Daily Republican. [volume] ([Wilmington, Del.]) 1874-1890, 1882-03-16
N VOI IlIIINAHO -


Tax e,tnouent Comp ications'
Az there seems to be quite a large
number o. persons returned on the oe-
linquent lists to the Levy Court "oo
have paid all the taxes assessed against
them and who have genuine receipts 10
show that they have paid, it would De
interesting to know what the Levy
Court is going to do about it. Attorney
GRAY has told them that they must al
| low the error list as returned by the COL
lectors, He has told them that they
have no right to correct the errors OF
the collectors except in the case OF a real
estate tax. This, OF course, prohibits
the Court from striking oft the name OF
person from the error list WI" mas
paid his taxes and has receipt for the
same. This will not distranclllse that
person from voting at any election dur"
ing the present year or next year put u
will put such person to the trouble OF
getting his name put upon the assess
ment again which is no very easy mat
ter sometimes where the assessor Is
Democrat.
If the person, whose name is un)ustIy
stricken from the list, wants to save
wears taxes he need not get assessed
again until 1884, and thus the county
must either suffer the loss Of year $
taxes or other taxpayers will have TO
make up the deficiency. But there Is
another ENLARGEMENT in such returns
which places the collectors in an unen-
viable position. They have collected
these taxes and have returned the per-
sons paying them as delinquents' There
is no doubt of this. The question arises
are the collectors to be paid two com
missions on such errors?
They have collected the taxes and
are allowed a commission on that and
they have returned the person paying
the tax as all error upon which an al
lowance is also made. This is indeed a
lucky circumstance for the collectors
pecuniarily, because it brings them
double commissions. We believe our
Wilmington collectors are honest and
would not think of approprating one
dollar of the county's money to their
own use, but if they would appropriate
all the money paid in taxes by persons
they have returned as errors, there
would be no redress for the County
against such collectors and their
sureties, because the Levy Court has
accepted the error list returned. We
have reason to believe that the Levy
| Court and Mr.. Gray have been more
kind to the collectors than the latter
expected, and here We would remark
that we do not believe the collectors
intended that the name of any person
paying taxes should be- stricken from
the assessment. We were personal
witness to remark made by one Of the
collectors in reference to such returns
He said "My error list is partially
made out, and | won't have time tt
look over it and strike off the names 0
persons paying taxes after it is mad,
out. This the Levy Court will have tt
do" This we believe was an homes
ex sression made with no intent to de
ceive or to wrong anybody. Bat befor,
the Levy Court acted upon the returned
list they asked the opinion of Attor
ney General Gray as to their right tC
correct the same, and that gentleman
decided tnat they had no right to tam
per with it in any way except so far ~
real estate taxes were concerned. This
will account for the names of persons
being left upon the delinquent list who
have paid their taxes. Even the col.
lectors never had any doubt as to the
right of the Levy Court to correct er.
rors on the return until Attorney
General Gray's opinion was rendered