|
|
Staunton Spectator: July 19, 1870Go To Page : 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | |
-Page 01- |
The Tax Bill
(Column 04)Summary: Printed in detail the text of the tax bill passed by the Virginia Assembly. Besides general property taxes, taxes are also levied according to profession.
Full Text of Article:Where the Money Goes and How to Get it BackThe bill imposing taxes for the support of government and free schools and to pay the interest on the public debt, was finally acted on by the General Assembly Thursday. The following are the provisions of the bill as passed:
1. That the taxes for the year, commencing 1st of February, 1870, and each year thereafter, shall be as follows:
2. On tracts of land and lots and the improvements thereon, not exempt from taxation, railway and tracks, and canal beds, fifty cents on every hundred dollars on the assessed value thereof -- one fifth to the public schools.
3. Upon collateral inheritance six per cent upon the value of the estate.
4. Upon every male person over the age of twenty-one years, not exempt from taxation for bodily infirmity, one dollar for public free school purposes.
5. On personal property fifty cents on every hundred dollars value thereof -- one fifth to public schools.
6. On all personal property in choses in action, &c., and toll bridges and ferries, fifty cents on every hundred dollars value thereof, one-fifth to public schools.
7. On the income derived from interest or profits, exceeding $1,500, the tax shall be two and a half per centum on such income.
8. On the net earnings of every railroad company received, or realized though not received, the tax shall be two and a half per centum on such net earnings for each quarter of a year.
9. The same tax on the net earnings of every casual company.
10. On the net earnings of every express and transportation company, five per cent.
11. On the capital stock of all insurance companies and banks located and doing business in this State, fifty cents on the $100, and on the income of the same in excess of $1,500, two and a half per cent.
12. On the assessments collected, and the premiums received, and obligations for such premiums, taken by any foreign insurance company, the tax shall be 2 1/2 per centum on the amount thereof.
13. On probate of every will, not exempt by law, $1, and ten cents additional for every $100 of value in excess of $1,000.
14. On every deed, contract, etc., admitted to record, $1, and ten cents additional for every $100 of value in excess of $1,000.
15. Prescribes the taxes on suits, etc.
16. No writ to be issued, deed recorded, etc., until the tax is paid. The clerk to make quarterly returns.
LICENSES
17. The specific tax on a commission, merchant or firm shall be $35 dollars, and a tax of three per centum on the amount of his commissions.
18. The specific license tax on every liquor merchant $100; if by retail only $50, and there shall be an additional tax on the amount of sales as follows:
THOUSANDS OF DOLS. TAX. If under $1,000 $5 1 and under 2 10 2 do. 3 15 3 do. 5 20 5 do. 8 35 8 do. 12 45 12 do. 18 60 18 do. 25 70 25 do. 35 85 35 do. 50 100If over $50,000, five dollars for every $10,000 excess and the commissions, if sold by a commission merchant, to be taxed as his other commissions are taxed. No tax to be imposed on apothecaries for selling wine or ardent spirits, on the written prescription of a physician.
19. The specific license tax on every person for the privilege of selling by sample, card or other representation, shall be two hundred dollars.
20. On every person for the privilege of peddling and bartering, fifty dollars.
21. On every junk dealer fifty dollars, and on traveling junk dealers ten dollars.
22. On every person who shall sell or barter the right to manufacture or use machinery, or other thing patented under the laws of the United States, except the patentee, if he is a citizen of the United States, twenty-five dollars; but no resident mechanic shall be taxed for the privilege of peddling or bartering articles manufactured by himself in this State; provided that the proceeds of such trafic shall not exceed $200 per annum.
23. The specific license tax upon a land agent (or firm doing business at one locality) shall be fifty dollars, and five per centum upon the excess of his (or their) commissions on sales over five hundred dollars.
24. The specific license tax upon a book agent shall be ten dollars, but the court of the county or corporation may reduce or dispense with this tax in certain cases mentioned in the assessment act.
