The Key West Citizen

INCOME LOWER,
TAXATION HIGHER
The Citizen published an
article Thursday from The
Palmetto News about the
tax situation in Florida. The
reasoning in the article was
sound and cogent and na-
turally evoked these ques-
tions:
Will history repeat? Are
we headed for city-county
bankruptcy?
Conditions are now sim-
ilar to what they were
when taxes began to soar at
the inception of the realty
boom that led to the crash
in 1925.
With few exceptions, every
city and county in the state
hiked their taxes in keeping
with the artificial increases
in the prices of real estate.
By the time the bottom fell
out of the realty market,
cities and counties generally
were paying the highest
taxes in their history.
As a result, all except a
few of them defaulted on
their bonded indebtedness,
as the payment of taxes be-
came less and less. One may
get a fairly good idea of the
delinquent taxation in the
state by the tens of thou-
sands of parcels that were
sold at Murphy sales.
In Key West and Monroe
county page after page of
delinquent taxation was
published in The Citizen.
Undoubtedly, a good many
of the delinquents were in
a position to pay their taxes,
but the vast majority was
unable to do so and was
struggling to get enough
money to buy food.
Residents of Key West,
during the fiscal year be-
ginning October 1, face the
highest taxation in history in
the combined county, school
and city taxation. And what
is our economic condition
at present? How does it
compare with the five lush
years of tax collections?
What of a concrete nature
have we to look forward to?
Those questions can be
answered easily by every
Key Wester who keeps in
touch with business condi-
tions in our community. It is
futile to try to brush away
facts that face us at every
turn. In and out of public
life, too many of us seemed
to be of the opinion that
boom-time money would be
with us always. But income
has dwindled to only a small
part of what it was during
the war, and, with income
lower, we will be called up-
on to pay higher taxes.
Life demands a firm hand,
but there is no law against
wearing velvet gloves.
Careful driving is being
stressed, in connection with
safety on the highways, but
some words should be said
about careless walking.
President Truman made
a statement recently to
which all of us ought to
agree: The greatest need
of this country today is a
revival of
the spirit of
religion.