TAXATION AND REVENUE SYSTEMS—FLORIDA. 55
note brokers, $500; building contractors of all kinds, $25; carriages,
omnibuses for hire, $6, drawn by one animal; $9, more than one
animal; $9, by other motive power (driver’s badge, 50 cents); car
riage and wagon establishments, $25; cattle dealers, $15; cigar
dealers, confectionery establishments, $12; circuses, $200 per day;
employment agencies. $25; clairvoyants, fortune tellers, mediums,
palmists, soothsayers, $25; commission merchants, secondhand
dealers of all kinds. $40; cook shops, dairy lunches, eating houses,
ice cream parlors, oyster houses, restaurants, victualers, $18; dealers
in all kinds of markets, $5; distillers or rectifiers, $250 (unenforced);
druggists, $6; exhibits (agricultural, art, cattle, floral, food, freaks,
industrial, mechanical, museums, poultry, sideshows, etc.), enter
tainment, lecture, exhibition halls, fairs, carnivals, picnic grounds,
skating rinks, $100 per annum. $10 for first week, $5 for each subse
quent week. $3 per day; explosives, kerosene, $1; florists, $15; fuel
hucksters, $5; gasoline, $5; hotels, $1 per room, with a minimum of
$30; hucksters, $12 per vehicle; investment and maturity associa
tions, $100; land and improvement companies, $50; laundries,
steam or other power, $20; hand laundries, $10; livery stables, $25
for 10 stalls, $2 for each additional stall; liquor dealers, retail,
$S00; wholesale, $300 (after November 1, 1913, $1,000 and $500;
beginning license year 1915, $1,500 and $800); merry-go-rounds,
$12 for first week, $10 for each subsequent week, $3 per day; sight
seeing passenger transportation lines, $6 for each vehicle not ex
ceeding 10 passengers, $12 for over 10 passengers; pawnbrokers,
$100; peddlers. $25; produce dealers, $12 for each vehicle; slot
machines, $2 per machine, $50 for unlimited number; theaters,
$100 per annum, $20 per week, $10 less than 1 week; undertakers,
$25; Washington Stock Exchange (for all members), $500.
A tax of $2 is levied on dogs, the receipts from which are paid
into the police relief fund.
The revenue derived from fees is comparatively small, the most
important items being municipal court fees, building permits,
payments to the surveyor for services, and motor vehicle tags.
F. THE INCOME TAX.
There is no income tax in the District of Columbia.
G. SPECIAL ASSESSMENTS.
No property except that belonging to the United
States, the District of Columbia, and property of
foreign legations is exempt from assessments for
improvements.
For the construction of sidewalks and the improve
ment of alleys, and for the setting of curbs, abutting
property is assessed for one-lialf of the cost of such
work pro rata according to the linear frontage of said
property.
For service connections with water mams and
sewers the benefited property pays the cost. For
laying of water mains the rate is $1.25 per linear front
foot of abutting property and for laying of service
sewers $1 per linear front foot.
For opening of streets the whole cost is assessed
against the property affected if such cost does not
exceed the benefit conferred upon the property by the
opening of such street. The excess, if any, is to be
borne and paid by the District of Columbia. In this
payment the half-and-half principle, referred to above,
does not apply.
For opening of alleys the whole cost is assessed on the
property in the square or block in which the alley is
constructed and the property in the squares or blocks
confronting such square or block.
Provisions are also made for assessment to pay for
removing or securing dangerous structures, removal of
insanitary buildings, inclosing dangerous wells, etc.,
removal of weeds, drainage of lots, and abatement of
nuisances.
Street railways are assessed pro rata for crossing
policemen and for street paving within or for 2 feet
on either side of street railway tracks.
School Revenues.
There are no separate sources of school revenue in
the District of Columbia. All school expenses are
paid from the general fund.
FLORIDA. 1
The revenues of Florida are derived principally from
general property taxes and a long series of general and
special taxes. There are no corporation taxes of im
portance, and no inheritance or income tax.
CONSTITUTIONAL PROVISIONS.
ARTICLE III.
Sec. 20. The legislature shall not pass special or local laws in any
of the following enumerated cases: * * * for assessment and
collection of taxes for state and county purposes.
1 This compilation is derived mainly from the following sources:
The Revised Statutes of Florida, 1906.
The Session Laws for 1907-09-11.
A compilation of the Laws for the Assessment and Collection of
Revenue, etc., by A. C. Croom, comptroller. State Printer,
Tallahasse, Fla., 1907.
Guide to Incense Laws of 1907, prepared by A. C. Croom, comp
troller. Capital Publishing Co., Tallahasse, Fla.
License Laws of the State of Florida, 1913, published by W. V.
Knott, comptroller.
ARTICLE IX.
Sec. 1. The legislature shall provide for a uniform and equal
rate of taxation, and shall prescribe such regulations as shall secure
a just valuation of all property, both real and personal, excepting
such property as may be exempted by law for municipal, educa
tional, literary, scientific, religious, or charitable purposes.
Sec. 2. The legislature shall provide for raising revenue sufficient
to defray the expenses of the state for each fiscal year, and also a
sufficient sum to pay the principal and interest of the existing
indebtedness of the state.
Sec. 3. No tax shall be levied except in pursuance of law.
Sec. 5. The legislature shall authorize the several counties and
incorporated cities or towns in the state to assess and impose taxes
for county and municipal purposes, and for no other purposes, and
all property shall be taxed upon the principles established for state
taxation. But the cities and incorporated towns shall make their
own assessments for municipal purposes upon the property within
their limits. The legislature may also provide for levying a special
capitation tax and a tax on licenses. But the capitation tax shall
not exceed $1 a year and shall be applied exclusively to common
