Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1894-11-01
MINERAL POINT TRIBUNE.
THURSDAY, NOV. /, 1894.
Further On Assessment curios.
MIrrLIx, Wis, Oct. cath, 1884


Editors Of tribune
Dear sirs: Ny attention was today called
10 some statements relative to the assessment
of Iowa county in your issue Of Oct 18th, In
which you arc led to say that no money IL as
sessed IN the town Of Miiiiin. am ratished
that this Is not an intentional misstatement
and for that reason I write sou to set you
right In the assessment roll there appears to
be no column for "money etc" so that item
appears in the column beaded "al other
property'' and amounts III the town to the
gross sum OF forty nine thousand dollars, or
very nearly one third Of the whole personal as
sessment Of the town. The town Of Miiiiln
has, for many years, been trying to have The
mopeyed men lay their just share Of taxes,
according 10 their wealth. on the same basis as
any other kind Of property, and while the as
sessment roll Tor 1894 may not be perfect in
that respect, / believe it will bear favorable
comparison with that Of any other town In
the county. Believing that when your atten.
ton is called to the unintcutional Injustice
done 10 the town Of Mifiiin you will AZ once
make amends remain.
Very truly your,
T. PATEFIgLD,
Town Clerk.
MiiIlin Il not the only town in
which the rRIBUNEs mention Of the
curiosties of assessment, made two
weeks apo, has been read with inter
est. Since that time other peculiari-
ties have been called TO our atten-
ton. For instance, IN Arena, Miner
al Point city and Waldwick only, is
any bank stock assessed, while 1t II
known that in other towns there are
banks and of course bank capital. 1t
is presumed that IN Dodgeville for
instance, the bank capital Is includ-
ed under the head Of moneys ac-
counts, etc. and accounts for n con-
siderable part of the large sum
found under that head for that city.
If the same course were followed in
Mineral Point, and the S37 G67 OF bank
stock added TO the $4,000 Of money
accounts, etc., an aggregate Of S66,96t
would appear under that head, and
the disparity between the two towns
on this class Of property show greatly
less than at a glance it seems. The
popularity Of the unusually high as
sessment in Dodgeville this year is
explained by the fact that that city,
desiring to issue bonds for the con-
struction of water works, found she
could not do SO without large in-
crease OF assessment, as the state
constitution prohibits any city in
curing debts III excess Of 595 Of the
assessed value Of its property. Tn
der the assessments prior TO this
year, the amount Of bonds proposed
to be issued for water works would,
in addition to other debts, exceed the
90 limit. To overcome this Difficult
ty an increase of assessment was nec-
essary. The county board, when it
comes to equalize, will Of course look
into this, and one question TO be de-
cided is, shall all other towns be
raised to the plane Of Dodgeville's ne
cessity, or Dodgeville lowered to the
common standard
Comparing the assessment of 1884
with that Of '93, 1t Is seen that the
marked increased in Dodgeville Is
mainly on personal property, In 1898
her total personal property assess
iGent was $60G09 M against S236,670
in ls9i--an increase Of nearly 300e6;
while the increased on real estate in the
same city is from S2l0,296 in 1893 10
$25S9oS, about 239o The average in
crease i'm assessment OF all property
Of the city being about S3e6.
There is an increase in the assess
ment Of al property or the county,
exclusive Of that Of Dodgeville city,
from S6,50s,37s in 1893 to S6,55l ,55G in
1884, or only about 06eeo, In Mineral
PORT city the assessment of 1894 ON
all property II $507,Ho9, a. against
$47Tl76 in 1893, an increase Of $ao263,
or a little over & per cent This, the
Mineral Point assessor regards with
satisfaction, showing that A. eompar-
cd with assessors generally he has
done Well, for no one will urge that
in actual value there mas been a
greater increase IN Mineral Point
during thepast year than the average
increase throughout tile county. IT
the county board concludes to raise
the general assessment mp 70 the
standard Of podgeville, the raise on
Mineral Point city must 30 SIX per
cent. less than the average raise. III
other towns Of the county agree 70
this there viii he no kick from MINI
eral Point.
Great Rally at Dodgeville.