Taxation Without Representation for the Poor
A scathing breakdown of how local tax laws favor wealthy landowners while crushing the small lot owner.
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 will readily be seen that the greatest discrepancy and injustice against the poor is found in the smallest computation. For instance, Chehalis county has 75,000 cheap town lots assessed at an average of $5 each. The owners of these cheap town lots pay into the treasury of the county $750 to apply as interest on the state bonds. Now, a one-fortieth of one mill levy should produce far less. To make this still plainer, if 750 persons in Chehalis county own each one block, or 100 lots, they each pay $1.00 interest on state bonds, but if one man is able to own 200 corner lots assessed at $2,000 each, he pays only $10 interest on state bonds, while his 750 neighbors pay $750 on a $25,000 less assessment. About the meanest thing that a legislative assembly can do in this state is to make laws discriminating against the poor men.
“About the meanest thing that a legislative assembly can do in this state, is to make laws discriminating against the poor men.”
The disparity between how small property owners and large scale land speculators are taxed remains a core issue in Washington's ongoing housing and tax policy debates.
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