186 THE FISCAL PROBLEM IN MISSOURI

licenses are examples of the first category, while brokers’
and peddlers’ licenses are examples of the second.

CoLLECTORS AND Tax DELINQUENCY

There is an elected county collector in each county not
under the township form of organization. In counties having
township organization the county treasurer is ex-officio
county and township collector. In cities of the first class
taxes are collected by the comptroller, and in those of the
second class, by the commissioner of revenue. There are
city collectors in cities of the third and fourth classes.
The duties of the county collectors are not confined to the
collection of county or other local taxes. They are charged
with the collection of the state general property tax, the
state income tax, and certain state license taxes. The county
collectors are required to furnish an annual statement to the
State Auditor. This statement is nothing more than an
itemized account showing all debits and credits on account
of state taxes. The principal credit item is treasurer’s
receipts, which represent the total remittances made to the
State Treasurer during the year.
The annual statements of the collectors provide information
 that can be used in studying delinquency. They show
the original debits on account of state taxes, entries on
account of errors, overassessments and underassessments, as
well as delinquent taxes, with the result that the percentage
of delinquency can be computed on a corrected base. This
procedure has been followed in compiling Tables 56 and 57.
The data in both tables indicate the ratio of delinquency in
each county computed on the basis of the maximum amount,
exclusive of interest, that the state could expect to be collected
 on account of taxes for a given year, which is a
different aggregate in most cases from the total of the
original debits. Because of the large number of calculations
involved it was decided to include in the study only the
counties in which the large cities of the state are located,
St. Louis County, the northwestern counties and the southeastern
 counties. The northwestern counties probably show
a better record of collections than those in any other part