Another sign of the growing unpopularity of recent federal taxation is furnished by Auditor General Young's annual report, which has just been transmitted to Governor Stuart. The auditor general gives considerable space of a discussion of the effect that the new corporation tax will have on state taxation, and his opinion is no more complimentary than is the opinion of Governor Hughes of New York on the proposed amendment to the federal constitution of permit an income tax. Governor Hughes maintains that the income tax will interfere with the legitimate power of states, and Auditor General Young finds that the federal tax on corporations is already doing that same thing.
As the auditor general points out to the governor, the federal government has encroached upon a form of taxation to which the states have been compelled to look almost entirely for the revenues with which to maintain the public school system, assist worthy public charities, and defray the ordinary expenses of state government. But this is not all. The federal government, for the purposes of collecting the corporation tax, has established a fiscal year not in accord with the fiscal year fixed by most of the states, Pennsylvania included. Consequently, corporation accounting is greatly complicated, confusion results, and the expense of transacting business is added to at a time when costs of all kinds are a serious burden upon the public and are being loudly complained against.
And to what end is this increased taxation to be devoted? Is it to do the people any good? The money that they pay to their state governments comes back to them through their hospitals, or public schools, or in the form of better roads. The money that is taken from them by the federal government is to be spent on what? More battleships? The greater part of the federal government's revenues is now going to military and naval expenditures of one kind or another. Are the people willing that the cost of living be increased still more for the sake of armament? Or do they think it is time to call a halt?
There is reason to believe that if the people had understood the corporation tax interpolated into the new tariff law they would have made a telling protest against it and insisted that the power to tax the corporations be retained exclusively in the hands of the states, which give the people a more direct return.
There also is reason to believe that the people oppose the proposed income tax to be laid by the federal government. Every tax increases living costs for the mass of the people. That cost is already excessive.
The people's slogan should be "No new taxes." But if we are to have any new ones, let them be laid by the states, rather than permit the federal government to encroach upon sources of taxation long reserved to the states.
The federal government is spending too much of its income upon belligerent and general non-productive uses.
Today's birthdays: Actress Betty White, 88. Actor James Earl Jones, 79. Talk-show host Maury Povich, 71. Singer Steve Earle, 55. Actor-comedian Steve Harvey, 53. Actor Jim Carrey, 48. Musician Kid Rock, 39. Actress Zooey Deschanel ("Elf," "The Good Girl"), 30.
Thought for today: "Always do sober what you said you'd do drunk. That will teach you to keep your mouth shut."
-- Author Ernest Hemingway (1899-1961)
First Published: January 17, 2010, 5:00 a.m.
