Middletown transcript., 1893-02-25

the hours from 10 to II in the morning
and from 2 to in the afternoon
Usually it is better to do business in
the daytime and not at. night, but this
| is not an ordinary matter of business.
If the Tax Receiver was simply to re-
ceive tax money upon real estate or
polls, no one would think of an evening
sitting. But the Tax Receiver does
more than merely collect the public
money. He also determines the right
of man to vote when he gives him
receipt for that money. Five hours
day is not time enough to collect the
county taxes for the city of Whining
ton. There are 5000 bona ide per-
SONS here who are assessed to pay
! tax, One-third of that number are as
sessed for real estate, and the rest for
a poll tax only. Experience has taught
that the Tax Receivers Office, as con-
Quoted at present, can issue about
twenty receipts an hour, or at the rate
of 100 per day of five hours. To issue
18, 1000 receipts would take $50 such
days, provided one hundred men ap-
peared daily to pay their tax.
The city tax Office of Wilmington af-
fords a good illustration of what is
needed to collect taxes for Wilmington
Hundred. The city office constantly
engages four men, for seven hours every
day in the year, excepting Sundays and
other holidays. The city tax system
allows a per centum rebate for taxes
paid in July and August, and thus
gives the same inducement for prompt
payment of taxes on real estate that is
extended by the county system. In
fact, the present county system in that
particular, was modelled after the city
system. In the city system very little
poll tax is collected, for the reS son hat
to pay a city poll tax carries with it
only the right to vote at a school elec-
tion. AS few men care to exercise this
right, few non-property owners pay this
tax. Hence it is obvious that the city
tax office deals almost exclusively with
the 5000 (more or less persons to whom
real estate is assessed in this city. And
yet the office employs four men daily,
excepting Sundays and holidays. for
the transaction of their business. To
be sure, the city Tax Receivers also
make the city assessment, but as fact
this work is usually done by persons
hired by the two Tax Receivers, in ad
dition to their respective office clerks.
Hence it may truthfully be said that
in our own city tax system four men
devote 300 days of seven hours each
(from 9 to 12 and fro l to s. to collect
taxes from 5000 persons, owning prob
ably $4,000 properties
What is the County Tax Receiver
naw expected to do? To collect real
estate tax from these 5000 persons; to
collect poll tax from fully $4,000 male
residents of this city, and to collect all
the county taxes, both for real estate
and for polls, from all the assessed per-
sons (about 10000 more) in the rest of
New Castle County. He does this
with one clerk, called deputy, and
sometimes with two or three. OF course
he does not collect as much money
from all the the taxables in New Castle
County rs lhe city tax collectors get |
from the 6.O00 real estate owners in
Wilmington, for the reason that the
city tax rate is usually three times as |
much as the county rate; but bear in |
mind that be is required to deal with
five times As many persons as the city |
tax Office is, and he is re-
quired 10 travel over the county to
do his work, while the city
Tax Receivers sit at one place. Again
the latter officers constantly employ
two seals and have two sets of books,
for there are two municipal tax dis
tricts in this city, while the County |
Tax Receiver uses but one seal and b is
but one set of books. Bear in mind
also that the time required to issue a
AK receipt is not determined by the
amount on the face of the bill, but by
ha nnnohar nf itamo On If Nou, fbara |
are as many items of real estate on the
County Receivers book for this city a s
mere are upon the city Receivers
books; and in addition to these, the
county Receiver must attend, in this
,ity alone, to upwards Of $4,000 poll
tens, which, while they may be on the
lily Receivers books, are never con-
idered and are rarely, if ever, collected
~ The latter On the ol her hand these
TENS (poll taxes) are not only expected
o be collected by the County Tax Re-
'eiver, but the men who owe these
axes insist upon paying them. They
~ 'NU W wv oO3 VI SOuLoC1 OCOduOO lHCJ |
vole upon the receipts they obtain for
he payment.
Is it not conclusive, from the fore
,oing statements that the county tax
ystem is inadequate? That it does
lot provide for the collection of the
axes properly? And that instead of
esstning the opportunities for men to
Day taxes, as is now proposed, those OPP
ought to be increased? In
his :ity at least two-thirds of the men
Who are assessed for poll tax only are
orking men. They go to work as a
ule at 7 in the morning, carrying
heir lunch along and returning after
''cluck in the evening. How can such
man pay his tax without losing half
ay's wage? He cannot send his wife
o pay it, for the Tax Receiver refuses
0 take poll taxes from any one but the