The union Democrat., 1871-12-23
Taxation Assenanesi 80 sl.r ssatc Consti-
fufion.

fuftoff.
The Amendment proposed by Senator r.
win, of Siskiyou, and introduced By him in
tho State Senate, in regard to taxation, is in
timately connected with the interests Of etery
person, that has 9 tax TO pay in this State.
If adopted and made part of the Constitution,
Il will have en- important eject en- the raye-
nue. system. The amendment proposes Al
property in this State, except property be
longing TO the public Schools and other ed
aeational and charitable institutions, sup
ported in whole or in part by State funds,
shall be taxed in proportion toits value, 70 be
collected IS directed By law" That part of
the Constitution which this amendment IS in
tended to take the placeof, reads: "All proper
ty throughout the State shall be taxed in Pre-
portion to its value, to be ascertained as d.
rected By law, but Assessors and Collectors Of
town, county and State taxes shall be elected
by the qualified electors Of the district, coun-
ty or town in which the property taxed for
State, county or town purposes is situated. :
Such property as viii be exempted from tax
alton under the amendment, no one who has
liberal and enlightened views, cares to have
taxed. The idea Of assessing and taxing
public school house, is ridiculous. Yet the
assessment rolls of this county, have been
filled with entries of such assessments, we
have yet to learn, however, that the taxes
have been paid on any of them.
The exemption of public schools end chart
table institutions from taxation, will not re-
dace the public revenue to the extent it will
be increased, by having Assessors and Collec-
tors held to a stricter control than they are
at present. While they hold their Offices by
tho same tenure that Supervisors, or other
officers, to whom they make their accounting,
they will do as they have done for the past
twenty years. There are complaints in every
county OF favoritism being shown, one man
is assessed the full value of his property,
while his neighbor is not compelled to pay on
half value. The Legislatures Cor years have
spent great deal of time in passing laws for
the guidance Of Assessors, what good has it
done ? They are elected by the people and
do as they please. How many thousands of
dollars ofrevenue have been lost by Assessors
failing to list property which should have been
taxed in their counties, from wan. of proper
descriptions when listed, and other failures
in complying with the law. Iuolumne has
not escaped boigg a loser every year, more or
less, and sometimes quite largely The AS
SCISSOR is responsible on his bond for these
shortcomings. That is true, but has an As
SCISSOR ever been made to pay for his negli-
geneo or carlessness?
For the manner in which Collectors have
done their duty, we simply refer to the Mst
report of the State Controller, in which it
will be found, that in Sacramento county, for
last year, license was collected for onebilliard
table, and in Humboldt county, for forty
nine. That the per centage of poll taxes col
lected to the number of voters who voted at
the last election, varied from les! per cent in
Klamath down to lG2 per cent in San Diego.
In Tuolumne it was fraction over S34 per
cent. The report shows a remarkable irreg-
ularity III the collection of every kind of tax,
outside of property tax. It is time that these
officers should be made responsible to somebody
other than the people. Let the Board of Super
visors, or some other officer, have their appoint
ing, with power of removal, and make the APP
pointing officers responsible for the faith
full performance of their .appointees duties.
So long as the Constitution remains as it now
does, prescribing the election by the people
Of these officers, the ills we complain of will
continue. This proposed amendment of Sem
ator lrwin's should be adopted as speedily as
it can be done in competence with our organ
ic law, that assessments and collections NAV
be more equal and uniform.