Show about constitutional amendment As ele election action day clay is at hand and the voters oters will have the lege of expressing their choice of candidate from the various tickets they will find find that there are besides the many candidates for consideration three proposed constitutional amendments to be voted upon and as the author of two of them has published in the washington county news his views on oil one of them and the same being in perfect harmony with our views on the sub act we take pleasure in present ing the sanie same to our readers section 7 article 13 of the stat stale e constitution now reads leads tile the rate of taxation on oil property for state purposes shall icv er en exceed eight mills on oil each dollar of valuation and whenever tile the taxable property within the ilio state shall amount to two 1 hundred million dollars the rate shall not exceed five mills on each dollar of valuation and whenever the taxable property within the state shall amount to three hundred million dollars the rate shall never thereafter exceed four mills on oil each dollar of valuation if one will t think hink for a few moments upon the above proviso lip ho will see that diat if the M mill ill tax is assessed as it was upon unon al all I 1 property of the state in 11 1906 and wi with th the va ailua then olen the amount of tax fo for r state and state school purposes aou would id be wi with th I 1 our increasing population and adding responsibilities when the valuation shall have reached reacted two hundred million dollars the rate rat oftay shall be reduced to five mills which would amount to 1000 for state and state s school chool purposes or less than was the tax of 1906 again agan with our iner increasing easing lation when the valuation shall have reach reached ed th three ree hundred bunar e d in mil i I 1 lion dollars the rate of tax shall be reduced to four mills which would amouri amount tto to for state and state schools or just more than was the tax of 1906 with tho the departments of the state stale government to keep up tip and state institutions to maintain tile the amount of reduction could not be taken from them there fore the reduction would have to be taken from the state school fund fun d this would place heavier burdens of tax upon the small counties a they would be co compelled m to support their own schools whereas now most of them thein draw more fro from nithe the state school fund than they pay in state and state school tax true the largest M cou comi comities 1 ties pay more tax than is drawn bj hem to schools as in ill tile alio C ise of salt S aft latke lake county whose tax is about one third of the en entire tire state and state school f tax still without the outside counties ou n ties what wh tit would salt lake f be A As year after year their mines flocks and farm pay tri bute to bensal and ad pour their wealth into that greit rent intermountain interi I 1 center in new buildings and in increasing harcom her commercial mercial wealth I 1 in the proposed amendment it reads as follows section 7 article 13 the rate of state tax aaion on prop property eriv for state purposes shall never exceed eight mills on oil each dollar of valuation four and one half mills on oil each dollar of valuation for genera general state purposes three mills on each 1 dollar of valuation for dis brict school purposes one half mill on oil each dollar of valuation for laigh high school purposes and whenever tile the taxable taxably e property within tile the state shall amount to four hundred million dolli dollars the rate shall never thereafter ex aeed five mills on each dollar of valuation tile the question may be asked why the adoption of this amend ment now by reading the report of the state stale auditor for 1906 wherein where iii he says say wi bithia t haa the last neveu years the as assessed sess edV val til of all ail property in the s tate state hits has increased to 86 pel pei cent by considering the past inci increase ease before another general election when the question ques sion oil could c again be submitted we will ivill have passed the two hund red million dollar mark and aft er a tax is once reduced it is hard to iu increase crease it the eight mill tax may be con linued dutill the valuation reach es four hundred million dollars but at each regular session of the legislature the rate of taxat 10 ion 11 must be fixed within these limits I 1 for one oile am willing to those who are elected to the future sessions to legislate for the good of the people leopld and look t to their heir interests int rests in decreasing the rate ate of taxation soon as possible one half of one mill is taken I 1 from the state rate as now fixed tind and may be used its as a high school fu fund iid this would be means of establishing at least one ghigli scho school ol 01 in each county the object in this is to take the high school to the homo and not the young pupils from the home to the high school our now estaba established shed state in in r would cease to be hi aih 11 M schools and the university agri 0 cultural college and branch N nermal clial would become continued Con linued on oil page 6 about constitutional Amend amendment mant continued from paje page 4 eions of higher learning this movement has the indorsement endorsement indor of the state Toa teachers chers association and the high school and col lege section of that body is ac at work in creating sent sentiment in favor of the amendment the deseret Desere fc semiweekly semi weekly news of sept 1908 in a an n article favoring the amendments closes as f follows heretofore high schools have been overlooked took 0 d in the distribution of state taxes all three of the a n amendments mend ments wore were passed with little or no op opposition positron in the leg and it is expected that they will be ratified without serious opposition n althis amendment has the in I 1 dorsc Jor ment of most of the leading educators of the state slate and 11 is been endorsed indorsed indor sed sod in tile county conventions odthe of the different part lies gont atit the state with the people knowing of the ne cassily of its adoption option ml it will re ceide ceide little if any ally opposition vel 3 truly yours albert E miller st george utah oct ock |