The Redwood gazette. [volume] (Redwood Falls, Minn.) 1873-1940, 1939-02-09
ANY EFFORT TOWARD ECONOMY

| REDWOOD FALLS, MINNESOTA,
ANY EFFORT TOWARD ECONOMY
in government is laudable but it is well to
examine closely proposals made at st. Paul
to determine whether they really are design
ed to save money or only to take an amount
off some state levy and pass it down to the
county or township levy.
We have, for example, the suggestion
that the one mill tax, spent on state aid
roads, be dropped. Redwood county, we UNI
derstand, has got back almost exactly the
amount paid in under the one mill levy but
the distribution plan has consistently bene-
fitted counties with low assessed valuations
at the expense of counties containing large
cities. Removal of the one mill tax would
mean little here except that the levy would
have to be made by the county instead of
the state. Hennepin, Ramsey and st. Louis.
to large degree and a few other counties
would benefit but the change actually would
raise the taxes of property owners in many
poorer counties. l
Again the proposal to return to three
cent instead of four cent gas tax which
Roy Dunn Of the legislature advanced Tues
day night on the grounds We've got to start
somewhere" is really proposal to take the
tax off gas, where it is paid on the basis of
road use, and switch it to real estate tax
payers. Richard Cook, Redwood county
engineer, informs us that Redwood county
will lose $4,000 yearly in gas tax money
if the state returns to the three cent levy
Faced with the necessity of placing such an
additional burden on county taxpayers, the
county board probably would return at least
one-fourth the county roads to township
supervision. The result would certainly; be
an increase in township levies.
There is a sharp difference between
Juggling taxes and actually spending less
Juggling may benefit few at the expense of
others or it may only hide tax that is now
apparent.
HUMAN NATURE BEING WHAT IT
is, good civil service bills seem i'll fated from
the outset. Right now the principal prob
lem of conservative legislators seems to be
how much they can get away with in requir-
ing that present state employees be re-ex-
anined. Two years ago the liberal element
sabotaged the proposed law. 81
We have in Minnesota certain state de-
partments in which form of civil service
already exists; jobs for which stiff exams
were taken and passed and which presum-
ably are out of reach of greedy politicians.
But no civil service law is any safer
than the presidents set for it, If all the
groundwork done in this line is tossed aside
to satisfy party job hunters of 1889, the
excuse will be- offered all future legislatures
OF different political complexion to "revamp'
the civil service system, set up new STAND
ards" and go through the tossing out process
all over again.
Blanketing in all state EMPLOYEES as
trst proposed is not a sound policy but
where the rudiments of civil service already
exist they certainly should be respected.
H. CARL ANDERSEN, SEVENTH
district congressman, probably never will
express the attitude of his district any more
accurately than in his remark, 81 want per-
sonally, to vote for adequate defense funds
but not cent for aggression or mixing in
foreign affairs that do not concern us in any
way"
What constitutes adequate" defense is
big problem and it is doubtful if any ma
ton ambitlously seeking more lucrative
foreign markets can avoid some mixing in
affairs of other continents.
A DRIVERS LICENSE LAW WHICH
doesn't keep the physically and mentally in
capable off the road, as well as few con-
victed offenders, isn't worth much more than
the legislators time it took to pass it.
THE FAIRMoNT SENTINEL CAsTI-
gates the legislature for not outlawing the
sit down strike. Some of us suspect they are
gong to stage one, to avoid passing good
civil service BILL