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Show SENATE AGHEES 10 FLAT 'MINES RATE Appoints New Committee and Accepts Amendment Made by House. Three Times Net Proceeds Made Basis of Tax in New Measure. fteccdiug from the position which it J h-id previously consistently maintained, llie senate yesterday accepted the house amendment to the senate mine tax bill,! eliminating the words ''nut to exceed" J from the provision relative to taxation ' of metalliferous mines on a basis of three times their net proceeds, and passed the bill as amended by the lower house. The measure wa3 sent to the engrossing engross-ing committee and is duo to return to-d:iy to-d:iy for tho signature of the president. Then it will &o to the house for th-j signature sig-nature of the speaker and return to the ' annate- for transmission to the governor. : What the governor will do with the j bill, which has been passed in a form objectionable to him, remains to be J hoen. Senator Ucrn made tho statement j in tho senate yesterday that the govor- . nor -would veto the measure as it now stands. The senate, however, by a vote of 15 to 3, passed the bill with the house I amendment, regardless of the governor's j objections, and thus shifted the responsibility respon-sibility for tho future of the matter I from tho shoulders of tho legislature to those of the governor. Tho bill, as it has now passed both houses, provides for the taxiug of metalliferous metal-liferous mines on a definite basis of three times their net proceeds. New Committee Acts. Action of the senate in -receding from its former positiou, which was against passage of the bill unless the house consented con-sented to reinsert the words ' not to exceed''' before the words 1 ( three times ' their net proceeds," camo after a new conference committee named by the tienato had conferred with the house committee, and the conference committee commit-tee had returned a unanimous report recommendiug that tho house amendment, amend-ment, which struck out tho words "not to exceed," be concurred in. The new committee representing the senate was appointed in the morning on motion of Senator Dern, aud it consisted con-sisted of Senators Jones, Bevan and Stringham. This committee met with the old committee of the house, composed com-posed of Representatives McKay, Morris Mor-ris and Seegmiller. When the committee met, Senator j Striugham moved that the conference i committee report a recommendation that I tho houso amendment be rejected and that the bill be passed with tho words ''not to exceed" included in it. Sena-t Sena-t ors Stringham and Bevan voted for the motion and the other four members voted against it. Senator Jones, as chairman of the conference committee, wanted to know from the chairman of the house committee com-mittee if the house would recede from its positiou under any condition, and was informed that it would not. lie then wanted to know if the house had any compromise proposition to offer. He was informed that it had not. Vote Made Unanimous. Senator Stringham then signified that I he would be willing to recede aud vote to concur in tho houso amendment rather than to have no legislation at all I iiBAOg lojutrag mothii xu; finin oq; uo expressed the same view, and then, on motion, which was carried by unanimous unani-mous vote, the committee decided to recommend that the houso amendment be concerred in. This report was submitted to tho senate sen-ate yesterday afternoon. "When it came up for consideration it was found that the bill was before the house, so action was deferred. A little later tho bill came over from the house with informa tion that the housn had adopted the conference cimimittee report. Senator Chez moved that the enatu concur in the conference committee report. re-port. After some explanations of their votes by some of the members, the motion mo-tion carried with Dern casting the only negative vote that was audible-Senator audible-Senator Knight iu explaining his "switch" said that, since ttie conference committee had agreed unanimously on the n:attr, he felt that he thould concur con-cur in the com nut tee report, though he felt that it nu-ant to kill the bill finally and that the state would have no mine tax legislation this year. House Is Criticised. Senator Stringham declared that the house had adopted and pursued an unfair eour.se in the conference by naming an unfavorable com mil tee t hroULjhont and refusing to make any change in that committee ; but he said he felt that it was useless to hold out against the house any longer and was constrained to acquiesce ac-quiesce rather than defeat any legislation at all on the mine tax matter. Senator Jones said he had at all times been ready to vote either way in order , to get legislation, but that when he found the house was not going to recede from its position he thought there was nothing noth-ing to do but to vote with it and to sup- j port the house amendment. j Senator Bevan .said tho house had been unfair in not naming a. new committee to ; meet with the new committee from the senate and he felt that the house had been unfair in the matter throughout, hut he was big enough to swallow his medicine medi-cine and vote to give in rather than