Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1894-03-10
MATTHEW TRIMBLE,
Assessor, District of Columbia


which for the sake of brevity and accuracy
l will read as part of my remarks:
When the act of June IL, 1875. was pass
| ed 1t was thought fair and just to make
| the provision, which at present exists re-
| Quiring the government TO pay fifty cents
on the dollar on all appropriations made for
the support of the District. 1t was suppos-
| ed then that this was fair division, be-
cause it was estimated that the value Of
| real estate held by the United States, the
| District of Columbia, and exempted owners
| in the District of Columbia was about equal
| to that held by other parties. Since then il
| is believed that the value of property held
by the federal government has been greatly
| increased, and is in excess Of that held 10y
individuals In the District.
The only valuation of property which /
have been able to discover since the pass
age of the act above referred TO was in 1850
and under that valuation United States
property WIS put at $S}, 4l6 III; District of
Columbia property was assessed at sl,25O,-
| 176, and property exempted by United States
| sta tute, S5,3oO,J!S Thus the total exempted
property amounted to S90051,4 T5. and the
value of taxable property 81 $50 356. show
! ing an excess in exempted property OF 81 =
OF, 10. AS / understand, there has been no
| official appraisement of exempted property
| in the District since.
| Now, of recent date there has been taken
| from the tax list of property in the District
| property known as the Malthy building the
Butler building. that for the observatory,
! for the new post office building. for the Con-
| gressional Library building Geological Park
and Rock Creek Park, running up into the
millions. and / believe there can be no ques-
| ton about the fact that the non-taNable
| property owned today by the United States
government is largely in excess OF the tax
able property owned by the citizens OF his
| District. 1t must be borne in mind that he
| sides the real estate thus exempted from all
| taxation there is an immense amount Of
! personal property owned by the govern
| ment. which Is also absolutely exempted
Another practice has grown up which is
! to my mind absolutely indefensible but IL
should be taken into account always in maxi
ing calculations as TO the property taxed or
exempted in this District. | refe- to The
acts of Congress releasing property owners
| from taxes due upon their property. Take
| for instance. the case OF the Carlisle Pattar.
| son property. where you find, by volume ~
| page 30, statutes of the United States. go :
| 61s6I of taxes due were RENTED by act OF
| Congress. The Chase property is another
| instance. found in volume 90 page 4O5
| United States Statutes at Large whore
1926. 20 of overdue taxes were RENTED
and these are but samples of what has been
done in this line
| Deserved Lecture.
Now, Mr.. Chairman, in view Of the i'm
mense preponderance of property owned
| by the government in this District and in
view of the fact that the government has
taken from the tax list this great bulk of
property and has RENTED taxes due upon
property that is upon the tax list. will
gentlemen continue to stand here and seri-
ously contend that the government of the
| United States should be exempt from bear
| ing its due proportion Of the burden neces-
sary for the maintenance OF this city and
| this District? In conclusion / wish to say
| simply this. have listened carefully to