GENERAL SUMMARY

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farm taxes and net rents from farm operations show that
Missouri ranks low among the states for which such data are
available. This low ranking is confirmed by the finding that
Missouri ranks below the average when comparisons are
made of the estimates of taxes on farm property relative to
value and income factors ‘compiled by the United States
Department of Agriculture. The data for owner-operated
farms point to the same conclusion, namely, that taxes on
farm property in Missouri are relatively low in comparison
with other states in the same general region and the United
States as a whole.
Nevertheless, there is a farm tax problem in Missouri.
Some of the elements in this problem are the declining net
income from agricultural operations; the failure of the assessment
 procedure to make due allowance for the decline in
capital value in assessing farm property; the variation in
assessments among the several counties as well as within
the same county or school or other special district; the apparent
 over assessment of the larger farms in a period of
declining land values, under the present system of assessing
land and buildings jointly; and the alleged discrimination
against the farmer operating a mortgaged farm as compared
with the farmer who owns his property outright, under the
present system of taxing farm mortgages.
The possible changes in farm taxation that suggest themselves
 are the separate assessment of farm land and buildings,
the assessment of farm property on a basis more closely
approximating uniformity throughout the state, and the
elimination of farm mortgages from the general property tax
hase and their taxation under the income tax only.

PusLic ScaooL FINANCE
The problem of public school finance must be considered
in connection with the plan proposed by the recent State
Survey Commission, which would transfer to the state
government a substantial part of the burden now borne by
the school districts and would involve additional state aid
expenditures for maintenance over a ten-year period estimated
 at $100.6 million. This plan would seem to be open
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