Phillipsburg herald. [volume] (Phillipsburg, Kan.) 1882-1905, 1888-11-09
SIXTH AND LAST REPORT
The Kansas System for the Assessment
and Collection Of Taxes Works Ad-
mirabiy-Short Of Data on
echOOI Lands.
Guerilla Raid CIaims-suga- Bounty-Lun-
ported Iron Being Used in the Stale
HOuse-County and Munich
pal Indebteduesss

The sixth biennial report of the auditor
of state and register of the state land OSce,
for the fiscal years ending June 80, 1857,
and June 80, 1888, has just made its appear
ance. It is q book of 496 pages, neatly
bound, geographically perfect and alto
gether credit to the Kansas Publishing
house, who got it out.
In his report, State Auditor Mccarthy
prefaces the body of statistics by the fol
lowing Introductory remarks and recon-
mendatiOns:
ASSESSMENT AND TAXATION.
In a general way, our system for the as
sezsment and collection Of taxes operates
admirably,
The taxes for the year 1886. which is the
last tax year, closed before the date Of this
report, have been satisfied by collection,
miIerage, double and erroneous assessments
excepting the small balance Of So, 73443, be
ing less than one per csnt of the assessment
for that year.
There are, however, some sections of the
tax laws which seem to be mIscOnstrued by
the assessors. Section 50 provides that ''tie
several townships and city assessors shall
meet at the county seat IN their respective
counties, and city assessors shall meet at
the county seat in their respective counties
on the first Monday OF March
on an equal basis of valuation
OF such property as they may be called upon
TO assess. 1t shall be the duty OF the county
clerk of each county to notify said town
ship and city assess Ors at least ten days pre-
ViOusly, of the date of such meeting"
The assessors in many cases cOnstrue this
section of the law to mean that they may
agree upon q basis of assessment very much
less than the value of the property in money.
In some cases they agree upon a basis Of 40
per cent of real value; IN other cases they
make the per cent 90 per cent or 90 per cant.
This section was evidently intended to
bring the assessors together to fix a uniform
rate upon certain classes OF personal proper
ty, such as cattle; but 1T Is not clear to my
mind that it was the intention Of the Iegls-
lature, in passing this law, to allow assessors
to agree upon per cent basis less than the
true value of the property III money
The law Of 1885, to provide for leVying
and collecting delinquent state taxes, has
operated very well. The provisions of sec
ton 5 of the law have been carefully COM
piled with by this department from year to
year with good results.
. I desire to call your attention to the diff
Guilty in obtaining assessment returns, and
other statistics, from some Of the neWly-Or-
ganiZ6d counties. In some cases the town
ship assessors have made returns to two diff
ferent sets OF officers, whose places of bust
ness were located at dIfferect places, AS
result Of this, the county clerk has not been
able to make a complete alb
stract Of assessment, and the county COM
missiOners have failed to equalize the assess
ments. No regularly made abstract of as
sessmsnt has ever been received at this Of
flee from Hamilton county, although 1t has
been organized since January -, 1856; and
I would suggest that something be done IN
the way of legislation to authorize the gov
ernOr of the state to appoint some suitable
person to proceed to assess and make re-
turn of property in all cases where the cCun-
,ty authorities fail to make return as re-
quired by law.
o.
have been made on the lines Of railroad,
new buildings, side tracks, etc., have been
omitted from the returns Of the various
companies. To prevent any prop
erty of this class from es-
Gaping taxation, I would recommend that
the law be so amended as to require the rail
road companies to make an extract Of their
returns, to the county clerks of the counties
through which their roads pass, and that the
county clerks be required to check the re-
turns and ascertain If the property has all
been listed; and after such examination,
and having added any property which may
have been omitted by the railroad cOmpa-
MES, the county clerk shall certify TO the
correctness of the returns, and forward the
same to the auditor Of state. This shall be
done on or before the 10th day OF April each
year.
It should be made the duty Of the county
surveyors to measure all side tracks, Wher-
ever there Is any question as to the length
of same in any municipality, and certify
the result to the county clerk Who shall for
ward the same to the auditor Of state, and
the state board of railroad assessors may IN
their discretion use such certificate IN their
assessment of railroad property.
The time allowed for making the assess
ment of railroad property is entirely too
short, and at least thirty days more time
should be allowed for the purpose, and
special appropriation for clerk-bire should
be made to aid in making up the returns
and preparing the certificates, as the work
should be very carefully and thoroughly
done by experienced clerks.
SALES OF SCHOOL LANDS.
In numerous cases, where parties have
settled upon state school lands, and have
made proof OF their right to purchase same
at the appraised value, the cost of such
proof has been charged to the school fund.
/ would recommend that all costs incurred
in the probate courts, in case OF settlement,
contests, or from other causes, be re-
quired by law to be paid By the parties
Of the opinion that 10 fees should be al
lowed for any purpose whatever, on account
of the school fund, except the expenses
for appralsiug, and, IN case Of timber lands,
for EubdIViding the same into lots.
1t has been almost impossible TO obtain
complete reports of the number of acres Of
school land sold, etc, by counties, as pro
Vided in laws of 1871 and 1873 IN time to
prepare a statement for publication in this
report some of the counties being unable to
make complete report for want Of data.
In case Of forfeiture of school lands for
nOn-payment, the attorney general says:
''Ihe mere making out of an account
against a county or state for services on a
Z E-n- e-sE