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Show j CONCLUDING COMMENTS ON CONSTI-TIONAL CONSTI-TIONAL AMENDMENTS BY GEO. JEFFERSON The following is the conclusion of the views of George Jefferson, Republican Re-publican nominee for senator of the Eleventh District: The discussion of taxes and methods me-thods of assessed valuations is such la large subject that thousands of I volumes have been written on the i subject, hut what the average citizen lis interested in is what affect a , change in taxation methods is go-iing go-iing to have on his personal property ;and what cost to his pocket book; also on the development of that part of the State in which he resides. It is such a large question that I think it should be absolutely neces-'sary neces-'sary that every citizen should know j the pertinent facts regarding our present State Constitution and laws governing our present Tax Commission, Commis-sion, or, as we term it, our State Board of Equalization. So to clarify matters a little, I am going to quote 'a few sections of our present Consti-' tution and give, in general, a rough! outline of the necessary amount of' money our State needs to carry on the State's business. Our present valuation is approxi-! mately 5720,000,000.00, which is di-! Jvided into aproximately three class-! es: Mines and mining property, approximately ap-proximately 5135,000,000.00; public' utilities, S140,000,000.00, both of. which are assessed by the State Board of Equalization; and approx- j Ornately 5445,000,000.00 worth of 'property, such as city and town pro-jperty, pro-jperty, farms, livestock and personal' I property, is assessed by the local ' County Assessors under the supervi-' sion of the County Boards of Equal- j i:a uon. We raise by taxation, of all kinds, to carry 'out" our State, 'County, City, Town and Educational programs, approximately $27,000,000.00 a year, which we raise by direct taxation approximately 521,000,-000.00, 521,000,-000.00, and about 6,000,000.00 by stamp taxes, gasoline taxes, inheritance inheri-tance taxes, licenses, etc. The proposed Amendment No. 5 proposes to change the administration administra-tion oi our present State Boai;cl of Equalization, and that part of the present Constitution, of which I will only quote the most important sections, sec-tions, and although they do not mention men-tion any other section except Section 11 of Article 13, they also effect any other part of the Constitution with which they conflict, and which the new Constitutional Amendment, if carried by the vote of the people, supercedes su-percedes any part that conflicts with them. The most important sections af-J feeling this proposed amendment olj our present Constitution are: f irst: Article 13, section 11, Stall! and County Board of Equalization. Until Otherwise Provided by Law, there shall "be a State Board of Equalization, consisting of the C.ov-crnor, C.ov-crnor, State Auditor, State Treasurer, Treasur-er, Secretary of State and Attorney General; also in each county of this State a County Board of Equalization Equaliza-tion consisting of the Board of County Commissioners of said county. coun-ty. The duly of the State Board of Equalization shall be to adjust and equalize the valuation of the real and personal property among the several counties of the state. The duty of the County Board of Equalization Equali-zation shall be to adjust and equalize equal-ize the valuations of the real and personal property within their respective re-spective counties. Each Board shall also perform such other duties as may be prescribed by law. Second: Article 13. Section 5. LOCAL LO-CAL AUTHORITIES TO LEVY LOCAL LO-CAL TAXES. The Legislature shall not impose taxes for tht purpose of 'any county, city, town or other municipal corporation, but may. by llaw, vest in the corporate authorities authori-ties I hereof, respectively, the power to assess and collect taxes for all purposes of such corporation, j Third: Article 6. Section 211. '.MUNir'APAL POWERS NOT TO V,V DELEGATED. The Legislature shali not delegate to any special commission, commis-sion, private corporation of association, associa-tion, any power to make, supervise j or interfere with any municipal improvement, im-provement, money, property or effects, ef-fects, whether held In trust or olhr.r-'wise, olhr.r-'wise, to levy taxes, to select a capitol site, or to perform any municipal functions. One more that some people may be Ignorant of, in regards to Income Tax: Article 13, Section 12. STAMP, INCOME, LICENSE OR FRANCHISE FRAN-CHISE TAX PERM ISSARI.E. Xoth-I Xoth-I ing in this Constitution shall be con-j con-j strued to prevent the Legislature ( from providing a stamp tax. or a tax baaed on income, occupation, licenses licens-es or franchises. (As amended Nov. g, 1906). Article 13. Section 11 has already jbeen changed by the Legislature so j that it is an appointive board. Under our present Constitution, ithe Legislature has absolute authority author-ity over our present tax commission, and if necessary, could abolish the present State Board of Equalization and set up any kind of tax commission commis-sion it should decide upon. In other oth-er words, our present Constitution makes the Legislature, which are the people, the boss. Under the proposed amendment they are asking the people to vote for a constitutional Commission which shall be above the Legislature and the Legislature Shall have no power to change or abolish the Commission if necessary. They are asking for a