Fayetteville observer. [volume] (Fayetteville, Tenn.) 1850-1966, 1874-04-16
Assessments and Taxa
ton in Tennessee,
For the Fayetteville Observer.

pleasure examined a pamphlet
of yours entitled Tennessee
compared with other States" |
must confess | admire your pa
tient industry iii getting up sta
tistics, and the patient investi-
CATION you have given the as
sessment laws not only of this
State but many others. l was
of the opinion last winter that
you were more familiar with the
assessment laws of the various
States than any member of the
General Assembly, as the length
of your bill showed. Your
pamphlet is an epitome of the
bill and the arguments in its fa-
vOr.
Notwithstanding the length
of your bill, and the labored ar
guments in favor of it, | think
your assessment system is very
Objectionable in many respects.
j think it wrong in theory and
ii wonderfully defectivein practice,
Your pamphlet is a worse fail
ure than the assessment law,
from the fact your arguments
are based upon assumed facts
only. Consequently your fab
ric must tumble when brought
to the test of practical expert
cncc,
Your State Board of Equali-
zatipn is Objectionable upon the
ground that it is too expensive
and is impracticable. A Board
composed OF the Senatorial Dis
tricts would be clumsy and reck-
essly imperative if not despotic,
1t would be too much of the one
man power to give it to the ex-
ecufive, and might be made a
powerful engine OF corruption
and oppression, and naturally
work injustice to a large pro-
portion of the taxpayers of
: this State.
: You may classify the lanes
and your State Board may raise
the value Of real estate to an
average Of thirteen dollars per
acre, you only have three hum
dred and thirty-siX millions of
dollars, which every sensible
man knows far exceeds the
intrinsic value of the lands of
this State by nearly onc-third.
Put town lots and personalp prop
crty at the same. | have sup
posed real estate to be watered
to by u State Board. You then
have the cash value ofthis State
six hundred and sevcnty-tw0
millions outside of the eXemp-
tons, and no man with high as
,sessmcnt ideas and low rates of
taxation has ever been so san
guine as 10 put that estimate up
on the values of the STATE, includ-
ing exemptions.
You remember well last win
ter when the funding bill was
pending that it was said by the
friends of the measure, that the
value of the State with a uni
form assessment law would run
up to five hundred millions,
with forty cents it would pay
the interest on the public debt
and leave surplus in the treas
ury. And you remember they
were so thoroughly imbued
with this utOpian idea that they
appropriated one hundred and
fifty thousand dollars TO build
two hospitals for the insane, one
in East the other in West Ten
ncssce.
Now, sir, you are too we'll in
formed to swallow that; you
know that with those high as
sessments 40 cents would not
more than meet the liabilities of
the State and make a respecta-
bic school fund under the exist
ing laws. ] notice in your COM
ments that you make special
mention of two counties that !
had the honor to represent in
our last Assembly, Lincoln and
Moore. You speak of Bedford
and Franklin as surrounding
Moore and it being organized
of fractions of Lincoln, Frank
lin and Bedford, which is cor
rect. You mention the fact
that the assessed value of said
counties is very unequal, and in
stance these counties as a fact in
tavoring your State board of
equalization. / am truly glad
you called attention to these
counties, as it is strong argu-
ment against your system. You
get your facts from the Comp
troller's report, and your board
would make as great failure as
You have.
Ynn start ont with Mnoro hn,.