The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1881-06-30
THE TAxATEoN OF PROPERTY.

State government is the revision OF the
tax laws in such manner as to secure an,
equitable assessment of all of the prop
erty in tic State, to the end that all; may
contribute their proper PFoportio9i % the
burden Of government. It is right and
lust that every man should return his
property at its fair valuation, aud it Is
dishonest for any one to do otherwise, If
the system were well regulated, for it
would the. be nothing moro nor less
than stealing fromithe State'by conceal
ing what is properly seing to the public
trearary for taxes. Taxation being I'M
rcsed rs rats per cent. all thatis re-
auired or right is, that property in the
State shall all be returned upon the
same basis of valuation, for then, wheth.
er the RATE OF taxation be high or low,
every pI,rropertyhold,r would contribute
his proper shere TO maintain the govern
ment, and the amount Of money ne
would pay into the public treasury
would be the sa.le, whether the basis OF
valuation be high or low. For example,
say that you have to raise by taxation
one thousand dollars. Now, if the Esop-
erly upon which this sum is to be raised
is valued mt one hundred thousand dol
lars, the rate of taxation would be ton
mills on the dollar; If, however, the
same property was valued upon the basis
of fifty per cent. Of this sum 1t would
only be fifty thousand dollars, and would
require rate of taxation Of double the
amount required upon the first valuation,
or twenty mills on the dollar, while If its
valuation were double the original sum,
or two hundred thousand dollars, the rate
of taxation would be reduced to five
mills upon the dollar, and every prop.
ertyholder would pay tho same amount
of money under either ono of the assess
ments. TO illustrate this further, let US
take an individual case Of O man whose
property under the first assessment OF
one hundred thousand dollars was valued
at one thousand dollars. His tax TO pay
his portion of the thousand dollars to be
raised would be placed at ten mills on
the dollar, and would be equal to ten
dollars, or che one hundredih part of the
whole sum to be raised, as he owns one
hundredth part of all of the property
upon which the tax is to be assessed.
Now if oil of the property is doubled in
his property wonld be worth
two thousand dollars, saa as he only has
to raise his proportion Of the thousand
dollars, which is the one hundrsdth part
or ten dollars, instead of paying ten mills
on The dollar, which would raise twenty
dollars, he only has to pay five mills,
which would raise the ten dollars re-
quired. II, however, instead of being
doubled in valuation, the pEonerty is
lesssned by half in it's value, our exam
ple's property would only be worth five
hundred dollars, while he would still
have to pay his part Of the thousand
dollars to be raised, or ten dollars. To
raise this sum would now require q tax
of twenty mills instead of one of ten
mills. Thus is seen a fact well known
to all who have thought upon the sub
iect--that the rate Of taxation does not
necessarily settle the question as to
whether taxes are high or low, for that
depends also upon the fact as TO whether
the assessment of property ig high or
low. It viii also be eeen from this that
1t makes no difference to the taxpayer,
where Il given sun IS t0 be raises,
whAther the basis Of assessment Is high
or low, provided oil property is returned
ut the same relative valuation. Just
there, however, IL ono Of tha troubles.
Jn some counties Of the State property Is
higher than in othera, and In
every county there are some mon who
return their property at q rate nearer
proper ,aluation than others. Therefore
some ..ounties pay more Than their share
of The taxes, and some citizens pay more
than their proportion, because the re-.
turns have not been uniform. This Is
the trouble about eny other than a mar.
ket valuation Of property for taxation..
Whenever it iB LEFT 70 the discretion Of
the owners Of property to Ak lis value
for taxes, they are prone to undefvalue.
IL, and console Themselves that theirs Is
in proportion to what other people 70.
tarn theirs at, and generally It is because
most peraons look at the inatter in the
same light, Not only il this trne, but as
TO personal property we would DO safe in
saying that it ii not generally returned
at one.half of its true value in this State,
and hundreds Of thousands of dollars Of
it are not returned for taxes at all. This
makes the burden Of government fall.
heaviest upon The iaost conscientious
citizen. Tnat something should pe done.
10 correct this inequality Is the gepeFal
demand, but just what to do cannot ba
arrived at With ease. For convenience
sake some propose to tax duly real estate,
and put It all upon the same footing BY
impsaing q tax say Of Eve cents par acre
each year, OF such sum as would raise q
sssaicient teyenas 10 run the government,
and coaid not be circumveated BY false
or inadequata rsturns. They contend
that this sSatoss. % tszasion would en-.
eOagage industry and Induce oapitaito
aaw into tha State for Investment. TO
some extent shfs argument would hold