Page:Quarterlyoforego10oreg 1.djvu/310

286 forms of the insurance business are referred to here to indicate the development of the features of the system of taxation in Oregon, that were supplementary to the general property tax. The treasury receipts from, these sources were an almost negligible quantity until the beginning of the last decade. More recently they are netting the state substantial sums.

The General Corporation Organization and License Fees. — A further step in the direction of supplementing the general property tax was taken in 1903, when organization fees were required of all domestic corporations and an annual license fee of all foreign and domestic corporations. This corporation license charge has from its first introduction yielded a sum equal to about ten per cent of the revenues for the state government.

The Annual License of Gross Earnings upon Car, Express, Telegraph and Telephone Companies. — As transportation facilities developed, it became particularly notorious that the businesses conducted within the state by the car, express, telegraph and telephone companies were not being reached under the processes of the general property tax. An annual license upon the gross earnings of these concerns was in 1906 enacted through the initiative procedure. The constitutionality of this law has been attacked by a telephone company on the ground that the initiative procedure in lawmaking is in conflict with the provision of a republican form of government which the national government is to guarantee each state. The case is still pending before the Supreme Court of the United States.

An Inheritance Tax. — An inheritance tax law was enacted in 1903. This was creditable as the first venture of the state in inheritance taxation, but it embodies only in a weak way the desirable traits of an inheritance tax.

The foregoing comprise the supplementary features of Oregon's system of taxation. It must be conceded that these annual license charges and net premium tax from insurance