Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1892-05-24

ant matter. Thus. in both these wavs there
are powerful tendencies constantly at work TO
produce unjust inequality in the taxation of
buildings and improvements. These tendencies
must act directly and powerfully upon the tax
alton of land, with which the taxation of build
ings and improvements is cOnjoined.
THE ASSESSMENT OF LAND VALUES
Your committee have been much struck with
the widespread feeling which they have found
among well-informed and thoughtful men that
the only way to secure fair and full assess-
ment of land values in the District of Columbia
lies IN the abandonment of the attempt to
assess improvements and in concentrating the
assessment upon the value of land alone and
for reasons such AS those We have briefly indi-
Gated your committee are inclined to agree in
this opinion.
As representing the views Of large and infiu-
entail property holders, desire to call special
attention TO the communication and draft of
bill presented to us by Mr.. L. s. Phillips and
Endorsed by Mr.. Brainard III. Warner
These gentlemen. il will be seen, agree with
all the other evidence taken by your committee
and with the facts which were stated by the
Commissioners of the District in their report
TO the District committee of the House after
public hearing on the subject. in declaring that
all assessments made in the District for years
past have been viciously defective in bearing
with undue severity upon the poorer class of tax
payers and unduly favoring the rich They
hold that these effects inhere in the nature of
the assessment. which in attempting to arrive
at the true cash value of all property imposes a
task manifestly impossible, the attempt to carry
out which necessarily results in the heavier pro-
portionate assessment of the small homestead
than of the large and costly building As they
intimate. II Is manifestly impossible for assess
ors who can only walk or drive through the
public streets and look at the fronts Of build
ings to determine the value of those buildings
As these gentlemen state, 1.-The first and para
mount consideration in taxation should be
equality of burden which, as they say, is i'm
possible under system that really amounts to
nothing more than an extensive system of guess
lng-a system that in its nature inevitably
fayors the man of large means at the expense of
the man of small means, the large property to
the detriment Of the small property.
In view of these defects these representative
District property owners therefore recommend
that the assessment shall be levied only on the
annual rental Of each and every parcel of
land They point out that this would substi-
tute FOR system Of extensive guessing method
OF actual determination-the sums actually paid
for the rent of land. or of land and buildings,
anording certain basis by which the assessing
officers can determine not only the annual rental
value OF land that Is actually rented by one per-
son to another, but also the annual rental ca
pacity of land that is in use by the owner. or
that is held by its owner without use. or de-
voted by him to an inferior use than that to
which land Of similar situation il in other cases
being put.
The central idea Of these largo property
| owners whose interests are bound up with the
| growth and prospszity Of the District seems TO