New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1850-10-26
Taxation in City and state.

and that expeas aust be borne Inc only
aim should be45o.diistribute it equally upon
principles of adnisssd justice, SO that no
person and no interest which ought to share
the burden shall elude the obligation.
1t is fact that in this City the tax-rates
have long been intolerably heavy. One
great reason for this is that the municipal
affairs are badly conducted 1t is probable
thatsf spolation, corruption, wastefulness,
long-standing abuses and incapacity were at
once banished from our system of City Gov
ernment a great diminution would be feltin
the charges on taxable property, We trust
that some approximation to this blessed re-
suit may gradually be obtained: so much
at least we hope from the working of the
Amended Charter; though in that as in
other things experience warns US not to be
sanguine.
Another reason for high taxes is the in
equality with which they have been as
sessed. We knew that careful justice was
not practiced in this respect, but of the ex-
tent of the wrong we had no idea till it
was revealed by the late Report Of the
Commissioners of Taxation. Those officers
were created by the new Charter, and en-
tered on their duties on the 10th of April
last. They found the assessments in the
ancient chaos, not in all cases through
the personal fault of the assessors, but by
reason of the erroneous principle on which
they had been accustomed to proceed The
Commissioners at once set about correcting
the evil. They started on the only idea
that Justice or common sense can defend,
namely, that all property shall be assessed,
and assessed at its real value. The time
before them was too short and the informa-
ton at their command too scanty to allow
of thorough reform. On real estate es-
pecially it was impossible to equalize the
taxes But they did all that was possible,
and did it, so far as we can judge, with as
much fairness as diligence. Under their
hands the valuation of the real estate taxed
was increased above a million and quar-
ter of dollars, and the personal estate near
sixteen millions, yielding together tax OF
1899, 697 81; thus insuring diminution
in the rates of near five cents and Q half
on every hundred dollars assessed, as com
pared with the tax Of l849. At the same
time the aggregate of the municipal expen-
ditures had increased quarter of a million
of dollars These facts certainly promise
we'll for the future.
Under the old system, corporations and
their property enjoyed remarkable and
most unfair exemption from taxation The
Report gives list of twenty-one different
banks, insurance, railroad, steamship, tele-
graph and other companies which were al
lowed to escape altogether with property to
the value of some eight millions of dollars
while twenty-six other corporations had
their property assessed at above two mil
lions less than the valuation put upon 1t by
the Commissioners. Many of these corpor-
atoms had avoided the payment of their
share in the public burden on pretexts and
BY strategic devices which the Commission
ers do not allow. In some cases the asses
sors had either grossly neglected their duty
or else had been corrupted. For instance,
the Farmers Loan and Trust Company
had claimed exemption on certain grounds
which in 1843 were pronounced worth
less by the court of last resort and the
Company condemned to be taxed on
the full amount of their capital paid in,
with certain deductions provided by stat
ute. And yet, in defiance of this decision,
two years afterward the assessors began
to make the very same allowances which
had been at issue in the suit and which the
court had adjudged should not be made,
and these allowances were continued till the
Commissioners put an end to the abuse
The amount of property thus exempted
was three, quarters of a million dollars. OF
course the taxes which this and other cor
porations eluded paying had to be levied on
the other property of the City.
The Report argues with great force and
entire correctness that the reform which is
now being introduced into the City ought to
be extended through the State, 1t IS not
fair that the actual value of the property
in the metropolis should appear on the as
sessment rolls, when that of the remainder
Of the State is arbitrarily set down at only
fraction of its true worth. Asst is, the
property of the city not only has to suffer a
higher local taxation than that OF any other