Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1867-08-27

The Equalization, by Hon. @. K. Dean.

statement therein made relative to
myself seems to demand some notice
at my bands. | must therefore put
myself on your indulgence again.
The statement though true in part,
is disingenious to the extent of down,
right dishonesty, inasmuch as it con-
ceals material point which vitality
effects my responsibility in the mat
ter; but do not impute the slightest
blame to you for its publication as it
stands. You are simply the victim of
misplaced confidence. That is all.
The obvious intent Of the response.
bic party or parties, is, to create an
impression in the minds OF the people
Of Boscobel, whom | had at the sacri.
fee of all personal comfort labored TO
serve, that | attempted to advise the
Co. Board of Equalization to act to
the prejudice of my town; that / vols
UNFAIRLY sought to be party to its
being unjustly dealt by in the matter
of equalization; or, to be more specif
ic, that, while other towns were to be
reduced in their aggregate valuation,
| desired that Boscobel, coniessedIy
assessed the highest of all, should be
allowed to remain as had returned
it. This is the meaning Of 1t, and the
end sought TO be obtained by It's pub
LEGATION is equally obvious. Bv thus
placing me in strangely perverse
and grossly unnatural position before
and against my own towtsmen, it is
ingeniously calculated to uproot all
the confidence they have heretofore
placed in my official trustworthinoss,
and Of course to make an end Of me.
| charge that your informant, or in
formants wiltully and deliberately
misrepresented the facts in the case to
this end. The history Of the case is
this: Having in 1865 met with the
County Board of Assessors, and
agreed upon basis for the assess
ment of personal property, and nav
ing after the completion Of the rolls
ascertaincd that the assessors did not
all adhere to that basis, but had ak
lowed the prevailing desire to avoid
az much as possible an increase of the
assigned taxes as against their several
towns, to control in a measure their
Judgment rs to valuations, | sought
to devise plan which would strike at
the root Of the evil, and tend to re.
move this selfish element from the
field OF assessment operations; very
difficult thing to do, yet worthy a fair
trial. The plan l devised was embed
led in resolution having the form of
a request to the Co. Board Of equals
cation, that they, by a careful exami
nation of the sworn personal estate
ments" accompanying each roll, take
pains to ascertain which town III the
county presented the highest average
in the. assessment ofthe several class
es Of personal property included in
the basis; and having determined this
then to make that town the basis of
eqalization for the several towns
This resolution | introduced before
the County Board Of Assessors of
I866-stated the facts which induced
its preparation, and made an argu-
ment for its adoption. But it was OBJ
jected to by Mr.. Stiles and others on
the ground that the plan if adopted
would increase our proportion Of the
state taxes; and, anticipating its de-
feat, withdrew the resolution. AZ
| was present when the County
Board met in July, 1866, and with as
little presumption as possible, sug-
gested the adoption of the above plan
to correct the evil complained Of Just
then and there quite manifest. The
same objection was made as made by
Mr.. Stiles; but | urged that in point
Of fact It's adoption would by no means
bring our aggregate valuation up to
whore il belonged, and where the
law contemplated it should be; fur
ther, that the responsibility of e1ual-
ization as between the several coun>
ties of tho State, rested with the State
Board, which equalized mainly upon
the real estate basis; and that in any
event, by sending forward our assess
ment basis and full statement of
the facts in the case no injustice
would be done us. The Co. Board
chose to tinker and patch up, to top
off and put on arbitrarily, as all pre-
vious boards had done.
Ny suggestion of finding the ave.
rage rate of class assessments by ex-
animation of the statements, was
adopted. The result proved what I
had anticipated, that | had assessed
personal property higher than any
other assessor in the county. ] rec
ollect that my average on horses was
1925, that of Lancaster the next 800
and so on down | think to $40. TAX
ing this average in each case as an
index Of the whole range oftown as
sessment, (the best possible test, we
shall find thai if Boscobel was made
the basis, Lancaster ought to have
beer raised p per cent; or if Lancas-
ter were taken as the basis, Boscobel
ought to have been reduced 20 per
cent, and so on through the list
What course was taken, is we'll
known.
Having II any manner determined
the average rate Of departure from
any just standard Of assessment,
among the several towns of the coun
ty, the duty Of the Board was plain
and imperative, viz: to bring them 10
that standard. We do not think they
did this then; we certainly believe
they, have more signally failed to do
it now; and as for my humble endea-
yors to this end, | never expected
them to be appreciated, but ! certain
~ supposed that was dealing with
gentleman who would not misrepre>
sent them upon low grounds of per-
sonal malice.
This accusation, taking more often
sive shape in its details, and emanatr
inc from the same source, was, |
learned, put afoat here and industri
ously padded by one who, when not
engaged in intrigues for Office, and
schemes and speculationS ofsome ques-
tionable sort takes peculiar pleasure