Staunton vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1860-1896, 1872-12-20
New Advertisements.

At a Meeting of the Board of
N SUPERVISORS of Augusta county
held at the Courthouse thereof, on Friday, the
18th day of December, A. D. 1872
(John Paris, William T. Rush, Will
PRESENT. liam Crawford, VIM. B Cochran,
Henry B. Seg and John D. Brooks,
Gentlemen Superv isors.
WHEREAS, by an Act of the General Assembly
of Virginia, in force February lst, 1872, entitled
Gan Act for the re-assessment of lands in the
Commonwealth was provided that upon
"the petition of a majority of the land-holders
IN any county or corporation. or upon the Pc
''tition of the majority OF the Board of SuIervi-
''sors of any county, or upon the petition of a
majority of the land holders in any Township
'Ior any county, it shall be the duty of the
Court of the county or corporation, at the
sMarch Term, 1872, to appoint and associate
''two freehoders with the assessor, who shall
constitutes Board of re-assessment, for the
county, corporation or township, who shall
proceed to assess the value of lands, lots, &c :"
which Act, Immediately after its passage, was
at the instance of this Board published in the
Stanton Spectator and tho attention of all con-
cerned specially directed to it; and no petition
from any quarter being presented to the court
or any desire expressed by the land holders to
any member of this Board, that re-assessmeut
was desired and this Board at this time, believ-
ing that the act referred to did not provide an
adequate remedy, bat that general equalization
of the intrinsic values of all the lands in the
Commonwealth is tho only constitutional and
Just basis Of taxation: And believing further,
that owing to the peculiar condition of affairs in
Virginia, her people largely in debt, with large
tracts OF unpr0ductive land on hand, and desi-
ring to SELL that very low assessment would,
to large extent, prevent holders of real estate
from selling, whereas, if the assessed values were
such as the owners would accept, those desiring
to invest would be much more likely to buy
that a low assessment necessitates a. high per
cent. of taxation, while high assessment low
ers the per cent. Of taxation that as th. amount
to be realized by taxatian meet the expenses of
government must be the same, whether the rate
of assessment be high or low, it follows as
matter Of course, that provided the lands of the
State are uniformly assessed at q very low fig
AIe, the tax payer gains nothing, but on the con-
trary, an obstacle is thrown in the way of his
selling his land at its intrinsic value-that the
evil, therefore, consists in the want of uniform-
ty Ana, further, that enormous sacrifices must
be the result Of low assessment, because courts
are authorized by law to confirm sales of real es-
tate whenever three-fourths of the assessed value
is offered-a high assessment avoids, to large
extent this phase of the case, which has to be
met at no distant day by the debtor class
And whereas many of the counties of the
State have had their lands re-assessed according
to the provisions of the act referred to- and such
re-assessment is said to be greatly under the first
assessment titus making the burden of taxation
not only unequal and unjust, but demonstrations
al also
Therefore, Resolved That this Board do re-
commend that the landholders of Augusta coun-
tty do petition the General Assembly of Virginia
for the immediate enactment of such general law
as will efectually remedy the injustice arising
from the disproportionate assessment of the lands
in the various sections of the Comma nwealth,
ResolOed End, That the creation by the Legis-
lature, of a State Board, or Boards for the differ
ent sections of the State, whose duty it shall be
to visit every county, examine the assessors
books make careful inquiry into the subject and
compare the average assessments of the various
counties and sections of the State, and thus as
certain the inequalities now existing, and equal
ize the real values of lands among the several
counties OF the Commonwealth would, in the
opinion of this Board be he most feasible mode
of effecting the desired object
Copy-teste
WILLIAM A. BURNETT
Clerk Board of Supervisors of Augusta county
dec2O-3t.