THE HABITATION TAX 73 
The two principal criticisms of the habitation tax are the following: 
first, it would not reach the rich bachelor who as a rule does not maintain 
an expensive residence; second, it would tend to put an additional 
burden on persons with large families. 
It is true this tax would not reach rich bachelors in the same degree 
as persons of family. A bachelor may be a boarder in the family of a 
much poorer individual whose rent is large enough to render him liable 
to the habitation tax. Probably the best method of meeting cases of 
this kind is to rely upon the inheritance tax. On the assumption that 
those not reached by the habitation tax are enabled to accumulate more 
wealth, the death duty will make up for the loss by the tax on rentals. 
As to the second objection, a scale might be adopted by which the size 
of the family would be taken into consideration and the rate of taxation 
adjusted in such a manner as to give the heads of the larger families the 
benefit, and place an additional burden upon those smaller households 
desiring to maintain expensive establishments. It would not be difficult 
to lower the rate of taxation somewhat in cases in which the family exceeds 
a certain number, or to exempt such families altogether. In Tasmania a 
reduction is made for each child. In this way the most serious objection 
to the habitation tax might be removed. 
One of the latest proposals of this tax is that in the minority report of 
the New York Special Tax Commission of 1906. This recommends that 
the personal property tax be abolished and the tax on rentals substituted. 
It proposes to levy the tax at a graduated rate. The sum to be deducted 
from the total rent before the tax was to be imposed varies according to 
the size of the cities: In cities of the first class (250,000 inhabitants or 
more), $600; in cities of the second class (50,000 to 250,000 inhabi- 
tants), $400; in cities of the third class (under 50,000 inhabitants) and in 
incorporated villages, $200; in towns and unincorporated villages $100.* 
This variation in the amount of exemption is an attempt on the part of 
the committee to adjust the tax in some degree to the differences in 
rents which exist in the different cities of the state. Rents are higher 
in New York City and Buffalo than in the other cities and smaller 
towns. 
t Report of New York Special Tax Commission, 1906, p. 172. 
