Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1875-02-24
THE FALLACIEs OF AssEssHrENT

AAE EALLADAEB VI ASSESSMENL
Geo. II. Andrews, President Of the
New York Tax Commissioners, makes
the curious statement that, within the
past twenty years, thirty-one counties
in that State show a decrease Of S4S,.
623, l49 in the asses ed valuation Of
property, although their population has
increased l6O,747. This absurd dis.
crepancy shows that property was as
sessed at something nearer its true
value, a score Of years ago. 1t means
that men were then willing to face
facts, and allow a fair valuation of their
taxables. The natural consequence
was that a lesser rate Of taxation was
required to raise any given amount of
revenue. In the case Of the thirty one
counties mentioned, it must be conceded
that the cost Of government has been
largely increased by the addition of
leo, 747 souls. This would necessarily
increase the rate of taxation, if as
sessed values remained the same; but
when the latter is actually decreased
about fifty millions, the tax rate must
be doubled or tripled. Figures never
lie, though they are very deceptive
when we compare the tax bills of our
forefathers with those Of to-day, with
out taking into consideration such
facts as the above. They were more
straightforward in their dealings than
we, and they reaped the benefits of it,
escaping many Of our perplexities.
We work in a vicious circle. By not
assessing at full value, our tax
rate is enhanced; and to escape
the enhanced rate we try
to asses still lower. By this double
process, the evil grOl0s and multiplies.
1t is easier to depart from the one plain
right way, than to return to it after de-
Walton. Yet it would be money in the
pockets of nine-tenths of Tennessee
taxpayers, if a 'tnew departure" were
made to return at once to true princi-
pies. Our old constitution, framed by
a former generation, DEGREES that call
property shall be taxed according to its
true value" The Constitution of 1870,
paTrot-fashion, repeats this positive
fundamental law. We say parrot
fashion" because its reiteration and
by the whole people in
1870, seems to have had no effect
whatever upon subsequent Legislatures,
and no pretence Of an effort has been
made toward complying with this IN
mistakable constitutional mandate
Yet there is no other means deTisable,
by which "equal and uniform taxation"
can be rendered possible. Each de.
parture from ''true value" tempts to
another departure. Inscriptions men
resort to divers means for reducing
their assessments, and feel justified
in so doing when full value is not IN
sisted on by either law or public opin-
ion. In this way there grows up and
spreads through the community a
facile impression that it is per-
fectly legitimate to cheat ones State,
county and city Of whatever taxes
can be eyaded. The public moral
sense is blunted, and the mutual agree
ment on which all governments are
based is violated. No one man can es-
cape his share Of the governmental
burden, without increasing the load Of
his neighbors. The vicious system into
which we have fallen is a stumbling
block to the honest taxpayer, who,
with the Constitution before him, feels
bound IN honor and IN law to assess his
property at its true value; he must
either scar his conscience and blunt his
sense Of honor, or he mustpay a penal
ty for his honesty-that is, be must
pay taxes on higher valuation than
his rich, but less scrupulous, neighbor.
This injustice is to be seen every day
in all parts of the State, and bears al
most exclusively upon the smaller tax
payers, who constructive large ma
jority and should remedy it at the polls
by demanding a return to the princi-
pies laid down in the State Constitu-
ton. If all property were assessed at
It's trueIvalue, as that instrument de-
mands, the tax rate could be safely
lowered.
According to the census of 1870, the
true value of taxable property in Ten
nessee was 1896, 237, 724, while it was
assessed at about half that amount,
1888, 782, I6l. 1t isperfectly safe to as
sumo that the true aggregate to-day is
fully as much as then; in other words,
that the normal increase during 1871,
1872 and 1873, up to October, has not
been counterbalanced by the seventeen
months Of panic since. There is much
misrepresentation about the real and
lasting effects of the panic. Few seem
to allow for the widespread economy
that It superinduced among all classes,
and the gradual return to a more solid
and substantial basis in all branches Of
commerce and industry, whether CO.
operative or private. We do not ven
ture too far in affirming that more
strenuous efforts have been made to
pay debts, and more debts have been
collected, since the panic, than
in the same period preceding
it. Every one knows that
fewer new debts have been made dur
ing those seventeenmonths than IN any
three months previous to it, since the
war. These circumstances have placed
the affairs of all classes on a sounder
basis than before. Each individual has