Perrysburg journal. (Perrysburg, Wood Co., O. [Ohio]) 186?-1965, 1886-04-23

/. SO far as the "thrustlng nsidc of the law
| as a dead lettcr' is concerned, It IA only too
true that such has been largely the case, and
that is exactly what tho special message
| sought to call attention to.
| II all tho bonds and taxable securities OF
the State had been honestly returned there
would never have been need for n three per
cent. ratio of taxation in Ohio--lM per cont.
would have been moro than ample to havo
| Afforded us the revenues we have enjoyed.
| The injuries ofthis "thrustng aside" process
| is that the farmers, manufacturers, mer
| chants and other business men OF the State
who are doing something TO develop our In
dustrlos and add TO our happ ness and wealth
| necessarily have their property in such shape
| that IL can not be. put into tin box and
| thrust aside in tho vaults OF n bank or
safety deposit company. and consequently
| they pay taxes for themselves md their
| ne ghbors also who can and do thus thrust
aside" their property and swear around ths
statute
As to tho policy OF taxing tho bonds of tho
State there Is much to bc said on both sides
| l recopn Zed tn when In my message used
this language: "lf II were not for its tho
Constitution 81 positive inlunct ons much
might he sad in favor of oNempting from
| taxation the bonds of our state and munlc
| pal governments TO tho end that we might
not tax our credit and drive our securities
! away, but keep them at homo and pay tho
interest on them to our own people"
General Beatty seems to think men who be-
| llevc that the State should tax its bonds In
| the hands OF Its citizens, aS other property
are only "demagogcal fools ut for lmbccc
asylpms," etc; u may be they are, but no
such mon rs Rufus p. Rnnncy and William
| s. Groesbcck.
The debates of the convention of ls5o-sl
| show that they thought and said that II was
right to tax this species of property the
same as any other, because IL was equally
protected and benefited by the Govern
inent winch the taxes were exacted to
| support, and in answer to tho objection
that to tax tho bonds would be to drive them
out of the State, they replied-and II docs not
seem very silly elthcr-that the State would
not he harmed thereby, since in their judg'
mert it was calculated to promote our wei
! vested in business enterprises that would.do.
| velop our resources or loaned on mortgage
| to those who wonld so nvcstit rather than
| to have it locked up as dead capital In sccur.
it es that could be thrust aside from the tax
collector; In , other wordS they dd not
| as beneficial to ~ state ms an act We business
class, and consequently d not regret the
tax the bonds would drive thom out of the
state IN exchange for money that would 20
into the business In our midst.
If our credit is so good that we can sell our
bonds, as we have done, Mt II rate so low that
our own cit zens can not afford to hold them
and pay taxes it is to be supposed that they
except among our own people IL would bo
quito different thing, but us long as New
York, Boston and the money markets of Eu-
rope stand ready to take our bonds at rates
less than our taxes the State Will not suffer
except MS there may be injury in selling the
| bonds abroad instead OF Mt home.
General Beatty further says that "when
the last batch OF State bonds was sold at less
than 2ai per cent interest the Governor Of
Oh o, the Auditor, the Attorney General and
the people of the State knew thtt no tax
would be paid on them Nay they knew
bonds were both sold and bought with this
distinct understanding" In this statement
General Beatty is labornp under n serious
mistake, for, on the contrary. the Governor,
Auditor and Attorney General were each
and ali of the opinion that tho bonds to be
sold were taxable, and they so not lied the
nrIr riur ipiIlu n Of N
dor, MIR. Netter.
Tho claim that the Sinking Fund Comm's-
| sioners and cx-Attorney General Lawrence,
| as one of them, had knowledge that tho
| bonds were not being taxed is not tenable.
| for tho reason that while the Sinking Fund
Commissioners had access to the list of own
era of bonds and might therefrom ascertain
who held them, 1t is not true that any mem-
Der of the Sinking Fund Commissioners had
any knowledge, officially, whether the bonds
were returned by the individuals in their
respective counties for taxation or not. They
had nothing whatever to do with such re-
turn.
So far as n revaluatlon of real estate is con.
| cerned, II is chiefly necessary to secure uni
formity of valuation. Real estate not val.
ued Mt its true value in money, and yet it is,
proportlonately, IN the aggregate, valned
largely in excess of personal property. The
It can can not not be thrust GpS is de-, and con-. con-
sequently, all of It gets on the duplicate
at some kind of valuation. 1t is not right,
however, that the lands of one county should
be valued ut seventy-nve per cent. and
those of the adjoining county be valued at
twenty-five per cent Besides the manifest
injustice, there nre now pending in the
United States courts at Toledo and Cleveland
twenty-six suits brought by as many different
banks alleging that the real estate of Ohio is
valued on the averaro Mt not more than
forty per cent OF its true value, and asking
that the valuations of their shares for taxa.
tion may cut down to that same figure If
they succeed, and almost every such suit has
been successful. though we hope to defeat
| these, the result will be that no kind of
personal property can be validly taxed in
Ohio above forty per cent of its true value
until another rcvaluation is had of the real
estate. This would utterly destroy the in
tegrlty of our tax duplicate and make 1t i'm
possible for the State to meet her engage
| mcnts
| The danger is one we can avoid IL We will;
and i think the danger too serious to war
rant us in taking any T. SIX about it. The real
estate owners of the State can far better af-
| ford to have n revnluaton now than run the
| risk of having their burdens of taXat on ale
| most doubled. as would be the necessary
| consequence of decision of the courts that
cent. of their true value aud that conse.
| quently no personal property should be
| valued in excess of that iigure,
II such II revaluat on can be had subject
| to n single State BoPrd of Rev sion and
| EQunlizat on, as was recommended with
| power without limit to take from and add to
as may be necessary to equallZe county with
| county. aud every spec cs of property with
every other. then there will be an end of the
| dangers that now threaten MS from lnck of
uniformity, snce the Judgment of such a
board, in the absence of fraud or mistake.
would be final ana conclusive in law. to es-
| tabllsh full and uniform valuations, no mat
ter how much 1t might diffor from the judg-
inent of other men. Very respectfully,