The Tax Reformer of Tacoma
A scathing 1888 editorial argues that tax exemptions for the wealthy create a 'system of injustice' that the state must dismantle for the sake of the common good.
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 is essential to our form of government that a system of taxation should be established which will draw in equal proportion from the pockets of the rich and the poor. One of the most mischievous devices by which many of the poor—the great majority of them—are cheated upon their share of the tax burden, is the exemption of property from taxation for debt. Experience has shown that this is the common way to a release of the property of the rich from taxation. The rich have facilities for creating fictitious debts that are denied to the poor, and are therefore more favored by laws which provide exemption. The law is inherently vicious in operation; it is responsible for a very large share of the unequal distribution of the tax burden, which has already extended far to become an almost irremediable form of injustice. If we are to have good government, the whole system of corruption of public officials must be destroyed.
“Experience has shown that this is the common way to a release of the property of the rich from taxation... The law is inherently vicious in operation.”
S.B. Patten’s 1888 critique of tax loopholes for the wealthy echoes modern Seattle debates over tax equity, where the struggle to fund public services often clashes with the 'fictitious' ways wealth is shielded from local tax obligations. His plea for a fairer, uniform system remains a central, unresolved tension in Washington's fiscal history.
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