Show SENATOR STEVENS MAKES STATEMENT word lis ims come to me that I 1 an am being subjected to a lot of criticism by some of 0 the people of my own county for having introduced S 11 II no proposing a reduction of tile license fees for the sale of cigarettes cigarette papers and oleo margerine and eliminating tile the requirement of a bond in certain cases I 1 submit that the criticism Is not well founded and shows a lack of understanding der of the present law and of the effects of the proposed amendment men dment that a proper understanding might be had I 1 wish to explain that under the present law there Is imposed an all excise or stamp tax on cigarettes ar ettes cigarette papers and oleo margerine marger lne this tax is bringing into the state a large amount of revenue and la Is intended to give protection to the dairy interests of the state against the sale of my bill do does not propose to reduce this tax in the least and it will riot not affect the dairy interests in the least one way or the other there is another provision of the same law that requires all retail dealers in these goods to take out a license for their sale this license is not a tax on the goods at all and was intended only as a means of enforcement of the tax it is a sort of registration so that the tax commission would know who the dealers are and enable it to watch tor for bootlegging etc A few years ago the law was changed requiring the wholesalers to place the stamps on oil these goods thus relieving the retailers of this necessity this change brought about a much better enforcement condition and increased the revenue from these sources aioo percent or more and did away with the necessity of the retailer posting a bond in cases where he be bought his supplies irom from the wholesaler who had oJ ready the goods this bond does no good to the state or aayne else except the bonding companies pa riles my bill only reduces the license tees fees and eliminates the bond only in cases where the goods are already stamped by the wholesalers and does nobody any harm and will help the small dealers this bill was proposed and prepared by the tax commission itself but there sa la another bill now being considered in the senate which would remove the tax on all oleo margerine made entirely of domestic tats fats and oils this bill ii it en ell acted into law might hurt the butter interest to some extent but would help the livestock interests and some ot of the consumers it has a lot loit of supporters but is rather contro controversial vercial I 1 am opposing this bill on the general grounds that I 1 believe it will hurt more people than it will help in this state and especially those of 0 my own constituents signed DANIIL STEVENS in a letter which accompanied the above statement from senator stev ens ns we were informed ot of the successful activities of 0 senator stevens in behalf of our proposed W P A project tor for a state national guard armory and an appropriation tor for the old state capitol senator stevens informs us that conferences with governor blood assured him that the appropriation the state tor for the national guard would be sufficient to provide for the states stales share ot of the armory also that thai the budget appropriation for or tile the upkeep of 0 the old state capitol would practically double what it was for or the last biennium blenn lum this interest on behalf ot of our senator for or these two worthwhile local projects Is appreciated by this community and we are pleased to convey this information to our readers |