The Burden of Local Taxes
An 1877 editorial from the Seattle Daily Intelligencer debates the crushing weight of multiple tax levies and argues for consolidating civic payments into a single annual transaction.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
It seems natural to think that because we live in a Republic and do not have the burden of a royal establishment and aristocracy to support, and in a territory and not have the expense of State organization to defray, that our taxes ought to be very light. On this account there is a good deal of growling at the amount of taxation that we have to pay. When it comes to over three percent per annum in total for county, school, road, poll, city, special school, and special purposes, people feel that the tax burden is a matter of considerable injustice.
As a partial explanation for their high taxes, it must be kept in mind that those burdens must be carried on the shoulders of few, and those few find them heavy. There is one general argument in favor of high taxes, that is the load that is borne by all is easier carried than if it is placed entirely on a few. Works of public utility, such as railroads and road construction, in which all share the advantages, are more rapidly attained if all contribute a little to secure the benefit. There are, however, two ways of levying the sum total of the taxes: one is to administer them homeopathically—in small but frequent doses—the other is to lump them and be done with it. The taxes, like elections, are a bother. The remedy lies in an enactment that all the levies, for city or any special purposes, shall be added to the general taxes payable to the County Treasurer and collected at the same time and in the same manner.
“The taxes, like elections, are a bother. They are an expensive diversion.”
Debates over the regressive nature of property taxes and the administrative frustration of government fees have been a constant in Seattle civic life since its founding. Today, this 1877 editorial echoes modern discussions about how the city funds its massive growth through specialized levies versus a unified, sustainable tax code.
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