Offices. The Dis
trict will lose revenue and the htteIs
will suffer"
In Strategic Position.
Mr.. Palmisano is in a strategic
position to prevent House action on
the conference report. AS chairman
OF the District Committee he Is in
charge of the report and does not
have to call it up in the House. But
he said ne would not resort to such
tactics.
Il am going to call up the con-
ference report and fight the bill OF
its merits" he declared. Il believe
many other members will go along
with me, especially those who have
firms in their districts which do busi-
ness in Washington.
AS soon as Mr.. PalmiSano calls up
the conference report in the House
he said he would give Representative
Nichols. Democrat. of Oklahoma the
privilege of trying to have it adopted
Mr.. Nichols is chairman of the Fisca.
Affairs Subcommittee which framed
the bill.
And while Mr.. Nichols is fighting
for adoption of the report he de-
clared, III be fighting against it."
Exemption Raised.
The principal changes made in the
bill by the conferees were to raise the
exemption in the business privilege
tax from $1,000 to $4,000, as pro-
vided in existing law, and provide for
continuation of this levy for only an
other year. The original bill would
have continued the tax indefinitely.
The conferees also directed that the
proposed new study of the entire Dis
trict tax study be made under direc-
ton of the Joint Congressional COM
mittee on Internal Revenue Taxation
instead of under the Commissioners
The increase in the exemption to
$4,000 is expected to reduce the ?sti-
mated yield from So 900, 900 to 81 300
000 This would bring the total esti-
mated revenue the bill was written to
produce down from $5.200.000 to
S5.100.000 The anticipated budget
deficit is s4.7oO,ooo.