Spirit of Jefferson. [volume] (Charles Town, Va. [W. Va.]) 1844-1948, 1891-01-27
Communicated,
EditOr of be s1i,it Of .Iegsr,,or.

Editor Of ne Spirit Of Jefferson:
In reply 70 Granger, of last weeks Regis-
| teTi allow me Z few lines in your paper. Icon
cur in the remarks of tho .'Grangcr' and must
admit that our tax laws, that is the assessment
of property. needs some changes, but how to
snrmonnt the difficulty is the question, some
suggest one way and some another.
1t Is true that q man who has $40 600 in
bonds can. if he SO desires. escape taxation,
while man who owns farm cannot but on
the other hand the man who has the bonds if
ne Is an honest man, pays taxes on the &c.
| goo, while the farm, which may cost the other
man fully $4,000. is not assessed at its fun
i value.
Take the majority of the farms of Jefferson
county, they are not assessed at more than g
or their real value, and nothing like the
value which tile owner thereof asks for them.
There are farms In Jefferson county for
which the owners thereof have, within the last
SIX months. refused as much as 500 per acre
which to-day are assessed from S35 to S45 per
1 acre, and the owners of them think that very
| high 1t is true the bond owner can, under
| the law, deduct debts from the face yalue of
his bonds aud be assessed with the net differ
ence. they take advantage of the law there
/ but on the other hand does not the farmer de-
duct his growing crops on hand to a certain
time. and alliucrease of stock under one year
old from his assessment?
So both the farmer and the bond owner have
rebates on assessment of taxes, but which is
the greater? Can Granger" or any one else
The question of taxation has been very
difficult one for the people to solve. and one
which viii never be perfect. Make laws to
snit one class and you will Immediately sup
press another; first one and then the other win
kick and you will be shifting the burden from
| one to the other.
Taxes have to be paid. Make the burden
fall equally on all allow no debts to be de-
Quoted from what one really owns; let all
property be subject to taxation, make no ex-
emptions and then tax the rate will be reduced
1 although the amount of taxes viii still have to
be collected.
| Why did .'GFHiger' jump on the Sheriffs and
| Commissioners for collecting taxes That had
nothing to do with the assessment of taxes
Ask s.Granger' this question: Wonld you like
to be Sheriff of jefferson county bet he will
say mol"
Then why not let the efficient officers we
have still do the collecting? think that
Granger" owes not only the Sheriff an apOI-
ogy but he also owes one to the people of the
county, for the misstatement sent forth in his
article. Wheat ceasedto be 50 bushel prior
to the year 1873. Prior to 1875 lands in Jeffer-
son county were assessed very much higher
| than they arc now-fully III more.
As for the Sheriff's commissions, that is per-
| fectly plain. it is laid down in the statute for
collecting the State and State School taxes he
Is allowed ~ per cent. on the first S10,-
COO. per cent. on the next 500 and
| per cent. On the balance, and the same on
! County taxes. On certain days. known as dis
count days, the Sheriff has to deduct 81 per
cent from all taxes collected by him. this 31S
per cent collected comes ont of the Sheriff's
pocket, on all moneys collected by him. except
that on the State School taxes it is returned to
him by the Auditor. Now any one can make
| the calculation of the State and State School
taxes. the Sheriff collects between S25 900 and
S27 600, say one-half of the first $4,000 is paid
on discount days. then instead of getting $3.50
he gets 1926; on the second $40. 900 he gets 5
per cent. or $500; on the balance he will get
between $40 and $3.50. and the average per
cent. will he about is. Take the same calcu-
lation on the County faxes collected and the
average will be about 81 per cent. In addi-
ton to his commissions for collecting taxes the
Sheriff gets salary of $500 from the County.
Now take the duties of the Sheriff. he has To
collect all taxes. be on hand at all sessions OF
| the Circuit aud County Courts, (while Circuit
| Court is in session it takes two and sometimes
three Sheriffs on hand all the time,) serve all
processes In criminal cases without compen-
satlon; what this amounts to no one can def
nitely tell, but for attending the Courts when
in session. Circuit Court is in session about q
days in each year and County Court about "a
days. Take two mems pay for about So days
at what is allowed jurors for attending court.
$4,000
The Sheriff of jefferson county is not only
Sheriff but he is also tax collector, and county
| treasurer.
In speaking of the. Sheriff of Washington
county. Nd. '' Granger" saws he gets 21G per
cent. for collecting taxes. Now Mr. /" Gran.
ger. you are mistaken there, the tax
collector. collects taxes and he get Q per
cent, for collecting the State taxes which
| amounts to about 1925. and a salary in addi.
tion thereto of 50 500 for collecting The county
taxes. besides this. Washington county has q
| Sheriff with fixed salary. Do not leave peo-
pie under an erroneous impression the next
time you write an article for publication,
| ''Granger.n If you had read the published
| proceedings of the County Court for the last
ten years. you could have seen exactly what
| commission the Sheriff gets and then yo1Y ar
| ticle would not have been filed with such eT.
| ors as you seem to have been bent on getting
/ before the people of Jefferson county.