Excerpt from The Undeveloped Mineral Resources of PennsylvaniaTax rates, carried over from other days when the mineral industries were prosperous, are a great handicap to those same industries today when they are struggling to keep alive. To reduce the tax rate will cripple the counties in their efforts to meet the service demands of their citizens. The answer appears to be a severance tax, that is, a straight tax on the gross value of the several minerals as they are removed from the mine, quarry, or well. Such a tax is levied in proportion to the mineral removed, at a time. When the sale of that mineral makes the Operator best able to pay the tax. Strictly such' a tax is in the nature of a deferred land tax, and may be computed on that basis. It avoids all the uncertainty as to the quality, quantity, etc. Of a mineral in the ground. If the tax is based on the gross receipts from the sale of the mineral, it automatically adjusts itself to the changing values of the minerals taxed, and taxes all minerals equally.About the PublisherForgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.comThis book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully, any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.