lose the legislation. Senator Dern warned that it meant de- , feat of the legislation anyhow because, as he said, the governor had told him ; he would veto the bill if it came to him without the words "not to exceed" in it. Funk Urges Action. j President Funk declared it would be a mistake to adjourn without enacting legislation leg-islation on the mine tax matter and ho f-lt. that it was necessary to get legislation legis-lation to concede to the house. Ho expressed ex-pressed the hope that the governor would not veto the bill and declared he felt that the executive would not do so. He declared de-clared that the bill before It was the only one the, legislature could consistently pass. When the final vote on the measure I was taken it was found that all of the : senators had voted for it with exception I of Senators Dern, Hayward and Kimball. In the debate which led to the naming i of the new senate committee, Senator Sanford argued that it was useless for the senate to hold out, that the majority of the house was firmly committed to the house amendment fixing the tax at a flat three times the net proceeds and that unless the senate receded there would be no mine tax and the state would lose much revenue. He declared that the mining min-ing men were very unwise to inject this "not to exceed" proposition into the affair af-fair and to bring the whole matter of the taxation into politics. He declared it would result in injury to the mining industry in-dustry and reflect upon every one con- , cerned. Considers Passage Useless. Senator Dern said that the governor had informed him that he would veto any bill that might be passed without the words "not to exceed" contained in it and he thought it was useless to pass a bill without that provision. Senator Sanford declared that tho legislature leg-islature should do as it believed right regardless of what the governor might or might not do to the hill after it was passed. He declared that tlie governor i had no right to indicate before hand what he would or would not do to a bill. Senator Olson took the floor. "This is the time for the legislature to do its duty regardless of the governor and the propaganda propa-ganda that it was to maintain the honor and good faith of the governor that tho I words 'not to exceed' be retained in the bill. It is not a matter of honor and good faith. "To be told by the governor that a bill will be vetoed if it contains a certain cer-tain provision is a matter of dishonor and bad faith. The governor has no right to make any promise to private interests that he will kill any tax measure unless it shall be passed in a certain form. Such an act would be to dishonor the people and bring disgrace to him. I think T know the governor well enough to know that he would not veto this bill if passed without tho mooted words in it. He would not dare do it if he wanted to. Understanding Questioned. "The matter of the bill being In a certain cer-tain form was not an understanding at the time the legislation was introduced ! here, and as evidence of that I want I to call attention to both the Bevan and I the Parker bills, which were drawn by ! tlie board of equalization and neither of which contained any 'not to exceed' ex-1 ex-1 Dression when they were introduced in j the senate. Neither did my bill. There j was no understanding on this matter I then and when the proposition was sub-j sub-j mitted to the legislative committees i later it was turned down by them. The mining men knew there was no under-i under-i standing and they knew further that : the matter of the multiple of taxation was left open that it might be placed at ; eight or ten times if they did not pay : their occupation tax. ! "Senators Bevan and Parker know there was no understanding as to the 'not to exceed' when the bills were pre- j seated and J call upon them to support the conference report. "It is foolish to argue that it was necessary nec-essary to make an agreement with the mining interests to get payment of tho occupation tax or have the schools closed. Kveryone knows that tho schools would not have closed, that they would have been kept open and the money collected when it could be. CiteS Original Bills. "The original bills were introduced with the expression, 'three times the net proceeds,' pro-ceeds,' and I call upon the authors of these to stand by the bills as originally introduced and let us place the responsibility responsi-bility upon the governor to approve or disapprove it, as he decides. I believe he will sign it. for J do not believe he will be a traitor and bring dishonor to the party and the state.' Senator Kimball argued that the principle prin-ciple of "not to exceed" was right in itself and that it should be insisted upon. He declared that had it not been for "the man on t he throne in the house over yonder" this mix up would not have occurred, oc-curred, but that that man was responsible for tying up and hindering progress with this matter. Senator Olson sought to get action deferred de-ferred until after luncheon, but failed. His motion was defeated. The Dern motion to appoint a new conference committee I carried and on this committee the cha it I appointed Senators Jones, Bevan and I Stringham. |