The independent. (Lincoln, Neb.) 1902-1907, January 22, 1903, Page 13, Image 13
JANUARY 22, 1903. THE NEBRASKA INDEPENDENT. 13 THE REVENUE IAW Suggestion of .Some Amendments "Which Would Cure Patent Defect It is idle for the present legislature to 'waste any time trying to enact a new raw, or to patch up the present one, aiming to insure the assessment of property at its "fair cash value." Property will not be so assessed, no matter how stringent the law, be cause some way will be found to evade it. The assessed valuation cuts but little figure, whether it be 1. per cent, 10 per cent, 50 per cent, or 100 per cent of "fair cash value," so long as a dollar's worth of property in Dundy county pays no greater and no less state tax than a dollar's worth of property in Lancaster or Richardson. The constitutional limitation on levy for county purposes is 15 mills on the dollar valuation, and it is a notorious fact that, no matter what the law says, the grand assessment roll of any county will seldom be so large that a 15-mill levy on that will pro duce much more county revenue than will be needed. The fact that the county board is at once the spending power and levying power causes the people, through their assessors, to re move the temptation to extravagance by keeping the total assessment roll large enough, and but seldom larger than is actually' necessary, when ex tended at 15 mills, to produce county funds sufficient for actual needs. A look over the assessment rolls of the various counties confirms this. In all the older and wealthier counties property is assessed at a much smaller fraction of its fair cash value than in the newer and less wealthy counties. Out in Dundy county it is necessary to assess property at about one-third its fair cash value in order to main tain county government at all. In Butler and York, 15 per cent is suf ficient. In Saunders one-tenth. Now, if property were assessed at "fair cash value" in all counties, an extravagant board in bundy could levy only three times as much county rev enue as now, but in Butler and York seven times heavier taxes could be im posed and there seems to be no le gal way of preventing such action. Hence, self-preservation-dictates keep ing down the assessment. Of course, it does not matter to the people of Dundy county upon what sort of valuation the people of Butler and York raise their county revenues It is really none of their business. But as Dundy county property must contribute $1 of university tax and $5 of general fund tax on each $3,000 of "fair cash value" while Butler and York county property contributes only 45 cents for university and $2.25 for general on each $3,000 of "fair cash value," it is apparent that a rank in justice is done Dundy county. Aside from the question of some bet ter method of collecting the taxes af ter they are levied (which we shall not here discuss) there is, under our constitution, a way to make the levy state taxes as fair as it seems possible for human ingenuity to de vise. For it must be understood that only approximate justice can ever be done. There never was a perfect rev enue system and doubtless never wil' be. The one which The Independent here proposes will be fair as between the railroads and other property inter ests, and fair as between counties. The railroad assessment feature is the fruit of study by Hon. M. F. Harring ton and the method of fixing the levy is partially The Independent's idea. Bills covering both points will prob ably be introduced in the near future. Mr. Harrington's idea is that the state board should be empowered to ascertain the "fair cash value" of railroad property but not to assess it. That it should certify to each Count? board the "fair cash value" of the railroad property in that county. And that the county board, with this in formation before it, should assess tha property on an equality with other property in the county;" Let ns illus trate: We shall take four cotrnties through which the Republican Valley line of the Burlington runsPundyi ' Nuck olls, Jefferson, and Richardson. Sup pose the property returned by the assessors to show (as actually oc curred a year or so ago) as follows: Dundy $ 399,490 Nuckolls 1,692,432 Jefferson 1,975,437 Richardson 2,842,059 The Republican Valley line has mileage in these counties as follows: Dundy , , 41.54 miles Nuckolls .......20.41 miles Jefferson 26.44 miles Richardson ..12.70 miles We will suppose that the state board has certified that the "fair cash val ue" of this line is $53,488 per mile, and that the county boards assess as follows: Per mile. Total. Tundy $17,829.33 $740,630.36 Nuckolls 13.372.00 272,922.5! Jefferson 10.697.G0 289,983.34 Richardson 6,686.00 84,912.20 $13,734.77 $1,388,448.42 When returns are received by the state board, it would have no diffi culty in arriving at the conclusion that property generally was assessed in Dundy at 1-3. Nuckolls at 1-4, Jeffer son at 1-5, and Richardson at 1-8 of "fair cash value," because the pro sumption would be that the railroad assessment was made in accordance with the valuation placed on other property. Now, to the state levy: Suppose the present legislature shall appropriate $2,485,993.82 to be paid out of the general fund. The levy for 1903, then, should be at least $1,242,996.92, and the same for 1904. This would, if all col lected, leave the office fees and mis cellaneous collections, and old delin quent taxes to gradually wipe out the floating debt. It is evident that by multiplying the Dundy county return by 3 we shall have approximately the "fair cash value" of all assessed property in the county. Having done similarly by the return from each county, we can ar rive at the "fair cash value" of all as sessed property in the state. Suppose it totals $1,367,296,012. Using this sum as divisor and the $1,242,996.92 of appropriations for the dividend, we find that 91 cents on each thousand dollars of "fair cash value" will make the levy "sufficient to meet