25. The specific license tax on a general auctioneer shall be twenty dollars; and if the place of business is in a city or town having, when assessed, a population of more than five thousand inhabitants, two dollars for every thousand above that number; but said specific tax shall in no case exceed one hundred dollars; and he shall pay an additional tax of one-fourth of one per centum on the amount of sales for the year. If he sells wine, ardent spirits, malt liquors, or any mixture thereof, he shall pay a tax of one-half of one per centum on the amount of sales, to be ascertained and charged as his other sales are ascertained and charged.
26. The specific license tax on a real estate auctioneer shall be fifty dollars; and if the place of business is in a city or town containing, when assessed, a population exceeding five thousand inhabitants, one hundred dollars; and he shall pay an additional tax of one-fourth of one per centum upon the amount of sales.
27. The specific license tax on a tobacco auctioneer shall be thirty dollars.
28. Upon a common crier to sell ten dollars.
29. On ever person canvassing the county or corporation, or any part thereof, for the purpose of buying any matters of subsistence, thirty dollars.
30. On a ship broker twenty dollars.
31. The specific license tax on a stock broker or private banker shall be two hundred and fifty dollars; but when a person or firm is assessed with both licenses, the specific tax shall be four hundred dollars; and in either case an additional tax of five per centum upon the profits of the preceding year, derived from commissions and otherwise.
32. The specific license tax on a pawnbroker shall be one hundred dollars.
33. The specific license tax on any person to engage in manufacturing or distilling ardent spirits shall be thirty dollars, and for manufacturing malt liquors twenty-five dollars, an additional tax of two and a half cents for every gallon of ardent spirits to be manufactured or distilled.
34. On the keeper of an ordinary fifty dollars, and eight per centum on the annual rents.
35. On the keeper of a house of private entertainment five dollars, and an additional tax of five percentum on the annual rent over one hundred dollars.
36. On the keeper of a boarding house, five dollars, and an additional tax of two per centum on the rent or annual value of such house.
37. On the keeper of an eating house, thirty dollars; and if he shall obtain a license to retail to his guests wine or spiritous or malt liquors, to be drunk at such eating house, he shall pay an additional tax of sixty dollars.
38. The specific license tax to any person to keep a bakery shall be five dollars, and an additional tax of one-half of one per centum on the value of the articles baked for sale: Provided, this section shall not apply to any person keeping a bakery where the amount of sales does not exceed the sum of one hundred and fifty dollars per annum.
39. The specific license tax on any person to keep a bowling saloon shall be fifty dollars, and an additional tax of fifteen dollars for each alley exceeding one.
40. The specific license tax on any person to keep a billiard table shall be one hundred dollars, and an additional tax of fifty dollars for each additional table kept or to be kept therein. If the license be for a bowling or billiard saloon at a watering place, and is for four months or less, the tax thereon shall be fifty per centum of the taxes aforesaid.
41. The specific license tax on any person to keep a bagatelle table shall be twenty dollars, and an additional tax of ten dollars for each additional table kept or to be kept therein.
42. The specific license tax on any theatrical performance shall be three dollars for each performance, and an additional tax of one per centum of the gross receipts of such performance.
43. The specific license tax on every show, on each performance of every circus, and on the exhibition of a menagerie shall be ten dollars on each show, circus or menagerie, and in addition to the specific tax aforesaid, there shall be a tax of five per centum of the gross receipts derived from such show, circus, or menagerie.
44. The specific license tax on every proprietor or occupier of a public theatre, or other rooms fitted for public exhibitions, to use the same for compensation, shall be twenty dollars.
45. On every attorney at law ten dollars.
46. On every physician, surgeon or dentist, ten dollars.
47. On any person to engage in the business of a daguerrean artist twenty dollars; and if the place of business is in a city or town containing more than five thousand inhabitants and less than ten thousand thirty dollars; if more than ten thousand and less than twenty thousand forty dollars, and if more than twenty thousand fifty dollars.
48. The specific license tax for letting to mares any stallion or jackass shall be twice the highest amount charged for the services: Provided such tax shall in no case be less than eight dollars.
