Litchfield enquirer., 1868-06-11
Taxation.
OF INDIANA.


 fore the Legislature on report of Com mission appointed last year, which, after g careful examination of the subject, have embodied their views in bill for public act The Commission was an excellent one (Hon. Leman W. Cutler representing this portion of the State); they had time to make thorough work, which a com mittee of the Legislature can never have: and from nasty perusal of their report. we are convinced that their system is an immense improvement on the old want of system, of which we have so often con- plained. Some of the most glaring evils that now prevail, are these:-
 1. A general undervaluation, especially of real estate, horses and cattle.
 2. Under this system of undervaluation, the most glaring inequalities have arisen in the estimates of land, animals, &c.,, in diff ferent towns.
 3. The different kinds of property are not fairly taxed in the same town-the farmer by notoriously underwriting his land and stock, affords the capitalist an ex- cuse for coneealing his property from the assessor.
 The Tax Commission propose to remedy these evils as far as possible, by causing { general assessment every five years, by State assessors, of all the property il the State, ct its actual vazue. A central tax department is organized under charge of 6 Tax Commissioner, appointed by the Gov ernor with the concurrence of the Senate This official appoints State assessors tc make the valuation upon which State taxa tion is to be based, and, with the State Treasurer and Comptroller, decides appeals from the doings of his subordinates. Ev cry five years, therefore, the State will be furnished with a full exhibit of all it's tax. able resources, properly arranged and clas- sifed.
 Besides this entire change of the mode of assessment, many subordinate evils are remedied
 One of the widest loop holes for the es- cape of personal property from taxation, is the present system allowing debtors to deduct or swear off their indebtedness. The Commissioners maintain that this exemp- tion is incorrect in principle. They deny the right of debtors, holding large amounts of property, to escape taxation ssthat pro- perty, and propose to abolish the whole system of ' 'offsets," deducting and swear ing off of indebtedness Taxes collected from corporations paying no local taxes, are to be credited the respective towns in proportion to the amount of stock held by their residents. The payment of taxes on State bonds is to be ensured by the expedient of deducting them from the amounts paid on interest coupons, the one half of which is paid over to the towns in which the holders reside.
 While approving essentially the plan oi the Commission, we think there are some defects in matters of detail. In particular, the number of State assessors seems too small to accomplish their task thoroughly. Two. .only,are allowed but three months to assess county; or, with us, just week to assess each town! Even our town asses sors, so large portion of whose work is that of blindly copying former lists, take more time than this.
 We hope this scheme of taxation may be fully considered by the Legislature, laid by the press before the people, and adopt ed. Any plan is an improvement on the present.