The Wrangell sentinel., 1945-03-16

dUNEAO O - AlLeE HEeh ul "heavy weather" from fishermen "tlling" by farmers and banning by miners House Bill 62. the one per cent property tax bill finally slid through the house this week by a vote of II yeas and 10 nays and passed into the hands of the upper house.
 House bill 62 started out with good intentions. putting a one per cent tax on all property outside the city limits. Andrew Hope. repre- sentative from Sitka, threw the first life preserver to fishermen when he offered an amendment, which passed, exempting boats up to S5OOO value Halibut and cod fishermen Immediately leaned on the helm to steer their higher bracket boats off the rocky tax shore. They demanded all boats be exempt as the $5000 limit would not affect their ten to twenty thou sand dollar boats. However. the S5O0O exemption stayed in the bill.
 Farmers. reasoning that if fish ermen were exempt to the tune of five thousand, ploughed up an amendment which would exempt them. their livestock and machin- cry up to s5OO0 value and then the mining bloc of the house came forth with pick and shovel to pan out a similar amendment for them selves. Rep. Shattuck gave with an amendment to also exempt all mines closed by conditions of the war He took Juneau's Al. as eX- ample; said it was, probably a million dollar property, now closed. and should not be subject to taxa ton.
 Many c Ont e n d amendments forced upon it killed the bill as far as it's intents were concerned. Loud est protest came from Rep. Badger himself a farmer, who objected to the exemption put upon farm live stock and machinery. His cOnten- tion was that he, for one-and he thought he spoke for the farmers around his home town of Fair banks-would not object to paying a one per cent tax In fact, from being a strong supporter for the bill in it's original form, farmer Badger became vigorously opposed to it in its amended form, but the final ballot showed he voted for its passage.
 Bill authors. Reps. Hanford, Tay Tor and McCutcheon chung to their z bill even though they admitted the amendments were not desirable to them. Said Taylor, speaking for the bill. "T want it to pass. feel it is step in the right direction to start some kind of a tax program now and get it into working order It is better than nothing" Final vote found Badger, Cain, Cross. Diamond, Hanford. Jennings, Hope, Huntley, Krause, McCutcheon, Pol lard, Taylor, Peratroyich and Lan- ders on the winning side with An derson, Gill. HoOpes, Johnson, Linck, Peterson, Porter, Shattuck, Vukovich and Walsh in the minor ity.
 Bonus Bill
 Veterans bonus bill which pre- viously had opened it's own front in the house some time ago when spearheaded onto the floor by au- thor McCutcheon again caused skirmish when it came up for third reading and final passage, The bill would give every bona fide resident in the territory, prior to Septem- Der 16, 1940, now serving in the armed forces a $1OO cash bnous on return plus $2O for each month served.
 Rep. Peterson opened the attack of the opposition by saying that although he had had two sons in the service-one of them now gone he was against the bill. He called it the "best flagwaying bill'' introduced in the session so far and declared it would make this legisla- ture the laughing stock of the ter ritory.
 What do the boys care for lousy money?' he cried, emphasizing his remarks with pounding his fist on the desk Alaska is the only fit place for a white man to live and our boys want to come home to find the country just as they left it, not to pay taxes"
 Rep. Shattuck formed the second ss