OUR TAXES f How Much Is Your Local Tax? HOW much of the taxes paid this year went to the State? How much went to your local, county, schooly bridge, and other purposes? We all know that of the whole tax paid on every $100 of assessed property last year only UO cents went to pay for the things for which the legislature voted appropriations. All the rest went for county, town, city, road, bridge, and other purposes that have no connection with State affairs. Of course the amount of our taxes that go to the State should be kept, like other taxes, as small as possible while making the State government efficient. But the bulk of our taxes is not due to State appropriations, but to assessments made for our local purposes. Illustrations IN one Illinois city in 1920 the tax rate was $7.78 2-3 per $100 assessed valuation. Of this $7.78, all State purposes for which the General Assembly made appropriations took up ^0 cents, the county tax was 50 cents, the town tax 11 cents, the city tax $2.25, the school tax $2.66 2-3, that for roads and bridges 66 cents, for sanitarium 20 cents, for the sanitary district, $1.00. The State tax was 5 per cent of the whole $7.78. Local taxes were 95 per cent. Another case, this time a small town: The 1920 tax on every $100 assessed valuation was $9.15. Here again ^0 cents of the whole amount went to meet all purposes for which the legislature made appropriations; that is, all State expenses. The rest went as follows: 26 cents for township, $1.33 for village, 89 cents for city bonds, 50 cents for county, $2.65 for grade school, and the rest for miscellaneous purposes. Another case: A city of about 18,000. The total tax on every $100 assessed valuation was $5.67 UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS BULLETIN Issued Weekly Vol. XVIII APRIL 11, 1921 No. 32 (Kntcrcd as srcond-clati mattrr, December 1 1, 1912, at the post-office at Urbana. illinoit, under the act of Auguit 24, 1912. Acceptance for mailing at the tpccial rate of pottajr provided for in iection 1103, Act of October 3, 1917, authorized July 31. 1918.) I'LKLISMKD BY THE UNIVKRSI'IT OF ILLINOIS, URBANA in 1920. In this case, again, only 40 cents of this went to meet all the expenses imposed by the legis- lature, while $5.27 went for local purposes. In another city of about 12,000, in 1920, $6.53 was collected on every $100 of assessed valuation. Of this amount 40 cents was for State appropriations and $6.13 for local purposes. It is clear that the real burden of taxation is not the State tax. Even if it were twice its present rate, the amount which each $100 would pay would be small compared with other taxes. What Becomes of the Proceeds of the State Tax? OF the 40 cents received by the State on every $100, ^ 2-3 cents went to the University of Illinois mill tax fund. For 1919 and 1920 the State tax rate was 40 cents per $100 of assessed valuation, divided as follows: General State expenses, 16 1-3 cents; school, 14 1-2 cents; University^ 6 2-3 cents; waterway, 2 1-2 cents; total, 40 cents. Of the amount paid per $100 in the first city mentioned above, nine-tenths of 1 per cent went to the University; in the second, seven-tenths of 1 per cent; in the third, about 1 1-4 per cent; and in the fourth a shade over 1 per cent. How Small It Is CONSIDERED as a lump sum, the proposed appropriation to the University of Illinois is large; but (1) Even at the low price of today, it would take less than two ears of com per bushel of the 1920 crop. (2) The number of cigars smoked in Illinois averages 80 per head of population per year. If for each person the price of 11 of the 80 cigars were given to the University, it would provide $380,000 more than the whole amount of money asked for the University per year. If one in 6 of our people smoked cigars, and if each smoker would contribute one ten-cent cigar a week during the year the amount would be more than the appropriation the University is asking for. (3) If everyone in the State gave up attendance at every ^/i/j ''movie'' picture show for one year, at an average of 30 cents admission, the budget for the University for two years would be raised in less than a year, (4) The per capita expenditure for soft drinks, ice cream, etc., is $3.31, which is more than four times the proposed per capita expenditure on the University. The Nation's Luxuries THE population of Illinois is approximately one-eighteenth of that of the United States. According to government returns for 1920, the people of the United States spent for luxuries in that year $22,700,000,000; more than 22 times as much as that spent for education only two years before and $6,000,000,000 more than we have spent for public education in all our history, Hon. P .P. Claxton, Commissioner of Education, calls attention to the fact that we blew away in the smoking of cigars and cigarettes in 1920, $300,000,000 more than the total cost of all education in 1918. The total cost for tobacco in all its forms in 1920 was 5 times the total of teachers' salaries in 1918. For tobacco in all its various forms we spent last year more than we have paid for higher education since the founding of Harvard College in Massa- chusetts and William and Mary in Virginia, more than 200 years ago. The truth is, higher education is not a burden. Its cost is almost negligible when compared with other expenditures. In 1918, for higher education in colleges, universities, and professional and tech- nical schools, whether supported by public taxation or privately endowed, we spent $137,055,415. In the 50 years from 1870 to 1920, we paid for higher education in tax supported and privately endowed colleges, universities, and technical schools, $1,804,200,272. For the years preceding 1870, 150 millions for higher education would be very liberal estimates. Expenditures for luxuries in 1920 included among other items: Face powder, cosmetics, perfume, etc . . $750,000,000 Furs 300,000,000 Soft drinks 350,000,000 Cigarettes 800,000,000 Cigars 510,000,000 Tobacco and snuff 800,000,000 Jewelry 500,000,000 Joy rides, pleasure resorts, and races . . 3,000,000,000 Chewing gum 50,000,000 Ice cream 250,000,000 As Illinois has one-eighteenth of the population of the country, a safe conclusion is that Illinois people spent their share — one-eighteenth — of the above amounts. Expenses for Education Almost Negligible THESE comparisons may be tedious but they are instructive. These and other figures which might be easily determined show very clearly the contention that, compared with other expenditures, public and private, expenditures for the University are almost negligible. We think we believe in education. We talk much about it, and many of us have believed that we pay much for it; that it in fact constitutes a very great burden, if, indeed, it is not our chief burden. No doubt we do believe in education in a way, but we have not paid and do not pay much for it. "The people eat more expensive food, wear more expensive clothing and indulge in more expensive sports, amusements, and recreation; and if they want good schools they must 'down with the cash' and pay for them,'' says the Springfield Register. "Commissioner Claxton of the federal bureau of education has recently stated that in all our country 's history there has been expended for education only $16,645,000,000, while in 1920 alone the bill for luxuries of all kinds was $22,700,000,000." The figures given by Commissioner Claxton are astounding and are furnishing editors throughout this country a subject for editorial comment, the general tenor of which is to the effect that if correct, the figures he gives show something must be done about it. "A nation that can expend $22,700,000,000 in a single year for luxuries can afford to be far more liberal than America in supporting popular edu- cation," is the view taken by the Cleveland Plain Dealer, which reminds another paper "that since we are claiming that education *is the cornerstone of democracy/ -we cannot afford to be always bargain counter hunting for corner stones. * " Of each dollar of taxes levied in Illinois in 1919 the University of Illinois got a cent and a half. 3 0112 105630443