Jasper County Democrat, Volume 18, Number 18, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 5 June 1915 — How Railroads Reduce Taxes. [ARTICLE]

How Rail roads Reduce Taxes.

We frequently hear advocates of he voting of railroad subsidies say that 'if the tax is voted, the railroad will pay it all back in a few years and your taxes will be reduced by reason of the increased valuation because of the railroad line.” To prove their assertion they will tell you, for example, that up in Lake county taxes are so low that the people don't notice them at all. Lake county has more miles of railroad, perhaps, than any county in Indiana, and it also has several hum died saloons which pay in an aggregate of a great many thousand of .dollars each year to the county, cities and towns in its borders.

While it is’ true that railroads pay taxes, and the more railroads the more taxes, of course, tney pay, we have never seen an instance where taxes v.ore reduced by reason of more railroads being added to the township or county. The tax rate in Lake county is very high, as a matter of fact.

We do not have the county or township rates, but the following dipping from the Crown Point Star, shows conclusively that all is talk about the low tax rate in Lake county is mere buncombe: It is said the taxes in Hammond is $5.00 on the hundred dollars val nation, and in Crown Point they are ?4.58 and in several other cities and towns they are following close. That is certainly a bid to keep investors out and invitation for those obliged to pay -he outrageous taxes to retreat. It seems to the great majority that something must be done to curb the appropriations being made to make the expenses still greater, and finally something desperate will have to he done. We are doing too much in a short time, and a line will have to be drawn if some relief doesn’t come in sight. Notwithstanding the vast increase in valuation in that county each year, the tax rate has been steadily climbing upward. Now The Democrat is not opposed to railroads, and has no objections whatever to a dozen lines coming into Rensselaer and Jasper county if they do not ask the taxpayers to build the roads and make them a present of them, but we would not expect local or county taxes to be reduced any by reason of such additional valuation. We copy the article from the Star merely to show the fallacy of the “argument” the subsidy advocates put up.