Year: 1877

first State in the Union in population


and wealth--only because the CONNER


cial metropolis of the Western Hemi-


sphere is located within her limits. Reduce


this metropolis to city Of the third or


fourth rank. and the value of New York


property outside of New York city would


Immediately shrink at least onc-half. Terri


torially New York is but medium sized
State, and she is far less rich in
mineral resources and in agricultural fer
tlity than several other States of inferior
wealth and rank. The greatness OF the
State is caused by the commercial importance
Of the city, and if the truth of this state
ment were not obvious it would be worth
while to prove it for the benefit of our legis-
lators at Albany. But rs it needs no proof
we simply call their attention to the fact and
ask them to give it its proper weight in the
finance and tax bills which they adopt dur
ing the present session.


The average rural Legislator fancies that
the best way to promote the interest OF his
constituents is by causing the city to con-
tribute as much as possible and the agricul-
turnl counties as little as possible to the ex-
penses of the State government. For many
years the city has had reason to complain Of
gross injustice in the distribution of public
burdens as between itself and the country.
The city has been compelled to pay one-half
of the State taxes, besides suffering still
greater detriment from absurd methods of
taxation, which infict greater annual in
jury on the city than the whole amount Of
our inequitable proportion of the State
taxes. Our system Of taxation, which is


fitted to drive away capital and impede the
growth of the city, is fastened upon us by
the narrow rural ideas on this class of SUBJ
jects which prevail among members Of the
Legislature. The mind of the legislator
from the rural districts appears to be capa-
BILE only of grasping the idea that the me-
tropolis is the centre Of enormous wealth
that its fine buildings and handsome resi-
dences are of immense value that its capi-
talists are millionnaires who ought to be
made to bear a heavy proportion of the taxa
ton required for the support of the govern
ment. But the country members do not seem
to understand that the commerce built up
and the importance gained for the whole
State by this concentration Of wealth and
business capacity at the seaport is the main
source of the prosperity of the rural dis.
tricts, and that to drive away capital and en-
terprise from the city by unjust and illiberal
legislation is to paralyze and impoverish the
whole State.


For the last six or eight years the motives
have been strong for shifting as much as
possible of the burden from the rural dis
tricts to the city. 1t is not in the nature of
any community to be much in love with
taxation, and the burden of State taxes has
been exceptionally heavy and oppressive for
the last few years. The large bounty debt
created during the last years of the war had
but short term to run, and the taxes laid
for its early extinguishment have made an
uncomfortable addition to the ordinary State
expenses. BY an unfortunate concurrence of
circumstances this extraordinary burden has
pressed most heavily at time when the
State treasury has been deprived Of one of
its most important resources. The State
constitution requires between two and three
million dollars to be set apart from the sur
plus revenues of the canals md applied to
the reduction of the State debt and State ex-
penses So long as the canals yielded such
a surplus the canal income was great re-
lief to the taxpayers. But Of late years the
canals yield but small surplus over ex-
penses, and the people of the State lost this
great resource at the time when the bur-
den Of the bounty debt pressed most
heavily. 1t is not very surprising that in
such period Of exceptionally high taxes the
rural districts have sought to shift as much
of the burden as they could off from their
own shoulders upon the owners of property
in the city of New York. But the county
debt is now substantially extinguished and
State taxation will hereafter be dimin-
ished about one-half. In view of this relief
we appeal to the rural members of the Legis-
lature to treat the city with some approach
to Justice. The burdens on the rural tax
payers will hereafter be light, and there is
no reason why they should not bear their
fair proportion of State taxation.


The fact that this city is compelled to pay
about one-half the expense of supporting the
State government and meeting the State
debts, though n valid ground of complaint,
is not the grievance against which we have
the strongest reason to protest. Ignorant
rural legislators are doing all in their power
to ruin the city by a blind adherence to
antquated methods of taxation, which are
driving capital and enterprise out of the
State to take refuge in New Jersey and Con-
necticut. The present system was we'll
enough adapted to earlier periods in the
history Of the State. In the early part of
this century agriculture was our chief inter-
est, and our system of taxation was adjusted
to the condition of an agricultural COM
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