The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 17, July 1913 - April, 1914 Page: 122
454 p. ; 23 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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The Southwestern Historical Quarterly
tural regions. Figures were given showing that eight mining coun-
ties (Butte, Calaveras, Klamath, Placer, Shasta, Tuolumne. Trinity,
and Yuba), with a population of 86,374 persons, paid .taxes which
amounted to $1.00 per head for each inhabitant, and that fifteen
agricultural counties (Colusi, Contra Costa, Los Angeles, Marin,
Monterey, Napa, San Francisco, Sacramento, San Joaquin, Santa
Clara, Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo, Sonoma, Sutter, and Santa
Cruz), with a population of 83,329 persons, paid taxes which
amounted to $2.64 per head. The agricultural counties mentioned,
with a smaller population than the mining counties mentioned,
paid $1.65 more for each person than the mining counties. This
was admitted by this section of the committee report to. be unjust.
But, at the same time, the report opposed a convention or state
division, believing there were other remedies for the evils men-
tioned.46 Both this report and that of the majority were laid upon
the table.47
A second minority report was presented by another section of the
committee. About this report and the bill submitted with it, pro-
viding for a constitutional convention, the discussion of the Senate
centered. The report was lengthy. It went into the history of
the state and its constitution. Emphasis was put upon the inability
of one state government to operate satisfactorily over so large an
area as was included in California. Attention was called to the
unjust operation of the revenue laws, the result of which was that
a disproportionate share of the burden of the state government was
borne by the commercial, agricultural, and grazing counties, while
the mining counties enjoyed the controlling representation in the
halls of the legislature. The report said:
Three revenue laws have been respectively passed at the three past
sessions of the Legislature, and the result has proved that it is ut-
terly impossible to prescribe any mode and description of taxation
that will be practically "equal and uniform throughout the State."
In fact, the revenue laws are as good, as just, as effective,
as can be made under the existing constitution; and no relief can be
looked for until the State is divided, and the mining counties and
the agricultural counties are separated and placed under different
governments.
"Journal of the Senate, 1853, Appendix, Document 16, pp. 9-16.
"Journal of the Senate, 1853, 77.122
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Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 17, July 1913 - April, 1914, periodical, 1914; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth101061/m1/126/: accessed May 5, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.