Evening star., 1941-05-08
Stating the Facts

1t Is highly gratifying to note the
calm and dispassionate refutation by
Representative Hunter of Ohio of the
unfair and misleading statements re-
Gently made in the House to the effect
that the residents of the District are
not paying a Just proportion of taxes.
The District has suffered long and
patiently from irresponsible and in
accurate statements on the floor of
the House, which, for the most part,
go unchallenged by the members. Mr..
Hunters attitude is the more praise
worthy, for to contest such state
ments and to correct what our in
vestigations have shown to be an
erroneous assumption" is apt to
be the unpopular course. In this
case, Mr.. Hunter and his COL
leagues Of the District Committee
might we'll have considered it a point
of personal privilege to contest the
allegations regarding the District.
For if the District is lodging its fair
burden of taxation, that fact is a
direct reflection not merely on men,
bers of Congress, charged exclusively
under the Constitution with govern
ment of the District, but attacks the
good faith and honesty of those who
are working in behalf of the Overton
formula.
For it is true that if the people of
the District are dodging fair taxes,
then efforts to increase the Federal
payment are misdirected and unjus-
tilted. On the other hand, if the ex-
cluSively controlling National Gov
ernment is not meeting it's own obli-
cations, while taxing the District to
the limit, then the men who, by mis-
stating the facts, oppose an equitable
solution of this problem are render
ing themselves, the people of the
District and their voting constituents
back home reprehensible disservice.
The proposal to increase the Dis
trict tax rate on real and per-
sonal property from SITS to $3.50
was supported by the meaningless
assertion that the Districts tax rate
is one of the lowest in the country.
Of course it is. 1t has been rela-
lively low for years. And the fact
that it is low has no more bearing on
the Districts tax burden, relative or
absolute, than the annual rainfall
or the sun and moon tables. AS Mr..
Hunter said, every real estate oper-
ator in the country knows that tax
rate, standing alone, is no index of
the tax burden. Why do members of
Congress, however, insist on reciting
the comparison of tax rates? Is it
that they are themselves misled, or
do they Intentionally seek to mislead
others?
The figures on tax rates given to
the House reduce themselves to an
absurdity. Intended to show Wash
ingtons low tax burden, they show,
at the same time, that the little city
of Phoenix, Arizona. is twice as heavi-
ly taxed as st. Louis and almost
twice as heavily taxed as Detroit.
Does any intelligent person believe
that? Would any sincere person at
tempt to make the House believe it?
If it is obviously ridiculous to assert
that Phoenix is twice as heavily
taxed as st. Louis, is it not equally
ridiculous to assert that st. Louis is
twice as heavily taxed as Washing
ton?
Representative Hunter is chairman
of a subcommittee that made the
local tax burden the object of imme-
diate study in its consideration of
the Overton formula. Mr.. Hunter
told the House some of the results.
Property taxes in the District bear,
and have born for years, dispro-
portionately high share of the total
taxes collected. Comparison of sales
and assessments over a period Of
years has shown an average ratio of
1O4 per cent assessed value to sales
value-probably the highest ratio in
the country. Comparisons of tax
burdens, made by the Census Bureau,
have repeatedly shown a tax burden
in the District which is relatively
high and which is far too high, in
comparison with what other cities
pay, when interest payments on
bonded debt are deducted from the
comparison. Bonded debt, not per-
mitted in the District, has no place
in comparisons of tax burdens be-
tween cities.
The proposal to increase the real
estate and personal property tax rate
here is directly contrary to sound
principles of taxation and is viciously
and gratuitously unfair when-based
on misleading and inaccurate pres
entation of the facts.