Rensselaer Republican, Volume 24, Number 50, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 11 August 1892 — More About Taxation [ARTICLE]

More About Taxation

The following is an exact reprint of a table of taxes published I ass. weekin the People’s Pilot: STATE TAXES. r- ' ” ft ’ l *z’ State tax .1591, $9,100.70 Increase “ •• .. IH9O, 5,564.21 $3,536.49 Benevolent, fund .1891 4,05C85 seljier luonniiient tx]B9l M 0.37 State school tai It<<l $11323.1=2 , ■ “ - .ISM) 7,099 78 4.728.84 E,fcr End. Fund Tax ..1891’-' H 40.33 '3? •• « , ••-. 189 b 191.94 148.30 Increase in state tax .... 12,833.44 COUNTY TAXES. tax. .. .... .1891 $30,632.67 Increase •■ " .....1890 23,te3->7* <> 1,648,80 Tdwnshiptax.. ..L .1891 6,489.52 •• ...IsMO 5,433,26 1.016,52 Tuition tax ...1881 14.Wi.73 " “ j 189 ft-;. 9,999.20 4,281.53, Special school tax.. .1891 15,173.22 • “ i ><—....1890 12,249.42 2,923.80 Road tax .1891 14.069,78 -♦ “ 18&0 '* 7,370.23 6,699.55 Dor taj;.. 1891 ~ 1,05i.00 Dog tax..,,. ;..... .*,IBBO 1,090.00 Decrease . $6.00 MisceHaneous tax .1891 none « >• ...1890 3,352,39 5-et increase in IcTHl.taxes : . : . ~r. ~tS3SirJ» Tot. State & Co. tax. Isl 107,419.29 Increase ==w==!=w= =afCe? = stx i

These figures are furnished by the Democratic State officers and the state pentral committee. The figures are, in the main, correct. One very' important item is incor reef however, probably not ins tentior.ally so. The item showing the net increase of local taxes is given at §13,351 55. In point of fact, however, if from the sum of the fix items showing increase in local taxes, is subtracted the sum of the two items showing a decrease, namely tlmdog tax §6 and the ‘‘miscellaneous tax” $3,352.39, the result will be $13,211.31, as the actual Increase in local taxes.

liiis is $139.74 less than, the Pilot's figures, and is also nearly f!te correct figure. Which is jttst $1,251. Any honest man, looking at the above table, will see,that it directly ahdtinanswerably, gives the *lre to the declaration that the> “court house cclan,” the “leeches” the “ring” the “ringsters,” the men who "ought to be wearing stripes” Ac Ac., are responsible for the increase in local taxes, except for the comparatively small item of «$.1,648i80, of county tax. All the other items in the table under the general head of “County Taxes”' are township and town taxes and are levied and expended by township and town officers, some of whom are Republicans and some of whom are Democrats. Another statement which the above table, directly gives the lie to, is in the matter of the total increase of local taxes.. Even the incorrect balance given in the table of $13,351.55, and which ’is at least SIOO too large, is slil considerably lees than the “$16,000 t(US>18,000” increase which 1 the Democratic and Peopo-Democratic papers have been howling about. And brings us to one of the most audacious, preposterous and palpably false statements ever uttered, even by a Peopo-Demo taxincrease peryaricator. Following the table in the Pilot is this remaxk: -- ——.

“It will be observed that in 1890 Jhere were $3,352.39 of miscellaneous taxes, while this year there is none, so in reality dur local taxes have been increased $16,703.94, while in the above figures the net increase shows only $13,251.44. In other words, taxes which were levied in 1890, and were not levied in 1891, and thus causing an actual reduction in the latter, arg according to the Pilot to be counted as collected. If they-can go back one year and find a tax levied then, which is not levied now, and add it to the increase of this year,; to make a ■showing unfavorable to Republican officials, they can just as truly go back, three years or five years, or any number of years and find similar items and add them also to this year’s increase. IVhy not go back, for instance, to the year 1883, and get the item of county jail tax, $3,388.94. and add that to this year’s increase. That, with] the other fraudulent addition of “miscellaneous taxes” of 1890, would raise the entire increase to the §2O 000 which about the figure of the original lie.

"But there is still something more to be said about this mysterious, item of “Miscellaneous tax,” which these self styled reformers manip ulite in such a remarkable way that it counts just the same, on years when it is not levied as on years when it is levied.

Now the only k ind.of a tax levied any place in the county for; the year 1890, and not levied any place in 1891, is a “special additional’ ’tax"! evied by the town of Remington to pay some school bonds. This tax amounted t 05657.31. Now if these remarkable reformers must I really insist upon counting a tax evied last year a; d not levied this year,as stillbeing levied for the sake of helping them out of a bad hole, even then they .can only count $657.31, and that sum can’t possibly lie stretched enough to raise their $13,351.55, alleged increase in local taxes, to $16,000 000 and even $20,000.

As to the balance of this socalled “miscellaneous tax,” namely $2,695,08, we have taken some ■ rouble to find where the democratic officials who are furnishing the ammunition for the tax fight, found their figures. We found that in 1890. “Additional Road” taxes were levied in eleven townships and that it occupied a separate column on ths general tax abstractjsheet for that year, and tlfet if produced a total tax of $2,695.08, or just the sum which added to Remington’s special additional tax of $657.39 will make the s Pilot's “Miscellaneous Tax” of $3,352.39. Npw this-- same

‘ ( Additi6nal Road”- tax was -levied in ships, and maxes a total' of $4,658.81. But in the tax abstract for that year, it is put in the same column as the'Rop.d taxes, and in the footing is added to it * and in the Pilots table above copied it, forms a part of the total Road tax •of 1891, of $14,069.78.