bi-partisan Commission of four members, which I am opposed to, for I believe in a partisan commission, and if said commission do not do their duty, an election of the people can put that party out by defeating them at the polls. A partisan commission makes a pblitical party responsible for their elective officers and party appointees. iney are asKing to cnange tne name from the State Board of ! Equalization to The State Conimis-sion. Conimis-sion. What difference does the name ' make? None. They ask for permission to give I them the power to establish systems of public accounting. Our present 'Legislature can give them that pow-,er. pow-,er. They ask for permission to review J proposed bond issues. Our present Legislature can give them that pow- i er. j They ask the power to revise the itax levies and budgets of local governmental gov-ernmental units; in plain words, to 'supersede our town, city, 'school j boards, and county boards budgets and tax levies. This would conflict with Article 13. Section 5, and Article Ar-ticle G. . Section 29 of our present Constitution. If a State Tax Commission wishes to run the affairs of each town, elly, county and school board, why shouldn't they propose to abolish all these governmental units and run the whole state lrom the Capitol gliding in Salt Lake City. If they want to supercede all our local ofllc-ers ofllc-ers we should also vote a Constitutional Constitu-tional Amendment doing away with them and save that expense. J They seem to have the idea that they are better qualified to pass on the requirement of a local community. commun-ity. The absurdity of asking the people to vote an amendment which takes their power of taxation away from them and turns it over to a Commission a hundred miles away, in some Instances, is about as unthinkable un-thinkable as possible to imagine. Why! Our forefathers fought wars over this very proposition. The founders of our present Constitution have protected self-government of local governmental units all through our present Constitution, j If the people thoroughly understand under-stand what this proposal means, I am certain they will rise up on election elec-tion day and defeat this by a lafge majority. j I am going to quote Mayor W. V. Olson, of Price. Utah, who, I believe, makes it very plain on certain pertinent perti-nent facts in regard to this proposed . amendment. Mr. Olson sriy: I "The part I fear most of all is that paragraph whh'h rends, 'the tax commission shall hnve the power to revise tax levies of lo'al milts, budget.;, bud-get.;, bond law. nn ' equalize assessments and valuation of property pro-perty within counties.' The proposed amendment, also says, 'The tax commission com-mission shall administer and supervise super-vise the tax laws of the state.' (Continued on page four) COMMENTS ON AMENDMENTS AMEND-MENTS BY JEFFERSON (Concluded from first page) "I believe that such an amendment amend-ment comes in direct conflict with .the ideas of every mayor and city council in the state. I believe it robs them of the rights intrusted to them by the people. Think of the trouble to be encountered in getting bond issues over under such authority. Would not such a change stop the progress of small municipalities? Is it possible for four men to sit in the state capitol and administer the affairs af-fairs of 227 smaller cities cities of which they have no knowledge, and to administer better than five men in each municipality who have lived there all their lives and know every necessity? "If you rob the municipal governments govern-ments of their right to act without the consent of the tax commission, why not abolish them entirely? What interest would men have in local affairs if they could not spend the taxpayers' money for improve-mpnf improve-mpnf nf tof-al pnnrlitinns "Even though many may deride any opposition, even thouph many will hide behind the clause, 'as the j legislature may provide,' etc., oven though many may be sincere in their defense of such amendments, I firmly firm-ly believe that hidden away behind the whole question is a selfish motive mo-tive of big interests to protect themselves them-selves at the expense of many people peo-ple people who do not have time or who do not take time to solve the problem as it affects the masses. j "Is there a mayor or a city council in Utah who wants to be stripped of authority? Are there those who want to be directed in the affairs of their local governments, taxed, financed fin-anced and act only as a cog in a piece of machinery? "Of course, we could use the telephone tele-phone and ask the commission what we should do. Or we could travel back and forth to meetings and be . met with all sorts of delay and post- j ponement for different reasons." I am against this Amendment. I want to make one thing clear to the ' people, and that is that if any of the amendments carry and some fall, each and every one is separate within with-in itself, and will fit into our present system. For instance, Amendment No. 2 will fit into our present Constitution Con-stitution and even if Amendment No. 5 should fail, which it must do; if it passed, in my opinion, it would put this State back twenty years! Amendment No. 6 relating to location loca-tion of the State Prison. It is now written in the Constitution that the State Prison shall be in Salt, Like County. They want to get rid of it, so for goodness sake, let us help Salt Lake County get rid of it. I am voting yes on this Amendment. Amend-ment. GEORGE JEFFERSON. o |