Los Angeles herald., 1892-09-12
Senator Carpenter and the Tslsphone
Question.

Question.
EDITOR HERALD: A member of nv
family sent me from Los Angeles
your issue of 18th inet., contain
ing an editorial, and the statements
of City Assessor Hinton in reference to
the reduction OF the assessments OF the
telephone companies. Both do them
gross injustice. My knowledge of the
editors Of the HERALD preclude the idea
that it was intentional, and ask space
for the following statement
The Sunset company made q sworn re-
turn of it's poles and wires in the city at
the valuation of $S400; the assessor.
without notice to the company. in
creased it to $50, 400, and assessed the
boxes for sS4, ,150. The companies fled
sworn petitions for reductions, and the
auditor and agent of the companies, a
man of intelligence and unblemished
character, was examined fully by the
board as to the value of the property,
and also the gross and net receipts for
the year 1891. The uncontratlicted tes-
timony showed the true cash value of
the poles and wires in the city to be
$S400, and the boxes $l1, 200; that the
gross receipts were, in round numbers,
s67 900, and cost of operating, main
tanning and expenses, $4,000; that
the expenses of the company for
this year up to the first
of July were $48, ,662e6 more
than the gross receipts, and that there
will be continuous deficiency for the
next two years; that large portion OF
the wires assessed at 500 per mile will
be without value as soon as the cables
are in operation. As the assessment
was for this year, not the last, how can
the board be censdred for not consider
ing profits that do not exist? The law
makes no provision for an income tax.
but provides that "all taxable property
must be assessed at its full cash value.
Land and improvements thereon shall
be separately assessed. Cultivated and
uncultivated land of the same quality,
at the same value" Political Code, sec.
1927.
The use, occupation, or profit, derived
from the property has nothing whatever
to do with taxation. A horse and buggy
kept by a liveryman and renting for SIS
day, under the law, can be assessed no
more than q horse and buggy of the
same value, if not used at all. If the
house and lot, the press, type, fixtures
and material of the HERALD are worth
$100,000 and the paper, through the
ability, politeness and tact of it's editors,
yields revenue of 500, 900 year, these
profits are not the proper subjects of
taxation in connection with the prop
erty itself. But in the case before the
board, this question should not have
been considered, as no profits were re-
ceived, but on the contrary, losses were
incurred. NJ.
Another reason for the reduction was
that the companies wers not treated
like other corporations. For example,
the Electric Light company, who have
as many miles of poles, far more expen-
sive wires, and arc lamps that rent for
nearly three times as much as the tele-
phone boxes. and whose receipts were
admitted to be $12,0 or $15, 600 more
per annum than those of the Telephone
company, were assessed for poles, wires
and lamps at $4,000. The assessor
frankly admitted to me that he was
wholly unacquainted with the miles of
poles or wires, or number OF lamps, or
the amount for which the lamps were
rented, and when called his attention
to the disparity of the assessment of the
two companies, he said that the Elec-
trio Light company had been assessed
too low, and that he would raise it $780,
600. 1 told MIN he would not do it,
and he did not. He could have
raised it as he did the 'tele-
phone assessment. Why did he leave
one to the board, and do the other him
self? am not contending that the
assessment of the electric company
should have been raised, because the
president of that company stated that
with all the receipts the company was
making no money; but why should one
company not making money be assessed
upon the cash value of its plant, or less,
and another losing money, be assessed
upon a speculative value that has no
existence except in the morbid imagina-
tion of the assessor? Another slight
difference-the telephone company is
giving to the city fifty business tele-
phones equal to $4,000 per annum, for
it's franchise, and the city is paying to
the Electric Light company more than
SAT, 900 year ior lights.
In this connection, did not observe
that Messrs. Innes, Nickel and McGar-
ry made any herculean efforts to raise
the assessment of the Electric Light
company. The only error the board
committed was in not making the reduc-
ton enough. 1t is now out of all pro-
portion to the value of the property upon
any conceivable basis, real or specula-
tive. The proper petition for this reduc-
ton was presented in legal way, and
competent and credible evidence was
introduced to support it. and I argued
the case as Iwould have done before any
other court.
AS to the novel fiction that I am
"Boss," and the other-not original
with the HERALD-that I live in San
Francisco, have nothing to say. It
may amuse you, and does not hurt me.
Very respectfully, yours.
r. B. CARPENTER,
Attorney for Telephone company.