The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1894-12-29
PORTLAND'S VALUATION.
City and State Assessors Discuss the
Law.
Correspondence as to the Taxa
ton of Public Buildings and Grounds
Chairman Farms worth Replies to State
Assessor Burleigh-City Solicitor Chap
man Discusses the Law.

hdA OloCuSeCS elhO A4N W.
Augusta Me-, Dec. 26 1894.
To the Editor of the PRESS:
l notice an article in your issue of yester-
day relating to the above named subject,
that is SO misleading, and does such gross
injustice to the Board of State Assessors,
that ask you to make the following cor
rection. AS the assessors of Portland re-
turned no City pr operty with valuation, in
conformity TO the blanks SEMI out by this
Board, the State Assessors wrote, asking
them to furnish a list of such property as
prior to said year certain classes of City
and Town property have been included in
valuations, and also for statistical lnfoI-
ma ton We have invariably required this.
Their reply was, that theyhad referred the
matter to their city solicitor, Mr.. Chapman,
who wrote the Board in reply to said letter
setting forth tile claim that such property
was not taxable, and giving reference 10
sustain his position, and closing said letter
saying 81 trust that the above will be
satisfactory answer to the requirements
in your letter d bove named to the Assessors
of Portland. In case difference should
still remain, the City of Portland respect
fully requests hearing before your honora-
BILE Board.' AS tlis Board decided to omit
all City and Town properties from the
State valuation there seemd to be no need
of troubling the Assessors of Portland,
wLo been before us at general hearing in
that city on December 20, 1887 to again
come before them. Thus the charge of
great valuation upon the City's properly,
is a myth and a delusion. That the City
of Portland is valued and assessed as light
r., tn ar faYahIn
as any City or Town in Maine, we think no
candid, intelligent, business man will deny.
il they will take the trouble to examine
the State Assessors books, which are open
to the inspection of all taxpayers of the
State. The valuation for the entire State
for the year 1894. is 1924, 1881, an in
crease of 3..5 per centum on valuation of
1880. The increase in valuation of City of
Portland for same time, is "a per centum.
This, of itself, would indicate that the City
OF Portland receives no injustice under
its present valuation
HALL C.lBUR LEIGH,
Chairman of Board of State Assessors.
The above letter was shown to the chair
man OF the POI tland Board of Assessors.
Mr., Arthur l.. Farnsworth. He gives for
QuDltCalIOu tue correspondence Will luo
state assessors, beginning with the following:
Augusta, April 9TH. 1884,
Assessors of Portland:
Gentlemen-We desire to have you fur
nfsh us, when you make your return of the
valuation of the city of Portland, with a
schedule of all property. real and personal,
Except schoDl house property owned by
the city of Portland with it's full fair cash
value we desire this information to assist
us in fixing the valuation of your city,
prior to he meeting of the next legislature.
HALL c. BURLEIGH.
OTIS HAYFORD,
GEORGE POTTLE,
Board of Assessors
To this the Portland assessors replied that
they did not consider such property legally
taxable. In reply the state assessors sent
the following letter:
Augusta, April 18th. 1894.
Boald of Assessors, Portland, Me-:
Gentlemen-Your favor of 18th inst, is at
hand, and contents carefully noted. But
before directly replying to the letter, we
wish TO call your attention all that is tax
able propefty, as per Revised Statutes,
Chapter 6, Sections 2, 3, and .. Also to
Section 6, as to exemptions. You will fail
exemptions therein named. We make it n
rule to include all property, other than
school pI operty, owned by cities and towns
in making our inventories OF the same. be-
lieving it equally as just and equitable to
include the building and grounds owned by
farms" and town houses of agricultural
towns of the state.
Now. as to the law we caa produce we
will respectfully refer yoR 10 Chapter 1903, of
laws of 1891, Sections 3. 9, ID and IL. (See
laws in our report Of 1881 You will not