CHAPTER III.

THE ONE MILL TAX.

Section 1072a, statutes of 1898, provides for the levy and collection annually of "a state tax of one mill for each dollar of the assessed valuation of the taxable property in the state, which amount, when so levied and collected, is appropriated to the common school fund income, and shall be disbursed in the manner and under the conditions and restrictions provided for the disbursement of the common school fund income."

The school fund income is, in the month of December prior to the annual collection of taxes, apportioned by the state superintendent among the several counties, towns, villages and cities entitled thereto according to the number of children in each over the age of four and under the age of twenty years. A condition of such apportionment is that the town, village or city shall have raised during the year by tax, for the support of common schools therein a sum equal to the amount of its share of such school funds, and shall also have maintained a common school taught by a qualified teacher for at least seven months during the year. (Section 554, statutes of 1898.)

Section 1074 makes it the duty of the county board to levy the tax referred to upon the towns, villages and cities of the county from which fact this tax has come to be known as the "county school tax," though not a county tax in legal contemplation.

The school fund income proper, other than the mill tax, was in 1900, $191,770.22; in 1901, $204,829.72, and in 1902, $180,836.96. These sums added to the mill tax make the total amounts apportioned to the counties in each of said years, as follows:

When the state board of assessment increased the total valuation of the property of the state from $630,000,000 in 1900 to $1,436,284,000 in 1901 and to $1,504,346,000 in 1902 it thereby increased the state mill tax from $630,000 in 1900 to $1,436,284 in 1901 and to $1,504,346 in 1902. This constitutes by far the larger part of the state tax of the last two years. The total state tax levied other than mill tax was, in 1900, $715,570; in 1901, $821,570, and for 1902, the levy is $821,570, said sum being required exclusively for the support of our educational institutions.

The effect of the mill tax is to make the wealthy counties with a relatively smaller school population contribute to the counties having less material wealth but rich in the number of school children. The law has been in force since 1885, and while the tax was limited by undervaluation of assessing officers to $600,000 or thereabouts without material change from year to year its burdens were not felt. It is believed, however, that the amount of this tax under a full value assessment is much larger than required by the best interests of the common schools, and that it tends in many instances to destroy that healthy local interest which follows where the community itself is held at least in part responsible for the maintenance of the school. During the last year in many country districts no district tax was levied, the school being maintained entirely by the school fund apportionment including the mill tax and the corresponding tax levied by the county board upon the towns. In some districts the moneys thus collected left a surplus in the district treasury. Such a condition has the tendency to breed a degree of extravagance which should be discountenanced in public affairs.

The reports of taxes levied by the annual meetings of school districts are not required to be made by the district clerks to the town clerks and by the latter to the county superintendents until a year after such meetings are held. (Sections 462 and 463, statutes of 1898.) Such reports as are incorporated in the following table have been secured in advance from the county superintendents and are only in exceptional instances based upon official reports of the town clerks. Complete data of the local levies made in 1902 will be reported to the state

superintendent in August, 1903. (Section 464, Statutes of 1898.) The table while for the reason stated incomplete helps to throw some light on the effect of excessive state aid upon the district tax levies for school purposes.

In the first column following is the total number of school districts in each county reporting, and in the second column the number of districts in such county in which it was found to be unnecessary to levy any district school tax at the annual district meeting in 1902.

As the levy by the county board relates back to the school fund apportionment of the previous year, the force of a full value assessment will for the first time be fully felt in the tax collected in the winter of 1902-1903. The apportionment made in December, 1902, includes the mill tax to be collected in said tax levy. The districts having a surplus in their treasuries will find it still larger when the so-called "county school tax" for 1902 is collected which must be equal to the school fund apportionment made in December, 1901.

In 1900 the school fund was apportioned on the basis of $1.11 6-10 for each child of school age; in 1901 on the basis of $2.20 6-10 or together from state and county levy, $3.32 2-10 per capita. The school fund apportionment of 1902 is $2.23 6-10 per capita and the county levy to correspond with the school fund apportionment for 1901 must be at least $2.20 6-10 per capita, making a state and county levy of at least $4.44 2-10 per capita of school population to be collected this winter.

According to the report of the state superintendent the total number of children in the state of school age-four to twenty years-was, in 1902, 751,699. 367,861, or somewhat less than one-half of the total number, were of the compulsory school age, between seven and fourteen years. A school district with 40 pupils in attendance might easily contain 100 persons of school age. Such a district would under present conditions receive $444.20 annually without levying any local district tax. Seven months' school would mean an expenditure of $63.45 per month. The average monthly wages, outside of cities, in 1901–1902, were, for male teachers, $50.93, and for female teachers, $33.19. It is not strange that some districts have accumulated a surplus in their treasuries without levying any district tax.

Prior to 1899 there was levied and collected annually in aid of the state university a tax of 17-40 of one mill on each dollar of assessed valuation. The legislature of that year so amended the law as to make this annual appropriation a definite and fixed sum of $268,000, which was increased by the legislature of 1901 to $289,000. (Ch. 170, laws of 1899; ch. 322, laws of 1901.)

In like manner there was levied and collected annually prior to 1899 in aid of normal schools a tax of 19-60 of one mill on the dollar. This has been changed to a fixed sum of $215,000 annually. (Ch. 170, laws of 1899; ch. 370, laws of 1901.)

The annual state aid to high schools and that to graded schools are fixed in each case at a definite maximum amount. (Ch. 345, laws of 1901; sec. 10, ch. 439, laws of 1901.)

The mill tax in aid of common schools alone remains an uncertain and varying quantity, fluctuating with the assessments made by the state board. As values increase as they are likely to do annually for some years to come-this tax will keep pace with them and with it the tax levied upon towns, villages and cities by the county board. A mill tax of one and one-half million dollars, together with two hundred thousand dollars contributed from the school fund income proper, means in another year a school tax other than the local district tax of $3,400,000, and this with the natural development and consequent increased valuations will continue to grow from year to year if the law remains as at present.