The Sidney herald., 1955-01-13
MONTANA THIS WEFKn

a lew days before the legisla-
lure convened, LIQUOR and beer
retailers IN Silver Bow county
got a temporary Injunction in the
oiSIIlct court restraining the citv
u butte and the Montana LIQUOR
control board from imposing Ii
eense schedules on them. The CON
tentlon IS hat the licenses are
excessive and hence illegal.
At this writing the district court
ndS not yet held a hearing on
whether to dissolve the restrain
ing order or make it permanent.
50 1 DO not presume to Judge the
legal merits of the retailers no.
SIt!on. But it seems to me that in
bringing a court action of this
klnd just as the legislature is about
TO assemble is not indicative of
what n might call astuteness on
the part of the retailers of liouor
and beer. If experience mean
anything, reaction among the law
makers will hardly be favorable
70 the purveyors of bourbon and
brew.
"A recent report showed that the
number of retail liquor and beer
outlets is far above the national
average. If some disturbed Iegis-
lator should get his hands on that
report and undertake to limit the
number of retail outlets in con-.
iormIty with something approach
ing the national average, the re-
SUIT could be that more than a few
1quor and beer licenses would
be eliminated.
Two years ago the legislature
passed but the governor declined
10 approve a law for the with
holding of payroll taxes in gener-
al conformity with the federal
system. 1t was contended that the
act had serious faults which, to
say the least, would make it diff
Ilcult to administer, if not actu-
ally render it impotent.
This year the proposal will
again confront the lawmakers.
This time it appears to have the
avowed support of the state board
OF equalization. Representative c.
l.. Crist of Yellowstone county
was perhaps the main force in
getting the bill through the legis-
iature in 1858. He is going to try
it again.
The basic purpose of the plan
TO collect personal income taxes
from persons who in varying de-
grees can be cataloged as tran
slents - persons doing seasonal
work or who are employed on
construction jobs but who have
left the state by the time tax pay
ment time arrives. The result is
that the state loses considerable
revenue to which it has a right, and
this situation is accumulated in
many cases by the fact that these
persons draw high wages.
AS the personal income tax is
presently the second largest source
of state general fund income, ex-
ceeded only by the income from
the operations of the state LIQUOR
control board, it is obvious that
the state government has a very
substantial interest in preventing
evasion of this tax.
Perhaps in the intervening two
years the mechanics of the pro-
posal have been sufficiently re-
fined SO that the payroll with
holding tax would not in any I'M
reasonable degree harrass the
states employers. This was n of
the questions raised in 1858.
The feeling in Montana appears
to be general and positive that
the state has crossed the thresh-
hold into another prosperous year
and that 1855 will bring a contin-
uation of the development of
Montana's potential resources.
1t should not bseusa
1t should not be assumed, of
course, that every spot in the pic
ture will be bright, but the over
all outlook is for steady growth
of the states economy and of the
states population. The indications