Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1868-06-02
lcommunicated.l
Slste Equalization.

Mr.. CovER.--I have read vour
comments upon the late meeting of
the Go. Board with much interest
ana beg chance for few sugges,
tons upon equalization.
Your views are sound and The facts
you present, startling. The coun.
ties you name in comparison with
ours. must have been greatly favored
by the State Board, or great injus-
tice must have been done us. There
can be no doubt but that Milwaukee
Co. has quadruple the wealth of
Grant Co. and | am inclined to think
that the property embraced within
the limits of the two principal streets
OF Milwaukee city, is quite equal to
that of the whole Of our county.
have to-day gathered fact which
illustrates the manner in which as
sessments are made in that CITY,
proving the position we are taking.
A merchant of our place W those words
are always to be implicitly relied on,
states, that, two years or SO ago, he
was engaged in store in milwaukee
which carried about s18. 600 worth of
goods, and that Their assessment upoa
them ,oas betaoeen too and three thou,
sand dollars only; or, about one sew.
enth Of their real invoice value, or say
one tenth of their retail value ; which
latter standard of price was THERE,
quirement of the Law. / freely ad-
nit that IL millions of dollars, would
not be too high an apportionment
Tor Grant Co. provided, all other
counties in the state are raised to
their full value. In this case, Mil
waukee Co. would unques1ionably be
put in at so or so millions, and sou.e
others in about the same proportion
ate rate of increase. AS the matter
now stands, | honestly believe, that
five millions would be all that could
be justly assigned Grant Co. ont of
the returned aggregate wealth of the
State. My informant further states,
that one of said milwaukee firm re-
Gently informed him as to the amount
of taxes which they paid last year
on their stock in trade and this sum
proved to be less than my Boscobel
friend paid on his stock of about
focr thousand.
am a good deal surprised, that
our Co. Board of Supervisors, should
have adjourned as you state, to take
into consideration I" The assessed vot-
nations the assessors under the neu
La,o," before proceeding to equalize
and assign taxes among the several
towns. This contemplated action
would violate the very gist and
foundation principle of the new Law
The assignment of all assignable taxes
prior to assessment, is the distinguish.
cd merit and peculiar excellence which
the author of thislaw and all its friends
claim for it. They think this will
prove the panacea for all our assess
ment ills, and yet, our Co. Board as
sumo TO set it aside at their pleasure,
and to proceed in the old way. This
will not do. The law may have call.
ed them together, as it did the state
Board, to grope about their ultimate
purposes in the dark and may have
compelled them to guess at figures,
and jump at conclusions, but | pro-
test that the law must be complied
with, however strange may be its
provisions. Let us have as good
guessing and as fair jumping as cir
cumstances will permit, and it would
be pity gentlemen of the Co. Board,
if you are not able to beat the Senate
at either game.
Here in Boscobel, we are making
special exertions to comply with the
law, ana to assess all property at its
full value. We have three good as
SCISSORS, and they are doing their
work manfully /; the consequences
will be, that our aggregate return
will be very greatly increased, per.
haps doubled. Now we have no as
surance that any other town IN the
county is doing as well in fact it is
quite probable that in many of them
the old state of things is being con-
tinued, and we shall decidedly obiectl
to being punished for our practical
manifestation of the good intentions
which are in us. If this is to be
done in the future as in the past, you
will necessarily drive us back upon
under valuation and concealment, in
self-defense.
think the law is unsound in some
of its main provisions, and proving
injudicious and impracticable in the
execution, but nevertheless, / hope
it may be literally complied with SO
long as it remains q statute.
G. K. d.
BosCoBEL, Wis, May %, 1868: