The Wrangell sentinel., 1941-04-18

l for them might not be available.
 With a one-third increase in pop ulation in a decade. and further growth in prospect. our problems could be taken care of largely by a Irevamping of our obsolete and mad equate tax structure Such a revis- ion would permit our new and in- creased activities. not now taxed, to pay a small share of their bur den. At present the influx of peo- 1 pie into an Alaska community creates new requirements for schools, streets. public utilities. and so forth. At the same time this in- Aux creates prosperity; merchants do a much larger business. But un- der our rigid and outworn tax sys- tenn the Territorial Treasury gets no additional receipts In other words. Alaska while called upon to furnish new facilities. yet gets no corresponding tax benefits from the increased business and new con- struetion activities. The extremely moderate net income and property taxes proposed to the Fifteenth Leg islature would have remedied this difficulty
 The Lobby's cry was that with increased Federal taxes for defense impending. this was no time for any new Territorial taxes. The facts are that Alaska is by far the most light ly taxed entity under the flag; that in no other part of the union do SO many occupations, categories or in- dividuals escape appreciable taxa ton; that after enjoying a seventy per cent increase in the price of gold for the four years from 1893 to 1897 without an additional cent of taxation, a three per cent gross tax with a $20,0OO exemption alone has been levied on Alaska's gold in dustry; that under this exemption over $5,000,000 worth of gold is taken out of Alaska annually with out paying one cent of tax to the Territory; that many states with already adequate tax burdens are taxing themselves further to meet their needs; that the Territory is now at an all-time high of prosper ity; that the National Defense pro- gram is still further augmenting this prosperity; but that very little of this new wealth is staying in Alaska. Although Gov. Langlie's message to the Washington Legis- lature, in which economy was urged was quoted by one of the leading Alaskan lobbyists, he did not state that nevertheless the Washington Legislature finally adopted, in order to provide adequate governmental services to the people of that state, the largest budget in its history and increased taxes all along the line.
 The Lobby was able to frighten one Senator, to bambOozle another, and these in addition to those al- ready "in the bag" were sufficient. With ample opportunity for intelli- gent discussion and an honest fac- ing of Alaska's problems, the in- come tax bill was never given seri- ous consideration in the Sentte, al- though the House passed it by d vote of ten to six. The Lobby has stimulated some childish talk to the effect that these tax proposals were brought in from the outside" (So, it might be recalled. are the Federal funds which pay the legislators travel and per diem.) The basis for this tax legislation was laid three years ago under the administration of Governor Troy when, at his dir ection, the Planning Council under took a thorough study of taxation. This was clearly annoying to the Lobby which wanted the Planning Council killed and had it's way. But apart from all this, the Legislature had full and final control over any tax legislation The Legislature had