St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1893-07-03
A sINGLE-rax ASSESSOR,

The American Land and little Regis
ter of this city makes editorial comment
on conversation with an assessor
whom it unnecessarily locates mot
more than thousand miles from st.
Paul." whose attention was called to
the fact that he had listed for taxation
the mansion OF very wealthy man az
concededly quarter of its actual value,
while he had listed the humble home OF
widow at several hundred dollars
more than she would or could sell it for
The assessor went into Justification of
this by noting the great advantage it
was to the city to have men of wealth
come and put up fine residences and
great business blocks, and concluding:
why, we can't tax man who invests
million dollars in this city proportion
ately as large as we tax man vino in
vests a thousand dollars. If we did, we
would not have any of those splendid
business structures youSsee all over the
CITY,"
1t is not our purpose this morning to
deScant on the GOODNESS with which this
assessor violates not only his oath of
OliiOCs OuS with HlllCll llC ONOllluGS IlG
express proviSion>of the constitution
which requires that ''all property on
which taxes are to=be levied shall have
a cash valuation" When it comes to
the taxation of property, and especially
that of the wealthier people, ample ex-
perience has ia ught US that all assess
orS are extremely tender of the sensi-
tive feelings of their patrons IN the
matter OF taxes, and endeavor to make
the burdens Of the state as easy to be
borne by them as possible. No assessor
considers for moment that he has
sworn to obey the law, and that that de-
mandS him to list all property, regard
less of its ownership, at its cash value,
and that he subjects himself to indict-
ment for each and every violation of his
oath. The interests that are powerful
aud decisive in selecting him expect
him to reserve all such scruptes until
he comes to assess the property of the
people who "invest only thousand
dollars"
Our purpose now is to call the atten-
ton of this assessor, and that of all
others of his fellow officers who pursue
the same policy of valuations. to the
strong support they are giving to those
wild-eyed reformerS known as the
sin gle takers, whose claim is that in
dustry and thrift and enterprise shown
in the construction of improvements Oh
real estate should not be punished for
the benefit they confer on the state in
making them, by increased taxes on the
improvements, but that all taxation
should be levied on the naked land, ex-
empting the improvements. This S
SCISSOR, of course, being a good Repub--
lican, and holding i'll supreme contempt
all schemes of taxation not orthodox in
his party, does not go the length of
the single takers, but he must
see that he takes long step
and dangerous one in their
direction when he admits that men
should be encouraged to build by de-
creasing the quota their buildings bear
of the general burden. He limits,
what they claim, that the tax OH the i'm
proyements discOurages their making
but he does not admit, what they claim,
| that the man who improves to the eX-
lSHl VI HIS lncdllS, llOMGN6E SilldIl, DeUG-
| fits the city in just exactly the same
| proportion that does the man who in
! vests the mi lion. In fact, it is the in
vestments of the men who put in only
| the tho uSands that render it possible
for the other man with a million to in
vest.
1t might justly be claimed that the
small investor is the more valuable one,
because he builds in response to a pres
ent demand, while the large investor,
as some of them have experienced,
builds for speculative returns which
may fail to materiallze. But that is
| foreign to our present purpose, which
was to show this assessor that he, as a
Republican, was giving aid and comfort
to the enemy, the single takers, who
are just now cooperating with the
Democrats by partial admission of
the soundneSs of their views.