The weekly Floridian. [volume] (Tallahassee, Fla.) 1867-19??, 1889-01-15
THE ASSESSMENT OF TAXES.

confront the incoming Legislature ard
clamor for prompt recognition and judi
cious disposal is that of the defects in
our existing system of tax assessment.
Learned and experienced men during
each Legislative session for years pa st
have wrestled with this problem, and,
although many improvements have been
inaugurated and successfully carried out,
the greatest Of all it's defects still remains,
monument to the obstinacy with which
an evil once firmly engrafted upon the
body polite resists correction.
The system of assessment or valuation
Of property for the purposes of taxation
as it now exists, Notwithstanding all eff
forts heretofore made to perfect it, con-
tlnues to permit the most glaring and
audacious injustice to the conscientious
citizen, who honestly returns his prop
erty at it's true valuation, while it legal
ICES the dishonesty OF those who willingly
take advantage Of its looseness to under
value their possessions.
This is strong language, but its tr nth
defes denial.
A single instance will suffice to illus
trate the operation of the system.
When the assessment of property, or
valuation for taxation, was made last
year in St. Johns county, the estate of
Mr.. Flagler, comprising all the magnif
cent structures which that gentleman h as
recently erected in St. Augustine, Gn-
Guiding the Casa Monica Hotel prop
erty, which he had just purchased from
Mr.. Smith for $33O,ooO,) was valued by
Mr.. Flagler's representatives at $l9l,-
O5O! The County Commissioners, as
Board of Equalization, raised this valna-
ton to $299,6OO Of course the or;gi-
nal cost of the land and the improve
ments made thereon since it's purcha ase,
can hardly be guessed at, but the ru-
mored cost Of the Ponce de Leon at 5000, :
600, and of the Alcazar at about the same,
POSSIBLY more, not to mention pavements,
sewers, artesian wells, etc., etc., together
with the known price of the "Casa Moni-
Ca property, $3.50, O,ooO,) makes it prob
able that the actual cost of all Mr. Flag
ler's investments in ST. Augustine and vi
cinity cannot have been less than tvo
million dollars!
SO that Mr.. Flagler really pays taxes
on property valued at $500 900, which is
worth. according to the language of the
revenue law of 1887, "the full cash
value" of $2,oOo,oOo, the "valuation "
being exactly fifteen per cent. of the
"lul cash value"
What sort of revenue law do you call
this:
Right alongside Of Mr. Flagler's mag
nificent estate stands the humble cottage
of decreplt and poverty-strcken citizen,
who has lived there all his life-who has
labored necessarily, through all weathers,
for the support OF his family-who does
not owe dollar in the Worldwide would
not deprive ecen tile State of a penny
Justly due, and who, when asked the
value of his modest homestead, strained
his conscience little by giving in
reply the sum which, under the recent
changes in valuation, seemed large
to him, but for which he had refused
to part with his ancestral home. THIS
man, then, is taxed upon his homestead
at it's "tuli cash value,' according to the
law of the land, because it never occurred
to him to undervaue his property for the
sake of defrauding the State of its right
full and just demands upon it.
We do not propose to discuss the
question of morality involved in the con-
trast between these two instances, nor do
we cite the incident of Mr.. Flagler's re-
turn Of property for taxation with any
intent to single him out for special blame
or criticism. Indeed, in his case, the
State, the county and the city of St. Au-
gustne, would have done well, if it had
been possible or lawful, to exempt the
property of SO great public benefactor
from taxation altogether, for at least
number of years, just as our original sys-
tenn of railroads was exempted. And