Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1873-06-18
THE ASSESSMENT LAW.
Its History and Objects.

From the Pulaski Citizen.
As the Assessment Law is the absoi bling
sopic of thought and conversation just now,
a concise history of it and its object may
not be embarrassing.
Gov. Brown, in his message 10 the late
General Assembly, on page Z, under the
head assessments" said: ga fair and
thorough trial of our present sys EN- ofRey-
enue law has demonstrated that it Is mad
equate TO meet the demands upon the
treasury for he current expenditures of the
government and the prompt payment of
the annual interest upon our indebted
ness"
On page 9 of said message, after saying
"it is evident that the whole law of assess
ments should be thoroughly remodeIed,"
and speaking of the proper qualifications OF
assessors, Gov. Brown says: "To aid them
(the assessors) in the discharge Of their
duties, and at the same time to
ltnedrth a large amount of personal
property, especially about the
towns and titles, which now pays no tax
es, suggest that every tau payer render
schedule Of ais property, money, bonds,
stocks, chooses in action, ETC., certified by
him to be correct, and deliver it to the tax
assessors on or before day specified by
law, under just and proper restriction and
penalties. This would place every tax
payer upon an equal footing. The citizen
who desires to DO right will not complain at
this mode of rendering his taxable proper
". He who is not willing to comply with
the law should be compelled to yield bis
obedience, 80 as to share equally with his
fe low-ci'izens the general burden" See
Governors message, appendix to Senate
and House Journ j, in thu County Court
Clerks Office. s--..a
The Senate Journsl Gin the County Court
Clerks ofice) shows the following facts in
regard to the Assessment Law:
Senator McKenDa, of Shelby, introduced
the bill, No. 1874. See page 191, under
"New Bills" 1t was referred to the Com
mittee on Finance, Ways and Means, (see
page 205, under Senate Bills second read
ing), and reported upon by Senator Hughes,
their Chairman, (see page 239, under 'Re-
ports.")
Section % of the law, as originally draft
ed, prohibited members of the County
Court from acting as assessors. See page
272, under section 10 Of the bill which be-
came section % of the law.
When section "a of the bill (3l Of the
law,) which provides for the schedule AM
rate, was under consideration in tie Sem
ate Mr.. Smithson offered the following in
lieu of or as substitute for section 81 Of
the law to-wit: "The Comptroller shall have
printed, ruled and bound sufficient num-
Der of essessessment books each year, with
an oath attached, for the assessment of
taxes; and it shall be ruled in such manner
as the Comptroller may deem proper" If
this had been adopted the tax payers would
not have been troubled with the present
schedule. The assessor would have taken
down The property of the tax payer on his
assessment book, once for all, just as here
tofore. See top of page 273, under section
"a, which became section 81 of the law.
The tax PAYERS oath, now printed on the
schedule, was introduced by Senator Coul-
ter, of Gibson county. See page 273.
Mr.. Tillman, of Lincoln, offered the pro
viso to Sec. As of the bill, 40 of the law,
fixing the assessors fees az Is cents list
and five cents poll. See page 21o, under
Sec. 48 of the bill, 45 of the law.
A great deal has been said against this
law and the schedule. The assessment
law is little more than q compilation OF
former laws on the subjec-, as compari-
son of the law with the code will fully
prove.
The first objection is to the schedule and
oath. The schedule was prepared by the
Comptroller. The Legislature is in no way
responsible for its form or contents. The
law only provides that the Comptroller shall
furnish the printed forms for listing and a.
sessing property, and that said blanks shall
enum' rate all exemptions and contain
synopsis Of the law tor the assessment Of
property, and that said schedule shall be
properly arranged and contain proper
classification Of property. This is all that
the law says on the schedule. The law on
ly requires the tax payer to give in bis
property and It's value. What fault can be
found with this? 1t was certainly proper
to print synopsis of the law and the ex-
emptions on the blank, so that every tax
payer might know his rights and duties I'M
der the law.
Much of the dissatisfaction with the law
has resulted from the blank as G tten up
by Comptroller Hobbs. The law only re-
quires the tax payer to give in bis property
and its vaiue, without any calculation or
further trouble. The blank requires him
to make several calculations and show the
net results as to both his personally and
realty. 1t was also inaccurate by includ-
ing the merchants tax and requiring tax
payers TO list insolvent claims. There was
nothing in the Law to warrant this. 1t lied
to confusion ard dissatisfaction. Another
error was that the Comptroller instructed
the assessors to require every tax payer to
fill out schedule, whether he had one
thousand dollars worth of personal proper
ty or not. Of course the law is not GEL
sured for thess things.
The tax payers oath is no new thing.
The Code, Sec. 573 aud 573 A, requires
substantially the same oath. The law has