STATE AND LOCAL TAX REVENUES 107
Table 31 also shows total state taxes on a per capita basis.
[n 1928 the per capita state taxes amounted to $9.50, and
this figure represented a considerable increase over the pre-
ceding year. In 1923 state taxes on a per capita basis
amounted to $5.10. The increase from 1923 to 1928 there-
fore amounted to more than 869.
Sources oF LocaL Tax REVENUE
While the state government in Missouri in recent years
has been obtaining less than 209%, of its tax revenue from the
general property tax, the local governments have been se-
curing more than 909%, from this source. Although so large
a proportion may at first seem unusual, such is not the case,
for more than 90%, of the tax revenue of all of the local gov-
ernments in the United States consists of receipts from the
general property tax.
Local tax receipts in Missouri amounted to $104 million
in 1928, as compared with $100.9 million in 1927 and $78.6
million in 1922. The increase from 1922 to 1928 amounted
to more than 329,. The proportion of total local revenue
attributable to the general property tax was somewhat lower
in 1928 than for the other years for which data are given in
Table 32. The decline from 94.39 in 1927 to 92.99, in
1928 was caused by an increase in the receipts from licenses
and permits, particularly in the City of St. Louis.
Per capita local taxes amounted to $29.00 in 1928, as com-
pared with $28.32 in 1927 and $22.73 in 1922. The rate of
Increase in per capita local taxes has been more gradual than
in the case of per capita state taxes. Local taxes on a per
capita basis, however, were more than three times as large as
state taxes for the year 1928. Too much significance should
not be attached to the fact that per capita local taxes in
Missouri increased at a less rapid rate than state taxes. The
reason is not to be found in a low rate of increase in local
taxes, but in the very rapid rate of increase in state taxes,
whether considered as absolute amounts or on a per capita
basis.
Considerably more than one half of the local taxes col-
lected in Missouri are accounted for by the four largest
