74 UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO STUDIES 
The rates of taxation recommended by the New York commission 
are interesting as showing the graduation. They are as follows:? 
Rental Rate of Taxation 
$2,000 or less 3 per cent. 
$2,000 to $5,000 5 per cent. on excess above $2,000 
$5,000 to $10,000 Io per cent. on excess above $5,000 
$10,000 to $20,000 I5 per cent. on excess above $10,000 
$20,000 and over 20 per cent. on excess above $20,000 
A habitation is defined as a building or part of a building used as a 
place of abode by one or more persons forming a single household and 
such other buildings in connection therewith as are used for the purpose 
of residence, but not such buildings or parts of buildings used for business 
purposes. Different parts of buildings, rooms or suites of rooms in 
hotels serving as places of abode for guests or lodgers having no house- 
holds, are considered as habitations for the purpose of taxation. ‘“‘Occu- 
pant” is defined as a person who as head of a household occupies a place 
of abode within the meaning of this article for a period of three months 
of the preceding year, either for himself or for his family or dependents 
or boarders or lodgers. The liability to the tax after a three months’ 
occupation is designed to reach that considerable class of persons which 
possesses residences in the summer and winter resorts of the country. 
The New York commissioners in recommending the tax on rentals 
did not urge its adoption as a law applying to the entire state, regardless 
of the desires of the local units. The bill which they propose provides 
that the board of supervisors of any county or the common council of 
any city may exempt from taxation the personal property within the limits 
of such county or city and substitute the tax on habitations. ‘This is the 
local-option feature and is considered wise, as it is possible that many of 
the local units in which wealth is more evenly distributed would prefer 
to continue the assessment of personal property by the general property 
tax. The general property tax on personalty is not the failure in the 
rural districts that it has become elsewhere. 
The local-option feature of the proposed law is especially wise in the 
present state of public opinion. It is most unlikely that any legislative 
body will soon adopt what seems so radical a form of taxation if it is: 
to apply at once to the entire state. If, however, the bill has the local- 
t Report of New York Special Tax Commission, 1906, p. 172. 