49. On any person to act as agent for the renting of houses thirty dollars.
50. The specific license tax to keep for compensation any house, year, or lot for storage, or a wagon yard or other impounding shall be as follows: On every house, the tax shall be twenty-five dollars, except that in a city or town whose population exceeds five thousand, the tax shall be fifty dollars.
51. The specific license tax to keep a livery stable shall be twenty dollars, but in a city or town containing a population exceeding ten thousand, the tax shall be fifty dollars.
52. On every person to act as agent for any foreign insurance company, twenty-five dollars for each agency; but in a city or town containing a population exceeding ten thousand the tax shall be thirty-five dollars for each agency.
53. On each telegraph company five hundred dollars, and one per centum on the earnings.
54. On live stock brokers ten dollars. If such stock be fed or grazed, by the person purchasing them, two months or more, they may be sole by him without a license.
55. This act shall be in force from its passage.
(Column 06)Summary: Anonymous writer "Progress" wrote another article in favor of the Valley Railroad. Talked about the benefits towns experienced wherever railroads ran through them and predicted similar prosperity for Staunton if they support the Valley Railroad. Warned the citizens not to listen to those who say it will cost too much.
Full Text of Article:Every one is just now complaining of hard times and dullness of business. It will be admitted by all that this is all owing to the scarcity of money -- that if money was plenty times and business would be good. It then becomes an important question to all -- where is the many hundreds of millions of dollars in circulation in the United States? and why have we not got our share of them in the Valley of Virginia? To answer this question is the object of this article. Commerce, manufacturers, trade and enterprise are the great features that distinguish civilization from savage life, and money is the circulating medium through which they are carried on -- the life blood of the body politic of all business, and Rail Roads and Steamships are the arteries through which trade and its life blood, money, flows. You might as well expect to find streams of blood flowing through the parts of animals where there are no arteries, as to look for money in the section of country where there are no Railroads. The writer has had peculiar opportunities in judging of this matter. He has for the last twelve years been connected with the manufacture and sale of an article which was of universal use and has found its way into every part of the habitable earth. His Company has upwards of three thousand agents scattered through every nation on the globe in direct communication with the home office, which enables them at all times to feel the pulse of the money market in all parts of the world.
Now when we have an application for an agency, or it is proposed to extend our business into a new section, how do you suppose we determine the prospect of success. Simply by taking a Rail Road map and examining the Rail Road and Steamboat communication in the section. If it has one Rail Road it is worth trying -- if two, it is good, and if three or four it is certain of success. Now it is not the mere matter of transportation that makes this difference, for our articles can be transported anywhere, over any Road at a trifling cost, but it is entirely owing to the prosperity of those sections which have Rail Roads and the money in circulation in them. There is no profit in doing business among poor and destitute people. These are truths and facts, drawn from an actual experience of a successful business, and merit careful consideration from the people of Augusta at this time, when they are about to decide their status in the business world for many years to come by their votes on the Valley Rail Road question. The writer has many times set down in his own room and estimated within 5 per cent of the amount of business an agent would be able to do in a new and untried county, town or section in North Carolina, Tennessee, Georgia, &c., &c., simply by consulting a Rail Road Map. There is another feature of this matter worth consideration. The best articles to which experience have given the preference find ready sale in the sections supplied with Rail Roads where not only money, but general intelligence is most circulated, and interior articles, especially of machinery are driven out to seek a market in the more obscure sections and are there hawked about by sharp peddles who impose on the credulity of the people, and thus the sections with out Rail Roads get the worst of everything for what little money they have, and at the highest prices. The writer is cognizant of the fact that the people of Augusta County has within the last year spent enough money for worthless and second rate articles, to have paid their tax on the Rail Road for five years, because the makers of better articles cannot afford to spend their money to bring their trade to your notice while they have better fields of operation. But you will object to this that you have one Rail Road through the county. The Chesapeake & Ohio Rail Road is not a Rail Road in the sense of which I am speaking, it is not an artery leading through and connecting different parts of the country, but it is only a vein whose effect is to return the blood to the heart, and which acts as a drain to draw the money from its extremity and cause it to flow to Richmond, nor will it ever become a great artery to Augusta County, when completed on an air line as it will be, the line through Augusta will become a mere side line, and while the Chesapeake & Ohio is of more importance than any other line to the general prosperity of the State as a great artery of trade, yet it has not the local importance to Augusta county that the Valley Rail Road has, even if it was equal. The experience I have given above is fully demonstrated that two Rail Roads are as much better than one as one is better than none, indeed their importance rise in arithmetical proportion.
