Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-05-27
A TOUGH TASK DONE.
The Retail Liquor Dealers Assess
ment Has Been Completed.
THEREVENUE CONSIDERABLYLESS
But the individual Saloon Keepers Rated
Higher Than Last Year.
HOW THE FIGURES WERE DETERMINED

The Board of Assessors have about COM
pleted the business tax assessment for 1889,
and on Friday and Saturday last the retail
saloonkeepers of the city received notices of
toe amount they had been assessed. The
Board of Assessors would not furnish list
of the assessments, taking the ground that
it would be unfair for them to make public
the amount of business done by private
firms.
A member of the Board was seen yester-
day and, when pressed upon the matter,
consented to give general statement cover
ing the saloon assessments, though he abso-
lutely refused to furnish any names. Said
he:
"Of course you know there.are very few
saloonkeepers who ever make returns of
their business, and the assessments were in
most cases fixed upon calculations made by
the Board themselves. We have completed
the business tax of saloonkeepers, and we
have had lot Of hard work in fixing upon
what we consider a Just and equitable
assessment, fair to all. As 1 said before, a
few saloonkeepers came to US and made q
pected to do this year, and they desired, as
do men in all branches of business, that the
figures be not made public, and it is the
opinion of the Board that their wishes
should be respected.
''The revenue to the city from the retail
liquor business will not be as great as the
Finance Committee anticipated when the
appropriation ordinance was drafted, yet it
will not fall so very far short after all if
our figures are not proven to be far out of
the way.
HOW IT WAS DONE.
"There are SO retail saloons in the city
this year, as you know, and the board cal
culated that these will do nearly as much
business as did the whole number licensed
last year. This belief had some effect on
our decisions, of course. Then the License
Court helped us out considerably this year
by demanding of each applicant for
license statement of the business done by
him during the past year.
"The Court kept record of these state
ments and kindly furnished us with one
when requested to do so. When we made
our assessment this year we took these state
ments, compared them with the assessments
of last year, then with the returns made by
such saloon keepers as did make returns
this year, and then We figured how much
such dealers business would be increased
through the decreased number of saloons.
This system of figuring increased the tax
on all the saloons proportionately, and the
increase over the whole number amounts to
considerable. For instance, one well-known
dealer in the lower part of the city who was
assessed on a business of S25, 900 last year is
assessed on 1000 this year. Another as
sessed on $4,000 last year is assessed on
$50, 900 this year. This is the largest saloon
assessment this year, and but one dealer is
assessed that high, though there are num-
ber assessed at $40, 900, which. was the high
est assessment last year. A great many sa-
looms were assessed last year as low as S., 900
and Sc, 900, but this year
THE LOWEST Is $4,000,
and there are but few that low. The major
ity this year are assessed above $40, 900.
lone trouble we have had in making our
assessments is the unreliability of the state
ments made by the dealers. An instance |
that will illustrate my meaning is as fol-
lows: f'sE
"a well-known saloon man who received
a license this year testified in court that he
had done business Of from $50 to $40 per day
for the last year, making total OF $40, ,920.
He came to the Board of Assessors few |
days ago and made affidavit to business of
81, 800. Now, both these statements could
not be correct, so we had to judge for our
selves in tLis case, as many others. Last |
year we had this man assessed at $4,000, |
and we have since found that our figures |
were none too high. This year we have |
fixed him at 10000, and don't think we
are higher than we should be.
"But from what 1 have told you you will |
be able to form an idea of how much we
will get from the saloons at millage of 10 |
mills this years"