THE PEOPLE'S EXPERTS
The People's Experts The Facts About Wisconsin's Commissions Their Cost and Service to the State What are the facts about Wisconsin's commissions? In the campaign just ended, the combination of...
...VII.—THE TAX COMMISSION THE TAX COMMISSION cost the state for the year ended June 30, 1912, $120,713.31...
...On the whole, it may be that the work of this Board is but the fore-runner of the adoption by Wisconsin of a responsible form of parliamentary government such as is in use in some of the European countries, where the government temporarily in control recommends its plan of legislation and is not only responsible for its enactment, but is also held responsible for all legislation enacted...
...These enormous increases amounting to more than one-half of the total increase in state expenses were brought about merely by equalizing taxes, so that the corporations, instead of being assessed by hundreds of local assessors, are assessed by one Commission that has all the facilities and experts necessary to assess them at the same rate as that by which real estate owners are assessed...
...They were denounced as a "burden" to the state...
...Is not this increase of $3,000,000 a year from those who had not been paying their share of taxes a profitable investment for the people...
...In the campaign just ended, the combination of Stalwart Republicans and undemocratic Democrats controlling the Democratic party raised the outcry that there has been in Wisconsin an "enormous increase in commissions and their expenses...
...The truth is that these commissions are doing splendid service to the people...
...In the creation of this Board, existing officers are utilized, and the three additional who are appointed by the Governor receive no salaries...
...What follows is his account of the State Board of Public Affairs, the Tax Commission, the Civil Service Commission, and the Highway Commission: VI.—STATE BOARD OF PUBLIC AFFAIRS ONE OF the most significant steps taken by the last legislature is contained in Chapter 583, Laws of 1911, creating a State Board of Public Affairs charged with the duty of supervising the accounts, affairs and work of the various officers of the state, and of counties and municipalities in the state, and authorized to carry on investigations into ANY MATTER relating to the public welfare, and to make estimates and recommendations relating to public expenditures...
...Here is a Commission which is beginning to give Wisconsin a system of roads that will add more to the value of property than any other single improvement...
...Only the heads of departments are appointed by the Governor and the Senate, without civil service examination...
...This law also has been administered by the Commission in cooperation with the Attorney General...
...mere devices for making places for "job holders...
...Everywhere in the nation voters and legislators are turning to Wisconsin for guidance in establishing agencies of government that will really protect the public against the exploitation of Business...
...The Commission also equalizes the assessment of taxes in counties, which, while it does not increase the revenues establishes justice and compels all counties to pay their just share of the state expenses...
...Uniformity in accounting may thus be secured through which intelligent comparison can be made of the costs of various forms of improvement for the purpose of securing in all cases the greatest possible results for the money expended...
...Through the work of this Board it will be possible to bring about improvements in accounting and methods to secure strict economy and the highest efficiency, and to have all the accounts of the state checked and the facts with regard to the expenditure of public money fully and intelligently placed before the people...
...Favorites and political friends have no advantage over others...
...IX.—HIGHWAY COMMISSION THE Highway Commission is one of the new commissions...
...The other one-third are mostly employees holding over from the period before the Commission was created in 1903...
...This is a recognition of the fact that the business of government needs to be looked after continuously the same as any private business, and that its management should be placed on a thorough and intelligent basis...
...This evil has grown less with the improvement of the machinery of legislation in Wisconsin, but the defect from the want of localized responsibility in legislation inevitably results in much of it being haphazard, and in the proposal and enactment into law of a great mass of temporary or trivial measures...
...Every effort was made to discount and discredit the work of these bodies of experts...
...All of the new commissions which were attacked in the recent campaign are under the Civil Service Commission...
...Wisconsin, unfortunately, has a bad reputation compared with other states, on account of the condition of its highways...
...In his recent speeches Senator La Follette briefly summarized the activities and results of the Wisconsin commissions—which are simply the executive or administrative branch of government for carrying out the, will of the people as expressed by the legislature...
...Six of the largest departments that existed in 1900 were doing more than twice as much work in 1912 as they did in 1903, with almost no increase in office expenses or salary rolls...
...The cost of this Commission in 1912 was $31,452.79...
...The value of a farm depends nearly as much on good roads as on good farming...
...Following the example elsewhere, provision should be made that when the administration fails of support in the legislature, their places should be vacated and filled by persons who are in sympathy with the majority of the legislature...
...This Board will have trained men for this purpose, and its investigations will largely take the place of legislative investigations which ordinarily have to be organized at considerable additional expense, and, instead of awaiting the session of the legislature for the appointment of a committee to investigate, an investigation can be had promptly and the results be made available for the ensuing session of the legislature, thus generally avoiding a delay of at least two years incident to present methods...
...It could not fail to be more responsive to the will of the people...
...Of this amount $49,097.73 was the cost of collecting the income tax for the benefit, mainly, of cities, towns and counties...
...And in the election, November 5, Wisconsin voters upheld their commissions...
...Two-thirds of the 3,280 employees of the state have been appointed through the competitive examinations held by this Commission...
...A prompt investigation of questions affecting the public welfare, with recommendations for legislation, cannot fail to be of the greatest benefit...
...VIII.—CIVIL SERVICE COMMISSION THE CIVIL SERVICE COMMISSION cost the state $19,-652.14 in 1912...
...The amount of work done by these appointees is estimated to be at least double the amount done by appointees ten years ago...
...The result can be seen in the enormous increase of taxes from corporations, and also in the work of drafting an Inheritance Tax Law, that should take the place of the former law, which was declared unconstitutional...
...After the appointees of the legislature were put under the Civil Service Commission the expenses of legislative sessions were reduced to $325 a day, against $519 a day twenty years ago, and $500 to $1,500 a day in other states...
...As the work progresses it will be possible to extend the benefits of this to counties and cities and the smaller municipalities...
...The special interest-serving publicity bureaus sent this campaign "dope" far beyond the confines of the state...
...The Civil Service Commission helps the other commissions and all of the state departments to be efficient...
...Before this Commission was created, the assessment of corporations was made by hundreds of town and city assessors...
...The charge is absolutely false that appointments are made on the ground of favoritism or politics...
...All others are appointed and promoted according to their standing in the Civil Service examinations...
...The increase in taxes from these sources since 1903 has been $3,006,900.52, and the taxes paid by corporations are more than double the amounts paid in 1903...
...This centralization of responsibility would lead to a continuity of policy and a greater harmony in the legislation enacted...
...The state finally decided that it must have its own tax experts, just as competent as those of the corporations...
...it is largely to their work that Wisconsin owes its distinction as "the model state...
...In addition to this amount, the state paid to counties $48,051.83 for the improvement of highways...
...Scarcely one of them had the knowledge or ability to,cope with the tax experts of the corporations...
...The cost of the Commission for the assessment and collection of state taxes was, therefore, $71,615.58...
...For every dollar that the state pays on account of the Tax Commission, it is gaining $25 from those who had been escaping taxation...
...Every person in the state now has an equal chance with every other person to get a civil service appointment, solely upon his merits...
...The result is that the legislation there is carefully looked after, while here it is seldom that any particular individual can be charged with the responsibility, and in every legislature in all the states more or less legislation "slips through" without having had the real attention or intelligent sanction of the legislative body...
Vol. 4 • November 1912 • No. 48
