Clarksville weekly chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1873-1890, 1881-01-22
TRRE ASSESSMENT AND COLLEc-
TTON OF TAXES.


Among the many recommended
tons of Gov. Marks, in his last
message TO the legislature, there is
none, perhaps, that more urgently
needs the attention Of that body, in
our opinion, than that which refers
to the defects in the law for the
assessment and collection of taxes.
1t may well be doubted whether
the precise method pointed out by
the governor is the best that the
legislature in its wisdom can devise;
but certainly it is, on the whole, an
Improvement on the present sys-
tenn. 1t has been tried, as the gov
ernOr says, i'm many other states of
the Union, and has insured some
thing like fairness in the valuation
of property, between different coun-
ties and different districts in the
same county.
AS it now is, the legislature meets
once in every two years and fixes
the rate of taxation, which must
stand until the next legislature con-
Venes. Then begins race of dill
gence between an army of assessors
scattered all over the state as to who
shall rate property lowest. and thus
do most to escape taxation. 1t is
perfectly evident TO each of these
assessors that if the average value of
land I'm his district is ten dollars per
acre, and he returns it at five, he
cuts down the state tax one-half;
and, as a consequence, property all
over the state, according 10 the
assessors returns, has been coming
down, down, down, steadily for the
last ten years, until it has declined
in value more than one hundred
millions of dollars, and a tax of
thirty cents now is hardly equal to
a tax of twenty cents few years
back. And yet the state has in
creased in population all the while,
and now has some three hundred
thousand more inhabitants than she
had in 1870.
The constitution requires that tax
alton shall be 'eqlal and uniform"
and yet one has but to step from
one county to another, or even from
one civil district TO another, in this
state, to find that this constitutional
provision is very far from being
complied with. There are perhaps
fifteen hundred assessors in Tennes-
see, a large majority of whom are
undoubtedly honest and mean tc do
right, but each has a rule of his own
for the valuation of property, and as
men will differ widely upon this
subject as upon all others, it follows
that we uh@v-prTcrRaIIy about fif-
teen hundred different methods for
the assessment of property for taxa
ton, and the amount paid by each,
citizen in proportion to his wealth
differs widely all over the state.
The board of equalization" pro-
III III Nea~A hOAhS wei
on paper, but nowhere else. 1t
would take good deal of time and
labor for the assessors in each county |
to meet and carefully examine each
others reports, and alter the assess
ment upon this individual and upon
that, so as to make the valuation of
property something like uniform
throughout the county, and yet the
legislature has provided no compen-
satiOn whatever for this extra work,
and the assessors naturally, and, we
think, not improperly, deciinGe to
waste much time upon it. Most of
us have a hard time to make our
bread and butter in thias life, and
work which the state OFF Tennessee
does not think worthI paying for is
hardly worth dOinFg at all, and, as
matter of fact, is hardly ever done
at all.
The whole system needs a thor
ough revision, and we trust will
receive ito at the hands of the present
legislature.