the appro priations," etc. if the, tax collectors do their duty. The rate of levy for state general fund purposes, on the four counties under consideration, would be as fol lows: Dundy 2.7 mills Nuckolls 3.6 mills Jefferson , .4.5 mills Richardson 7.3 mills The criticism which thoughtless pec pie might urge against this plan, viz: that the same line of road is assessed at so widely varying valuations per mile, falls to the ground when we find that a mile in Dundy would pay $48.14 of state general fund tax, the identical amount a mile would pay in Nuckolls and Jefferson, and only a few cents less than in Richardson. Inasmuch as the levies for tempo rary university and temporary school are about equal, and as the two to gether ought to aggregate about one third as much as the general fund, the levy for all three could be made consolidated and the taxes divided as received in the proportion of $6 gen eral to $1 university and $1 school. OOOOOOOOOOOOtOOOOOOOOOOOOO Q o o o o o Send U s a Mail Order o o Referring now to the assessed valua tion of all property in the four coun ties named, exclusive of the property assessed by the state board, we find that the ascertained equitable rate ot levy for general fund purposes would, on the valuation given (the figures are for 1898), give the following levy: AN EQUITABLE LEVY. Dundy at 2.7 mills.... $ 1,078.02 Nuckolls at 3.6 mills.... 6,092.76 Jefferson. .. .at 4.5 mills.... 8,889.47 Richardson, .at 7.3 mills.... 20,747.03 Total $36,807.88 The levy as actually made was 5 mills on each county and amounted to: AN INEQUITABLE LEVY. Dundy at 5 mills. ...$ 1,997.45 Nuckolls at 5 mills 8,462.10 Jefferson at 5 mills 9,877.19 Richardson.... at 5 mills.... 14,210.30 Total $34,547.10 Hence, of every $100 collected from Dundy, $46 was extortion; of very $100 from Nuckolls, $28 was unfairly levied'; j Jefferson 'paid $1.00 when $90 was right;, but Richardson should have paid $131,50 instead of $100. Under either method, with no aver age rise in the assessment, the rail roads would pay- the same amount of state tax per mile. As a matter of tact the It. V. was assessed at $4,500 a mile and paid $21.50 state general fund tax on each mile of road in the four counties. Assumin? that thi $4,500 AVERAGED high enough (which it doubtless did not), if it hart been left to the local boards to make the assessment the figures should have been: Dundy .'....$7,963 per mile INUCKOIIs 5.972 ner mfln Jefferson 4,777 per mile uicnaroson 2,943 per mile wnicn would indicate a "fair rnch value" of about $23,880 per mile in each county. But for local taxation Nuckolls and Jefferson "Would have a greater railroad valuation to tax, while Richardson would have less and here is where the pinch will O at once for any of these great specials. If goods don't suit when you receive them, return and money will be refunded. Every item is a great bargain; A VIGOROUS SELLING OF FUR CAPES AND MUFFS. 8 Astrachan Fur Capes, 30 in. long, reduced from 115.00 to.... $10 00 8 Astrachan Fur Capes, 30in. long,,reduced from $25.00 to. ...$16 50 10 Astrachan Fur Capes,30in. k"g, reduced from 127.50 to. ...Jig 50 1 Electric Seal Cape, reduced from $27.50 to $18 50 1 Electric Seal Cape, reduced from $35.00 to $22 50 2 Electric Seal Capes, reduced from 140 to $25 00 1 Fur Lined lilcctric Seal Fur Cape, 30 inches loDg, reduced fromS40.00 to . : $25 00 12 French Coney Fur Muffs, reduced from 11.75 to $1 00 10 Fine Electric Seal MulT.-t, reduced from $3.50 to $2 25 2 Astrachan Fur Muffs, reduced from $4.50 to $2 75 2 Imitation Stone Marten Muffs, reduced from $3.75 to $2 50 4 Imitation Brown Marten Muffs, reduced from $5.00 to $2 00 2 Imitation Beaver Muffs, reduced from $5.00 to $3 00 3 Genuine Marten Muffs, reduced from $8.50 to $5 00 2 Genuine Marten Muffs, reduced from $10.00 to $7 00 2 Genuine Marten Muff, reduced from $15.00 to $10 00 1 Alaska Seal Muff, reduced from $25.00 to $15 00 .... Clearing Sals oi Linens, Bedspreads, Etc 0 o o $1.75 Fine Bleached Damasks, yard $1.50 Fine Bleached Damasks, yard 75c Fine Unbleached Damasks, yard , Cameo Cloth, liner than a long cloth and better than a cambric, SI 33 $1 05 . 50c O o o worth 15c yard, now $5.00 M arseilles Bedspreads for $2.00 Hemmed and Fringed Bedspreads for $1.75 Hemmed and Fringed Bedspreads for $1.50 Hemmed Bedspreads for $1.00 Hemmed Bedspreads for . 10c 3 00 $147 11 33 ei 19. . 74c Lincolns - $ Progressive O O Store O 0000 OSOOOOOOOOOOOOO Y s&Not dpp. Too Late Christmas has come and you did not buy one of our I Beautiful Pianos. Well its not too late yet, we still 3 1 t 1 1 1 1 1 1 j . 1 "i i nave a beautiiui assortment, an siyies, graaes ana prices. We are still as anxious as ever to sell you and will make every possible inducement. If you can't call, write us.- Matthews Piano Co. 1120 O Street, Lincoln, Neb come. The railroads will not permit local assessment if they can help it and they surely can in this legisla turebecause experience has shown that they can always better escape paying their fair share by having the assessment made by a state board, not necessarily because the board may be corrupt, but because of the extreme difficulty of doing justice where a given assessment per mile is laid on a road running through counties where the standard of assessment va ries widely. It is better that the state board de termine the "fair cash value" of the roads, because it can secure the ne cessary information more readily, than the county board. But the coun ty board knows best how much to as sess a $50,000 mile of railroad to make it on an equality with other prop erty in the county. Here is an opportunity to solve the question of equitable taxation. The Omaha city tax question will be set tled by it. The state debt will cease to grow and will shrink as rapidly as it is good for it to do. Justice can be done as between counties and as between the railroads and other in terests. Will the legislature ever con sider it? Hardly likely. v 0 vr-