Message of Governor James S. Hogg to the twenty-fourth legislature of Texas Page: 38 of 48
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38
MESSAGE OF GOVERNOR HOGG.
tions. Should a complaint, information, or indictment be filed against
each of these delinquents, it would take quite all the year to try them in
any court, to the exclusion of all other business. In this way, by their
unpatriotic, criminal conspiracy and corrupt combination, they defeat
the ends of justice and escape the payment of their occupation taxes.
If your honorable bodies will pass a law embodying the following features,
such combinations will end, and the taxes will be forthcoming:
1. Require the district or county attorney, in the name of the State,
to file in the court having jurisdiction, a petition for injunction on his
official information against every person, corporation, firm, or association
that pursues an occupation in his county and fails or refuses to pay the
State or county taxes, to restrain the further' pursuit of the occupation
until all the taxes are paid.
2. Provide that if no sufficient answer be filed to the petition, or if
on proper answer the facts proven on the trial support the State's action,
the judge shall enter a decree forever restraining the defendant from
pursuing the occupation until full payment of all taxes due to the county
and State, together with all costs of the action, including a reasonable
fee for the State's attorney, to be allowed by the court, are paid.
3. Expressly provide that such actions shall have precedence of all
other cases of a different nature in any court where they may be for
trial.
4. Make the right of injunction cumulative of all other remedies and
penalties prescribed by other laws.
EXPENSE OF ASSESSING AND COLLECTING TAXES.
The expenses incurred by the State for the annual assessment and col4
lection of taxes are far beyond the limit of sound economy and goodc
financiering. Aside from the losses sustained from insolvents, erroneous
assessments, and on lands sold to the State, the assessors received fof
their work in 1892 $218,225.29, and the collectors were paid $133,036.50
aggregating $351,261.79 expense for assessing and collecting $2,572,f
319.57 taxes that year. To state it differently: For the year 1892 the State
paid for the assessment and collection of taxes over 13 per cent on the
gross amount received. At this rate, it takes less than eight years for these
fees to equal the whole amount of taxes collected by the State for any
one year. Many of, the assessors are paid from $2500 to $4000, others
from $4000 to $6000, while a few of them receive from $6000 to $8000
a year for their work. Collectors are also paid handsomely, liberally.
Certainly a statement of the facts embraces a poignant suggestion thai
the costs of collecting taxes are by far too high for the services rendered,
and should be materially reduced.
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Hogg, J.S. (James S.). Message of Governor James S. Hogg to the twenty-fourth legislature of Texas, book, 1895; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth5862/m1/38/: accessed April 30, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; .