Then, citizens of Augusta, be wise in time, do not be deceived by the whining of skinflints and misers, too stingy to expend a trifle for their own good and the prosperity of the county. Let me introduce you to an article in the Valley Virginian, of July 7th, where it is demonstrated that if you are worth $10,000 your Rail Road tax will be only $6 a year -- Most of you are not probably worth over half in taxable property, which will make your tax only $3 a year. Will you for this trifle doom yourself and the county to years of hard times, scarcity of money, poverty, and hardships. -- Remember your vote is a final decision of Rail Road or no Rail Road. Ponder and think. -- Convert yourself and get in earnest and convert your neighbor, and come up to the polls on the 6th of August determined to win the victory and save the county from ignorance and folly.
The writer has no private log to roll, no selfish purpose to serve. His business is not in the Valley of Virginia, and in the very nature of it never can be much affected by the Valley Rail Road one way or another. His property is not dependent upon this Road as yours is, but he resides among you and is jealous of the honor of the Valley, and desires to see the prosperity of his native county, and will probably bear a heavier portion of the tax than any one of those, who are opposing the Road to save their trifling share of the cost. He is advising you for your own good from his experiences, and not for any private ends.
Raphine, Va. PROGRESS.
-Page 02- |
Conservative Action
(Column 02)Summary: The Conservative members of the General Assembly met and appointed a Central Executive Committee. John B. Baldwin was among the members.
(Names in announcement: John B. Baldwin)
-Page 03- |
Drowned
(Column 01)Summary: Conrad Hensley, son of Robert Hensley, was drowned while fishing with a seine in Blackwell's Mill Dam near Waynesboro.P. O. Changes
(Names in announcement: Conrad Hensley, Robert Hensley, William M. Bush)
(Column 01)Summary: George W. Hale replaced Elizabeth H. Blakemore as Postmaster at Mt. Solon. Blakemore was disqualified by marriage.Railroad Meeting
(Names in announcement: George W. Hale, Elizabeth H. Blakemore)
(Column 02)Summary: The citizens of Augusta County held a meeting at the office of the Valley Railroad Company. They chose a central committee charged with securing a favorable vote on the proposed $300,000 stock subscription. The meeting included an address discussing the benefits of the proposed railroad.An Appeal from Rockingham and Augusta to Highland and Pendleton
(Names in announcement: Capt. Bumgardner, Judge David Fultz, C. W. S. Turner, Judge Hugh W. Sheffey, Gibbs, M. G. Harman, A. H. H. Stuart, Thomas J. Michie, John Echols, C. R. Harris, Robert G. Bickle, Joseph A. Waddell, Thomas C. Elder, John M. Hardy, P. B. Hoge, John B. Baldwin, Nicholas K. Trout, William A. Burke, George Baylor, James H. Skinner, S. Travers Phillips, W. H. Gorman, H. M. Bell)
(Column 03)Summary: "Augusta" wrote an appeal advocating improvements on the road through North River Gap. Said it would benefit Augusta and the surrounding counties.Deaths
(Column 03)Summary: Miss Maria Harrison, daughter of Henry Harrison, died near Staunton at the residence of her father on July 9th. She was 16 years old.Deaths
(Names in announcement: Maria Harrison, Henry Harrison)
(Column 03)Summary: Jethro B. Bailey, a native of Rhode Island and formerly of New Orleans, died in Staunton on July 11th. He was 62 years old.
(Names in announcement: Jethro B. Bailey)
-Page 04- |