Coin Machine Review (& Pacific ...)

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"I say that your magazine should fight for the
repeal of loeal and federal taxes. They get enough
money in the ineome, wage and other taxes."-
A. K., Philadelphia.
Attention has been centered for many weeks now
on the actions of Congress in shaping the 1950 omni-
bus tax bill and the many items that go into it. The
Industry has been much interested in the prospects
for repeal of the federal excise tax on machines.
At this time it is not possible to say what will
happen to the tax bill on its way throl1gh both Houses
of Congress, but the first reports of the House Ways
and Means Committee indicated that the coin ma-
chine excise would not be repealed.
As our Philadelphia reader suggests, the tax fight
is a broad one and covers city, county, state and
federal fields and when a fight is over on one field,
it often happens that tax threats rise up in another.
That is why the fight for fair and equitable taxes
must be kept up continuously, why operator organ-
izations must always be prepared to petition for
hearings and to offer facts and figures in behalf of
operators.
If the federal tax on amusement and music ma-
chines still stands, as it now seems likely to do, it
will not be a signal for operators · to let up in their
vigilance on the tax question. There seems to be a
kind of custom over the land for cities and states
to wait until Congress gets through with its tax ideas
and then the other government divisions look over
the field to see where they can get more reve~ue.
While there is a usual breathing spell during the
hO.t summer, yet fall is not far away and fighting
organizations should always be ready to put up a
good defense. Fortunately, there should be a good
breathing time before state legislatures get into ac-
tion again-the big majority of them scheduled for
regular sessions again in the first half of 1951.
If it stands that the trade failed to get repeal of the
federal tax, it is evident that the times are against
such repeal. It is almost like the stress during the
year 1941 when the federal tax on coin machines
took shape. Then it was the national desire to be
prepared for defense in ccise of war, and the need
for much revenue to build up the nation's defenses.
Now, the nation is moved with a new desire to be
fully prepared and the present summer is witnessing
an increasing demand for revenue to improve our
outlook. At such ·a time repeal of the federal tax on
machines may not have been in the cards.
But this situation should lead the trade to a re-
doubling of plans and efforts to prevent new taxes
on coin machines and also to amend some of the
high license taxes already on the books.
The national level of busineSs seems to be high,
although operators themselves are squeezed by high
JULY, 1950
costs, and when national business is good the states
and cities find the flow of revenue holding up well
also. Hence, the time is such that states and cities are
not pressed to put high taxes, or any taxes at all on
coin machines.
It is true that many states have piled up revenue
needs to pay bonuses to veterans, and still others
have skyrocketed the need for funds through pas-
sage of pension and compensation laws. But sales
and cigarette taxes are proving to be the best
sources of revenue to meet these big pension and
bonus demands.
While the stress is on cigaTette and sales taxes.
it may be an opportune time to get beUer considera-
tion for machines. Operators do not want in any way
to encourage' taxation of cigarettes, or any other
business, but the tax fight is such that one trade must
fight for relief while another business is in the tax .
limelight.
The National Automatic Merchandising Assn. has
in the last year or so set a good example to the
whole Industry as to what can be done through a
constructive program of tax action. In addition to
defeating new tax proposals, the NAMA program
has led to repeal or modifying tax laWs that had
been on the books for some time. This constructiv.
work called for long preparation, a lot of ground
work, and a lot of educational work to arouse opera-
tors to the need of making a fight.
It is the need to arouse all operators to the im-
portance of the tax fightthat evidently leads so many
of our readers to suggest that THE REVIEW help
in the cause by continually stirring up operators.
It seems that many operators wait too long to get
into the fight, or maybe never give full support-
until everybody has to pay and pay in the form
of high taxes.
I
In addition to what THE REVIEW can do in passing
the word along the line, there seems no beUer way
to get operators aroused in time than to hold meet-
ings and to have somebody talk on taxes who knows
the subject. This is a plan that all organizations
should put into operation and keep going, even
though m.any op~rators seem never to be aroused
or to take any interest in the subject until a tax bill
is already about to become law.
n is a good tim.e now to begin to arouse the trade,
even though summer is hard on organizations and
on holding trade meetings. Organization leaders
and farsighted operators will have to take the first
step and work hard to arouse others.
-Walter Hurd
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