St. Landry democrat. (Opelousas, La.) 1878-1894, 1884-08-23
Under-Assessnlnents.
Edition of tbe Times-Democrat :

TO the Editor OF The 1lIueS-D6uuCtdC'
In your issue Of the 18th instant, un-
der the heading of Wealth OF New
York." after enumerating the several
amounts of taxes paid by wealthy per-
sons in that city, you conclude thus:
sit is evident that the metropolis is suf-
fering like New Orleans-frOm under
assessment" Now, I am at loss to
comprehend what evils are inflicted up
on community by under-assessment.
Observation, reading and reflection
have all concurred to convince me that
Embarrassment, which really means
low taxation, is perhaps the greatest
blessing that government can confer
upon people. !,
the more wealth distracted from them
/ the poorer they become. This is a
fruism. A tax is capital taken from the
productive industries and expended
non-prOductively 1t is elementary and
automatic that all taxes are evils !;
hence, the lightest are the best. L
therefore cannot comprehend upon
what grounds you denounce under as
sessment as an evil to the people. A.
The Times Democrat, in replying to
the above, says: "The 'under-assess-
ment' in New York and New Orleans OF
which we complained is a crying injus-
tice, which places the burden Of taxation
chiefly on the smaller and poorer own
ers Of real estate in these cities. The
millionaires, capitalists and corpora
fions are under assessed the other tax
payers are assessed to the full value OF
their property" In this parish it is not
the small owners of real estate who
complain, but the "miIlionaires, sspital-
lists and corporations" who com .ain Of
high assessments. For instance, the
Morgan railroad complains that the as
sessment of 1880 per mile-about one
fonrth its value-is too high, and a pc
tition to reduce it was considered by
our police jury this week. The jury
very wisely left the matter as it was.
The so-called under-assessment that
the Times-Democrat complains of, is
the only protection the small property
owners have against the greed and ex-
travagance of the State and City gov
ernments; for these cOrmOrants can
never get enough, no matter how accu-
Tately the assessments are equalized on
a high scale. AL the benefit the tax
payers get from these costly govern
ments, is the right to seek redress for
grievances in the courts, for which they
have to pay the rest of the machinery
of government is used more for their
oppression than protection-it is some
thing like the monarchy in England, an
expensive fraud. The small taxpayer
cannot afford to go to law, to have an
unjust tax reduced; the large taxpayer
can. His only protection therefore is
in what the advocates of high taxation
call under assessment. We deny that
there is any general under assessment
Property is worth no more than it will
bring for cash at public auction and il
is fact, here at least, that as rule
property will not sell at auction foI
cash, for more than half its cost, and
frequently not that, and often it will
eell at no price. Most property sold al
sheriff's sales, not bought by parties
interested in the case, is sold on credit
The great body of taxpayers are not
opposed to this so-called under-assess.
ment which so much disturbs some OF
our contemporaries; and it may safely
be believed that the only ones who are
have an interest in the taxes after they
are collected.