The Unresponsive Patient

Last spring Nebraska's Governor Robert B. Crosby roamed about his state for 9,000 miles, handing out 30,000 "Operaton Honesty" lapel buttons (TIME, March 15). His aim was to encourage full, honest returns on personal property for taxation, and thereby to lighten the heavy tax burden on real estate. Last week Crosby's own State Tax Department totted up the year's personal property assessments, and found that the patient had failed to respond to the operation. Total personal property reported by individual taxpayers was $433 million, 15% below last year. Looking over the county-by-county figures, Governor Crosby (who three weeks ago lost the G.O.P. nomination for U.S. Senator, largely because of the tax issue) found little to indicate that honesty is a popular policy. The reports were about the same as ever, e.g., in all of the farm and ranch country of Arthur and Banner Counties, not one taxpayer admitted that he owned a cow.

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