Staunton vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1860-1896, 1873-01-03
ia Meeting of the BOARD of

Il meeting OF the Board of,
"A SUPERVISORS of Augusta county,
held at the Courthouse thereof, on Friday, the
18th day of December, A. D. 1872
( John Paris, William 7. Rush, Will
PRESENT, liam Crawford, VIM. B. Cochran,
Henry B. Seig and John D. Brooks
Gentlemen Supervisors.
WHEREAS by an Act of the General Assembly
of Virginia, in force February lst 1872, entitled
can Act for the re-assessment of lands in the
"Commonwealth''-lt was provided that upon
Hthe petition of a majority Of the land-holders
"in any county or corporation, or upon the pc
s'tition Of the majority of the Board of Supervi-
'sors OF any county, or upon the petition of a
majority of the land-holders in any Township
''or any county, it shall be the duty of the
Court OF the county or corporation, at the
s'March Term, 1872, to appoint and associate
1.-TWO freeholders with the assessor, who shall
constitute 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 the 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-assessment
was desired, and this Board, at this time, bel;ev-
ing that the act referred to did not provide an
adequate remedy but that general equalization
of the intrinsic values of all the lands in the
Commonwealth is the 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 unproductive land on hand, and desi-
ring to sell, that very low assessment would,
to a large extent preveat 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
itat ioh
cent. OF taxation, while high assessment low
ers the per cent Of taxation that as the amount
to be realized by taxatian to meet the expenses of
government must be the same, whether the rate
of assessment be high or low, it follows as a
matter of course that provided the lands of the
State are uniformly assessed at very low fig
ufe, 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 uniformi-
ty And, 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
asseseuieHI' LUIS making tHe burden or taXatlOn
not only unequal and unjust, but demonstrations
al also -
Therefore, RESOLVED, That this Board do re-
commend that the landhoders of Augusta coun-
ty 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 Commonwealth
Resol0ed End, That the creation by the Lepis
lature, ofa State Board, 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
lze the real values of lands among the several
counties OF the Commonwealth would, in the
opinion of this Board, be The most feasible mode
of effecting the desired object.
Copy-teste
WILLIAM A. BURNETT,
Clerk Board CT Supervisors of Augusta county.
dec20-3t.