The Opelousas courier., 1882-02-18
Taxable Property.
IN. O. City Item. Jan. 29.l

IN. o. City Item, Jan. %S.I
Gov. McEnery and the constltntlon
are decidedly at variance with the QUO
and emotional people who are stuffing
country editors with the economic
heresy that it is unjust and impolite to
tax reproductive property. The ar
guments in support of this position are
no more conclusive or plausible than
the reasons assigned by the man for
hurying the one talent that had been
i~ntrusted to him. To release unpro,
ductive real estate from taxation, is to
offer a premium to the land grabbing
SPECTATORS who seize large tracts of
fertile acres and hold them for a rise.
There is too much of this already even
under laws which require every inch OF
land to be taxed. We are not the least
agrarian or communistic in our bottoms.
We contend for the right of every man
to be secure in the possession of all the
land he is able and willing to pay for.
But he owes some obligation to the
State in which he lives, and by whose
laws he is protected in his holding to
makeShis land productive. The pros
perity of the commonwealth depends
upoE the thrift of its integers. The
man who buries his talent, therefore
instead of doing his duty towards con
tributing to the general welfare is al
obstructure. By permitting his lands
to remain uncultivated, he checks pro
duction. He will neither work hi
fields himself nor sell or lease to those
who will do so. For this unfaithfu
stewardship, he should be fined, instea'
| of rewarded instead of exemptins
from taxation the lands which he per
mits to run wild and holds at price
which no one can buy with the ex
p~ectation of saving his interest by cul
tivating them, he ought to be required
to pay double taxes. A vacant lot, a
abandoned field, Or a tract OF vast
land is in some sort a disgrace to th
owner. Unless he can put it to som
good use, he ought to sell it to some
body with public spirit and ability.
The Governor has just issued a yer,
excellent circular letter to the asses
sors throughout the State, in which h
directs them to take care and list al
the taxable property in their RESPECTIVE
districts. In doing this they are t
take the constitution as their sole guild
in the matter of exempt property. Al
descriptions not specifically ennmera
ted in article 207 are to be put on til
rolls. These instructions require tlleI
to totally disregard all lame excuses
whether they come from the owner Z
q thousand acres of unproductive land
held for speculation at prices aboy
their value. or from the poor dema
gogues who toady to the land grabber'
The Governor says all lands (whethe
productive or speculative which are nc
exempt must be tabulated. He nigh
with propriety, have added that j
putting a value upon them they shout
be assessed at rates which any ma
wishing to give for a small farm woul
be willing to give per acre. Th.
course would break up the habit
making n price for the purchaser an
another for the tag collector.
We are satisfied that a faithful con
pliance with the Governors circuls
for two or three years would complete
ly relieve the State from its inancii
embarrassments. No one believes thu
any modern assessment roll for eitht
the city or country parishes represen'
so much as fifty per cent of the actui
value of the taxable property. o,
assessment laws have the anomalol
property of holding fast the little fs
and letting the big ones escape. BIT
evdsp under them, it is in the power
the assessors to correct very man
abuses, and that, too, without oppres
ing any body.