The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1896-08-18
SHALL THERE BE A
NEW ASSESSMENT
II Is an All.lmportant Question Now il
Municipal Circles.
IT COMES UP TOMORROW NIGHT
Tax Committee Of Select Council Will
Pass Upon the Matter and Make n
Recommendation Thursday Night.
What the New Assessment Means to
the City and Why 1t Is Considered
Necessary Mt This Time.

Whether or not n new city assess
ment shall be made next year depends
in a great degree on the action of the
tax committee of select council. which
meets tomorrow night to pass upon the
resolution advising the board OF re-
vision and appeals to order such an
assessment.
The board Is in favor of making the
assessment and may do so even in case
councils should advise otherwise. They
would prefer however, to have council
sanction the move and at their instance
the resolution in question was laid be-
fore councils in order to test their senti-
ments. The resolution reads as fol-
lows:
Whereas, The necessity of a new city
assessment for 1897 is under discussion.
and
Wheras, The board of revision and ap-
peals might desire some expression of the
sense of council on the matter. be 1t
Reolved, That the board of revision and
appeals be advised to order a new city as
sessment in 1897, for the purpose of equal
izing assessments and placing lands ana
improvements on the same basis.
The resolution was introduced in
common council by Mr. Regan, of the
Sixth. who is member of the board of
revision and appeals: 1t passed that
body and is now in the hands of the
tax committee of select council, which
committee will take the matter into
consideration tomorrow night and
make some recommendation regarding
1t at next Thursday nights meeting.
IT is IMPORTANT.
This proposed new assessment
means much to the city of Scranton.
If it is not made the city will again eX-
perience the difficulty encountered last
spring. when the estimates committee
had the hardest kind of time finding
money for mere necessities and had to
let everything that had the semblance
of luxury go by the board. The cause
of this was that the city assessors
failed to raise sufficient revenue. Pro-
perties of certain descriptions were not
assessed at the value they should have
been and land was generally assessed
too low. By dint of hard scraping, as
mentioned before. the estimates COM
mittee managed to supply the wants
of the different departments.
Next year with it's increased eXpendi-
lures it may be utterly impossible even
with the greatest economy to make
ends meet, with the present valuation
as the basis of assessment. To obviate
this impending difficulty and for the
even more pressing purpose of giving
the tax payers a more equitable as
sessment the board of revision and ap-
peals conceived the idea OF making a
new general assessment next year in
stead of waiting for the regular bien-
NAL assessment year. which is 1899.
The present valuation of this city is
q little over S20,OO0.000. Thirteen and
six-tenths mills is the highest levy the
law allows and the extreme rate is now
levied. The only way to raise the much
needed additionalrevenuei Is to increase
the valuation. To do this the board
proposes to raise the assessments
which are now flagrantly low and to
place land and improvements on the
same basis. The law directs that pro-
perty shall be assessed at the price 1t
would bring at forced sale. In this
city it has been for years and still Is
the custom to assess land at two-thirds
of its value and improvements at one
half. 1t is the intention Of the board
to do away with the old system by rat
ing land and improvements on the
same basis of valuation. The rate will
be determined by the result of the as