Yet another from Tax Facts, this from March, 1927.

TAX DISCRIMINATION

To say that a tax is inequitable, because one kind of property is taxed at a higher rate than another kind of property, is to beg the whole question at issue. Equity demands that the cost of government be laid upon citizens in proportion to advantages derived by citizens from government.

To tax one miller more than another miller having the same investment would be unjust discrimination. But if one miller got power from steam of his own plant, while the other got power from a water fall, the latter’s tax should be greater than the former’s tax in order to place them on an equality before the law.

To tax a business man with a hundred thousand dollar investment the same as a land speculator with a hundred thousand dollar lot is unjust discrimination because the two investments are dissimiliar in nature and they respond differently to the tax law.

Thus, a factory deteriorates, the machinery wears out and becomes obsolete. The owner must constantly give it care and expend labor on it. The land speculator, on the contrary, gives his land no care, and he employs no labor. Yet the factory grows less in value with time, while the land increases in value. Manifestly it is unjust to tax these two citizens the same. One citizen enjoys no value but what he himself creates, while the other enjoys a value that the community has made.

If the community is to render justice to all its members it must vary its tax burdens to equalize the advantages they derive from the services rendered by the community.