Perrysburg journal. (Perrysburg, Wood Co., O. [Ohio]) 186?-1965, 1890-10-04
SINGLE TAX DEPARTMENT.
WHY THE BARN WASN'T BUILT

past few years to pay for new buildings |
and fences and make your home look n
hundred per cent better, to say nothing
of the saving. Why, that old, tumble
down barn doesn't hold moro than one
half of your hay and grain, and the loss
from stacking out of doors must be far
moro than the interest on the cost of u
new barn, Besides that old rooltery Is
disgrace on such fine land as you have
here, and then there must be some
danger of its blowing down in one of
these heavy gales and killing some of
your stock"
"Well, Frank" answered his uncle,
sail you say is true enough, but guess
yor don't just understand the situation.
You sec, in the first place, / haven't
quito enough saved up to build such
barn as j want, and so would have to
hire some money and pay interest on it;
but then wouldn't think of building at
present If had moro than enough"
"Why, Uncle Ben, don't you want bet
ter bui,dings?"
"Of course do, my boy; but then you
see just as soon as | put up new barn
the assessor would come along and raise
the valuation of my farm, and the taxes
would be so heavy that it would take
about all could raise to pay them. Only
last year / cleared up and drained that
bit of swamp land down beside the road
there and built few rods of highway
fence alongside OF it, where the brush
and weeds used to grow; and the as
SCISSORS raised the valuation five hun
dred dollars, and that added about
twelve dollars to my tax, besides the in
crease OF highway and school taxes, and
all that on account of clearing up less
than an acre of land"
"Wcll, uncle, it made your farm look
ever so much better. That brush patch
was always an eye sore to me, at least"
"Yes, Frank, it did look bad enough
right there beside the highway, and I'll
admit that it made at least five hundred
dollars difference in the appearance of
tho farm. But then i could not afford
to make many such improvements and
be compelled to pay the increased tax
on them"
"But, uncle why are the taxes so high
here? 1t seems TO me as if they were
outrageous"
'Oh! You see the town is bonded for
.S143, 900 to aid in building the Midland
railroad, and we are paying the interest
on the bonds now, and shall have to be-
gin payment of the principal in two or
three years The bonds we're made pay
able in twenty years and we have been
paying the interest ever since"
"Well, Uncle Ben, would like to talk
over this bonding business some other
time; but now we will talk about
this tax on improvements. Now, uncle,
you have about one hundred and fifty
acres of land here. How much were
your taxes last year?"
"Let mo see; there was S140 for town
county and State tax; then there was
S1l school tax, and / worked ont 81!
highway tax, making in all about Sl7O
"Well uncle, that is about S113 pei
acre for your whole farm. Now, how
much does Smith pay on that fifteen
acre swamp pasture Of his down there
adjoining your tield?"
"Ohl he doesn't pay much on that
Why, his school tax on that was only {
few cents when was collector last year
and asked him how much he paid in al
on it, and he said about three dollars.
"But it is good land if it was brough
into cultivation, is it not, uncle|'
Eyes, of course, it is; and / tell yo,
Smith makes pretty good thing off o
it ROW. You see he pastures his youni
stock there, and it is good pasture, too
as the scattering bushes on it don't in
lure it much for that purpose, and it i
just wet enough to raise an abundanc
of green grass the summer through
Why, he has nine or ten head of cattl
in there, and then. it's increasing i
value every year as the land is cleare
up and improved around it, / suppos
when | cleared up that acre adjoining
that it added as much or more in pre-
portion to the value of that field as
did to the value of my farm.
''But, Uncle, did these assessors ad
to his valuation on that account?"
"Oh, no; of course not; he had nc
made any improvements on it,"
ooh, see. They don't tax the valu
of the land, it is only the improvement
that arc taxed"
"Wcll, l guess it amounts to abou
that. aftor all"
But, Uncle, don't you think it woul
be nearer Il fair thing if the land wei
taxed according to It's value, without II
gard to the improvements, so that Smit
would have to pay as much on thos
fifteen acres as you pay on fifteen acre
of your land?"
'Well, don't know but it would.
never thought much about that before
but guess, come to think of it, Smit
would be likely to cut the bushes o
and improve it in that case, for he don
get quito as much value off it now as
do for the same number of acres"
'But, Uncle, If you don't have to pa
any tax on improvements your tax woul
be no more to the acre than his is nov
would IL? And then you could build
new barn"
''Oh, yes. of course it would, for thel
is lust about so much to be raised. Bl
taking the tax off of improvement
would serve to equalize 1T, al
would consequently raise Smith
tax per aero to meet the fall in N