Evening Republican, Volume 23, Number 177, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 24 July 1920 — TAX MEASURE IS PUT OVER [ARTICLE]

TAX MEASURE IS PUT OVER

SENATE PASSES SUBSTITUTE TAX BILL OVER SOLID DEMOCRATIC OPPOSITION. A. ■ ’ s 1 , - ■ Indiana State Capitol, July 23.— Moving swiftly into the mass of major bills confronting the special session of the Legislature, the Senate today passed the coal commission bill and the home rule tax bill, both important amendments, and the Kiper tax cure bill as a substitute for the Tutliill legalizing bill from the House. Passing a tax bill which the democratic minority declared “would keep the republican majority at home when the legislature meets next January,” the Indiana senate tonight took favorable action on a substitute' sos the tax measure approved by the house. The bill was sent back to the house and will

probably be given to a conference committee tomorrow to Compose the differences contained in the two measures. The bill, which was passed to-night-by a vote of 30 to 11, all the democrats voting in the negative, was written by Senator. Roscoe Kiper, of Boonville, following con“erences with other majority mem>ers and republican leaders. It is designed to meet Vne situation created by the supreme court’s decision declaring invalid the horizonßil increases made by the state tax board in 1919 assessments. Hopes of a speedy adjournment lang now on conference commit;ees, which will try to reconcile the differences of the Senate and the Elouse on the tax cure bill and the lome rule tax bill. - It is reasonably certain that the House will accept without objection the Senate’s amendments to the coal commission bill removing the power to seize mines and vesting the 'regulatory powers of the bill in the public service commission instead of a separate commission.; The only other major' measure remaining on the Senate side is the state world war memorial bill, and the consensus of opinion .among Republicans of that branch is that it will be passed substantially in the form that it left the House, appropriating $2,000,000 for a memorial wilding arid fixing the site as the 'rounds of the Indiana School for the Blind and St. Clair park.' Advocates of a higher appropriation believe that the next regular session of the legislature will authorize an additional sum.

Factors Governing Adjournment. Early adjournment—and many members are hopeful of- clearing the decks completely by Saturday njght—hinges upon the two tax measures. . Leaders in the House are reported to be determinedly opposed 'to concurrence in the Senate’s amendments to home rule, which gave appellate jurisdiction over levies and bonds issues to the judge of the Circuit court instead of the state board of tax commissioners, as was specified in the Johnson bin from the House. Additionally the Senate increased the number of petitioners necessary to get a review of levies and bond issues from fifteen to fifty, and advanced the rate of interest on bonds from 4% to 6 per cent, making the bonds nontaxable. , . . The Kiper bill reported m the Senate in place of the Tuthill legalizing bill, contains all the principal provisions’ of the- bill submitted by the Indiana Federation of Farmers’ Associations to correct the situation caused by _ the Supreme court’s decision nullifying the horizontal tax increases made by the state tax board last year. Some amendments were inserted in the original Kiper bill by the Republican Senate caucus, among thein one providing that if any downward readjustment of valuations for the remainder of this year fails to produce the state’s share of taxes on the basis of the state levy fixed last year, the county shall pay the deficit out of its treasury by appropriation made by the counfy commissioners and the county council. Legalization of Bonds. Another important change worked out in the Republican caucus covert the problem of« legalizing recent bond issues which may be impaired in any general downward revision of valuations. This legalizing amendment as now drafted provides that all bonds shall be validated on the basis of the constitutional limitation figured on the valuations to be fixed by the new re-adjustments—-the effect being, in the opinion or Republican senators, to cause board! of review to accept practically unchanged the horizontal increase ol last year as a means of protecting their outstanding bonds. It is the understanding of the proponents ol this amendment that sentipient u pronounced in favor of accepting the horizontal increases as the ba sis of the new valuation in taxing units where the danger of bond im of u. bill remain as they were in the

first draft. Within ten- days after the act becomes effective the state tax board is required to certify to all the counties all the data connected with the horizontal increases ordered on Aug. 23, 1919. Thereupon county boards of review, specially constituted for this occasion, shall conduct a review and reassessment, and then certify the findings to the state board for an equalization by counties over the entire state. New levies for the remainder of the year shall be fixed on the basis of the new valuations, and in case the treasury of any unit is depleted before the fall installment of taxes is collected, the local authorities are empowered fto borrow money temporarily. The bill provides furthermore for a refund of the excess of taxes paid in the sprng installment, which were collected on the basis of the horizontal increases. The Senate Republican caucus adopted the Kiper bill by a vote of 21 to 6.

Attitude of House A Question. Republican senators are not certain just what attitude the House will take toward the Kiper bill, and they admit that if the lower branch is obdurate, they will probably have to make the best compromise that is possible in conference. While the majority members of the Senate are convinced that they have a better solution of the tax jumble* than the House proposed in the Tuthill bill, they say it may be necessary to concede such changes as liter House demands. But it is equally certain that no spirit of conciliation will guide the Senate in its conference with the House conferees have been' appointed on both sides, Representatives Rothrock, Mendenhall and Winesburg acting for the House and Senators Brown, Aldredge and Hogston for the Senate. Under the leadership of Lieutenant Governor Bush the Senate Republicans are said to be determined not to sacnfice any essential principle of, the home rule bill, nor will they acquiese either in a deadlock that will mean the death of the bill. Information among Senate leaders today was that Speaker Jesse E. Eschbach, who is firmly opposed to any such legislation as--that contained in the Johnson bill, will exert his influence to have the bill Killed in conference through the process of nonagreement between the conferees from the two branches.

McCray’* Friend* Ready To Fight’ In the Senate the determination is equally pronounced to get the bill out of conference in such such shape as will redeem the Republican State platform pledge and will fulfill the primary pledge of Warren T. McCray, Republican nominee for governor. Governor Goodrich, while recommending the home rule tax bill in his message to the special session,' is quoted now as emphatically opposed to any such legislation at this time, and Senate baekers of the bill fear that his influences will be added to that of Speaker Eschbach to kill the bill. With a conflict Apparently inevitable over the two tax measures, and the friends of Warren T. McCray in the Senate irrevocably committed to a home rule hill, the length of the session will be gauged ’altogether by the relative degrees of tenacity of the two houses on

these bills. Speaker Eschbach is said to have declared that he will remain for the constitutional limit of forty days before he will give his consent to the home rule bill, and Lieutenant Governor Bush has declared with equal positiveness that he wifl stay the limit, too, rather than surrender to the House. Unless, by some unexpected turn, the irreconcilable differences of the two branches are composed Satur- ; day it looks as if the session would i run well into next week. x And the ■ fight in reality will be a test of the staying qualities of the presiding officers of the two houses, backed by their respective groups of adherents. . The Republican platform recog- > nizes the existence of oil-wells in Mexico.—Nashville Tennessean.