Weekly expositor. (Brockway Centre, Mich.) 1882-1894, 1891-02-20
YALE st. Clair County. Mich, FRIDAY. FEB 20, 1891

neighbor of 5000. But it was thought
the cloud of figures would blur the
readers eyes so that he would not no.
tice this. The increase of S87, ,3l5,
which they assigned to st. Clair, is none
the less absurd; $S7 ,3l5 would hardly
build two of the residences which have
been erected during that time.
Now, it is not out of place to consider
few of the falsehoods which charac-
terise this "stuning blow. First we
notice, quite to our surprise, that Yale
is really city. Considering the fact
that this "city baby" has always re-
sided in Yale il should know that its
BIRTHPLACE is not recognized at present
rs city. This would seem simple
oversight were it not used so conven.
iently to add S96,32l to the so-called
"burdensOme increase of the cities.
AS every one will readily recognise
this fabulous valuation has no place
among the cities. Deducting it from
the SS77 ,35l, "total increase of fire
cities in ten years" and it reduces these
figures at once to $7Sl ,030. If Yale is
not to be considered as "city" of
course it will be counted among the
townships and this increase of SOC, 1921
would naturally go towards reducing
the "net decrease of townships of S432,-
S76". This will leave but S336, 300 of
decrease in the townships according to
their own figures, when the lie is taken
out of them.
Having found this false representa-
ton it is but fair to suppose that there
are others and that if the truth were
known the S7Sl ,030 of increase in these
four cities and the 1886, 800 of decrease
would shrink to inconsiderable quanti-
ties. But we are satisfied with these
figures even. A few thousand here
does not interfere with the absurdity
of the situation as presented by our
crying neighbor. 1t is Il known fact
that farm property has decreased in
value fully one-third within the past
ten years; and it is also known that
these cities have grown five-fold.
Here our "honest supervisors" say
that raise of S7Sl ,030 is burdensome.
Divide 7Sl ,030 by 10, and apportiOn this
among 25,0O0, about the aggregate
inhabitants of the four cities, and you
will appreciate the circumstances of
the case as they are presented to us.
The increase is db0Ut SO per heod per
gear.
Although this table is not fair we
have contented ourselves so far in
using it to judge of the strength of
those who would apologize for the
corrupt action of the Board. The
figures given refer entirely to "total
equalization" Now, any one at all
acquainted with the subject knows
that personal property is not
"equalized' at all. The real estate
is equalized and the sum of personal
property added to that equalization.
As the basis of our complaint lies in
faulty equalization we supplement the
table of Nurse Bailey by one on real
estate equliZation for the years 1880
and 1890. Because these tables are so
much trouble to the reader we would
have avoided giving them if possible;
but we are compelled to give this one
for the good of the cause we are avow-
ing. We urge you to study and COM
pare it carefully, for the outrage is
shown most thoroughly by it.. Real
estate, you understand, is the only
part of the assessment which we can
estimate accurately. Personal proper
ty j. of such nature that deception
has room for full play. But by judg-
ing from the equalizations of real es-
tate for these years we can come to an
of the whole affair.
T.. Al No.