The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1876-07-15

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! Beach, Of Dayton, made the following remarks
property in this county:
! Nix CHAIRMAN: | have n few facts ID fig
ures which would like to present for Ae con.
sideration of the committee on personal proper
! y, relating to the assessment and equalization
| of that class Of property. | learned, by being II
member OF that committee two years ago, and from
what have observed since, that there is great
! injustice done to some towns by the manner IN
which property is assessed, also by the commit
| tee in equaliZing by that assessment TO Illus.
trate the different manner of assessing in differ
ent towns, we will suppose that !, living in the
town OF Dayton, have an equal amount of prop
! erty TO be assessed with the Chairman, Mr.. Lew
is, living IN the town Of Fall River. When the
assessor calls upon Mr.. Lewis he commences the
list by asking how many horses have you" 4
have ten in all, SIX work and four colts What
| quality are your work horses" 4 have four
good ones and two are old He calls the four
good ones $40 each, two at $40 each, two colts AT
$50 and two at S25 each. He assesses cattle,
| hogs and all stock in the same manner. He fol-
lows the list down TO money and credits. Have
you any money owing you, and how much?' ]
have 5000 Any money in bank or otherwise:
Il have $500 He puts it on the list. He fol
lows the list down 10 all other property. How
many bushels corn!' Suppose | have 1000
bushels Calls it 30 cents bushel. Any 9th
err grap?' Have 500 bushels oats. Calls them
~ NtlI-S tltCT lllc Ilsl Ilc "ults
II up and II amounts to $4,000, and goes through
the town in the same manner.
The assessor in the town of Dayton comes TO
me and enquiries, how many horses have youE'
u have ten-siX work horses and four colts He
says don't call asses colts, as don't consider
them horses. What quality are your work hor-
ses| Four good ones two old ones" He says,
" viii call them five horses at $50 each.' OF
cattle, he cuts down the number and makes an
average of $50 each. Then coming down to mon
eys andl credits, he says, have you any mon
ely to put in" ] say, you may put in $500" He
says " l take off 40 per cent. from money" and
makes II $500. Says nothing about other prop
erty. Adds up the list and makes it $4,000. He
goes through the town in the same way, and re-
turns his book to the County Clerk, and makes
oath that he has made a full and correct list of
all property in his town, aud assessed it at fair
cash value.
The committee take the statement from the
books OF the average value Of property OF each
KIND IN each town 10 eqGaliZe from. Ihey ma
that in the town Of Fall River horses, cattle, &c,
do not come up to the general average and they
will have to add 20 per cent to that town, in
creas!ng Mr.. Lewis property $4,000 to $4,000.
They find that Dayton's horses and cattle rate
above the average, so they reduce us 10 per cent,
making my $1,000 81, 800. II may seem to the
committee that there is not this difference in the
different towns, but all ask is to take the fig
ures from the books, and take into consideration
the area, the apparent wealth. the number OF
acres OF corn and other grains, &c. | do not
claim the committee can add to towns that have
not returned their property, but do claim that
they cannot eQuaiZe and do Justice without the
property is all assessed as the law requires
The Chairman and many of the members Of
this Board will remember that four years ago
there was an extra session called for the pur-
pose Of deyising some means to increase the as
sessment. The property was assessed SO low,
and 50 much escaped taxation, there was not
enough 10 levy a tax on for county purposes, as
they were limited to q certain per cent. The as.
SCISSORS were called together at that time. They
had mostly finished their assessment and refus-
ed to re-assess so the Board agreed to borrow
money for that year, and at the next session
passed the following preamble and resolution
WHEREAS Tit believed by this Board that great injus.
ce results to the taxpayers in this county by reason OF the
ssed al .ts cash value; therefore
ResoCed That this Board strongly recommend that as
reserve the right 10 order new assessment in any town
where the law has been violated IN this respect
The result was that the next assessment
of 1S73-pcrsoual property amounted TO SILL
lsS524 The next year-in lS14-it amounted 20
S9,9a5,962. The number Of horses in 1873 was
25, 500; in 1874 there was "a, 1871 ,567 less than
the year before, and a similar reduction In other
property. II has continued to decrease each
year until we have about S6,00O,0O0 Of personal
property this year. If this decrease continues
in year or two we will be in the same situation
again. II this decrease was proportionately alike
in all the towns there would not seem to be SO
much injustice, but by looking at the abstract
from the books, we find that the towns Of Dim.
mick, Serena and Worthwhile have not returned a
dollar for corn or grain OF any kind while our
new town Of Miller returns nearly $4,000 for
that class Of property. The town of Meriden
does not return anything for household furni-
ture. am not acquainted in any o. those towns
but Serena, but know have seen the largest
cribs Of corn in that town Of any in the county
The people in the town OF Dayton felt much
aggrieved last year that they had to pay tax
on their grain to build county house and other
county and state expenses, while their ncighbors
across the road escaped that tax in part. If the
same rule is to be adopted this year, to class
towns lin equalIzlng) that have returned II part
of their property with those that have retursed
| it all / shall be compelled to vote against all
appropriations asked for by this Board.