Morning journal and courier., 1881-07-21
HAVEN, THURSDAY MORNING.
S9ournaI arO Courier.
Thursday Morning, July 21, 1881.
TAXATION INyERMONT.

A&AAAA4ON IN v EfkNONHs
 There is in most communities contest be-
 tween the tax assessors and men of property. The tax assessors seek to discover what property there is to be taxed, and many owners of property keep as much of it as they can out of the tax list. As one result Of this contest, in which property owners are too often victorious, the burden of taxa tion is unequally distributed. Those who are conscientious in making their returns have to pay heavier taxes than they would if all the taxpayers gave full and accurate lists of their taxable property. How to remedy this evil has been subject of much thought and many experiments. A plan is now on trial in Vermont which seems to promise well, and it's workings are interesting to all who lay and pay taxes.
 The Vermont Legislature at it's last session passed @ law requiring each taxpayer to furnish the assessors with 8 full and com plete list of all his property, and to make oath to the fullness and accuracy of his re- turn requiring the assessors, in case of taxpayers noncompliance with the law, to ascertain, to the best of their ability, the amount of his property, and then double the assessment, and requiring all property to be assessed st it's actual cash value This law seems to have been well enforced, for the tax lists this year are over $63, ,OOO, ,OOO larger than they were last year. The requirement of full list of property (and of debts ow- ing where an offset was claimed on that account) created considerable feeling, particularly among business men, the details of whose affairs were thus in a sense made public property. But on the whole the people gave the law their hearty support, and it was necessary to enforce the penalty for noncompliance in only trifing number of cases, not more than 100 of the more than 73, GOO taxpayers refusing compli- ance with the law. Those who refused obe- dience were the wealthy men of the State: George P. Clark, of Milton, whose tax-list as doubled is $9oo 900, the largest in the State James R. Langdon, of Montpelier, who is as- sessed on $50o,000; T. Gregory Smith, of St. Albans, $14O,0OO; the Hon. George F. Ed munds, of Burlington, 1000, and few others, including one judge of the State su- preme court.
 How the law benefits most of the tax payers is especially apparent in some of the cities, Burlington, for instance Last year the personal property of Bur- ington was assessed at only $45O,- 900, while this year it is $2, 71s, 1000, or gain of over 500 per cent The city tax is only Il mills on the dollar against 234 last year, making the poll tax $2.2O, against $4. 70 in 1880. And in other cities and large towns there is a similar state of things. The people of Vermont are said to agree with Judge Veazey, of the Supreme Court, who said in a recent charge to the grand jury: of the enforcement of this tax law should fill our prisons or drive off people not willing to bear their equal share of public burdens, the better it will be for the State. Better small popu- lation of honest men than a large one of per- iurers and shirks''