Vote Dry and Pay 45½ Mills: The Saloon-License Arithmetic of 1909
With $10,000 to $15,000 of street grading already on the books, an anonymous Newport property owner argues that local option on Sept. 7 would hand taxpayers a $3,890 hole in the town budget — and one of the heaviest levies in the county.
The following contribution on the local issue of the day is from a gentleman who is not interested in the outcome, except as are all citizens and property owners of the town:
It might be well to call the attention of the people of Newport to the immediate economic effect of the coming election on local financial affairs.
No doubt every one is familiar with the fact that the town has undertaken improvements to the amount of $10,000 to $15,000 in the way of street grading, sidewalks and crosswalks. This will place a large burden upon many of the taxpayers. Consequently the town is under the obligation of using every honorable and legitimate means at this time for lightening the burden upon the people.
The revenue, as estimated by the town officials for the ensuing year, including saloon licenses as under present conditions, and as published in The Miner the past two weeks, is $3710, and the estimated expenditures are $5360. This leaves a balance of $1650 to be raised by direct taxation, making a levy of 5 mills necessary to raise this amount. Add to this the $10,000 necessary to pay for the street grading above mentioned, and many of our property owners will be paying a tax of no less than 12½ per cent (not mills) on their taxable property.
According to the local option law the city will be compelled to refund 90 per cent of the unused portion of all liquor licenses now paid in, if the people should declare for local option. Thus the town of Newport would be obliged to refund about $750. This amount, together with a decrease of $3140, the amount now received for liquor licenses, makes a total of $3890 more necessary to be raised by direct taxation, which would bring the total town tax levy up to about 17½ mills for municipal purposes. Add to this the total county, state and school tax, amounting in 1908 to 28 mills, our people would be obliged to pay a total tax levy of 45½ mills in addition to special assessments for street improvement.
No one can doubt or deny the importance of temperate living. It is a cardinal principle recognized by all classes of people, yet when viewed in the light of the experience of other communities it must still remain an open question whether there is any moral advantage in the conditions that usually prevail in the "dry town" over those in towns with well regulated, licensed saloons, as we now have in Newport.
The foregoing facts are certainly food for serious thought for conscientious and well meaning people, and every citizen of our town should carefully consider them before going to the polls on Sept. 7.
Ask yourself whether or not the time is opportune, in view of the improvements now being made, to place Newport under local option and thereby cast additional burdens upon our already heavily taxed people.
We must also take into consideration the effect that any radical change will work upon any people during the period of readjustment.
“No one can doubt or deny the importance of temperate living... yet it must still remain an open question whether there is any moral advantage in the conditions that usually prevail in the "dry town" over those in towns with well regulated, licensed saloons, as we now have in Newport.”
Newport's 1909 fight was framed almost entirely as a budget question: how much of the town's revenue came from liquor licenses, and who would pay the difference if they vanished. Washington did go dry statewide in 1916, and the same argument — that a moral vote carries a hidden property-tax bill — still shapes how small towns debate everything from cannabis revenue to the cost of new sidewalks. The 45½-mill figure is a reminder that the temperance war was fought on a ledger as often as a pulpit.
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