The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1896-09-20


The most important question that
has come before the state board of
equalization for a great many years is
now to be decided in the matter Of the
assessed valuation of real estate in the
several counties. The G 10 b desires
and asks only that this matter shall
be passed upon in a spirit of absolute
fairness and with a desire to treat
equally all the parties in interest. We
have no wish, and the people of these
cities, we are sure, have none, to OBJ
tain any undue advantage for them
selves at the cost of other portions of
the state. They do wish and have a
right to expect that they shall be re-
lieved from a relative injustice, which
is none the less injustice because it
may have sprung from their own over
confidence in times of prosperity. The
fact, with which every man in the
state of Minnesota is probably ia
miliar, is that the boom times of ten
principally in the cities, and pushed
them up there out of all propor
ton to the price of village
and farm property. The assessed
valuation of property, especially in the
three cities of st. Paul, Minneapolis
and Duluth, followed the speculative
ratings that were placed upon it by
confident holders and big dealers in
real estate. There was no protest
against this on any side The country
had no objections to the great jump in
city valuations, because it was CORE
spondingly favored in the payment of
smaller share of the state tax. The
cities offered no objections because
their owners of real estate honestly
believed that their property would al
ways sell for the prices then placed
upon 1t, and they were not unwilling
to pay taxes accordingly. AS long as
that condition prevailed UNCHANGED
there was no reason for dissatisfaction
PUT the situation is a vastly altered
one today. Nobody from any part of
the state will pretend for one moment
that the actual selling price Of farm
lands, or the price at which they are
oHereo In the market, has suf-
rered any such decline as the price of
city real estate. 1t is realized now that
the old boom valuations were specr-
latlVe. They have disappeared. A
reassessment Of property values made
with the utmost fairness possible and
based upon the Judgment of our best
informed and most honorable men has
cut out the speculative element and
placed realty values upon the true
commercial basis of TODAY. The reduo-
ions that have been made in the prin-
clpal cities of the state do not represent
desire to escape taxation. but for
the most part, if not entirely, they ex
press in figures the excess of the fall
In city real estate over the fall ,p
there has been any, in the worth Of
agricultural property and holdings in
the smaller towns of the state.
This consideration ought to weigh for
all it is worth with the board of eouau-
cation. No part of the community
NNJ Va SoUiAlIy, SHOulQ De per-
m1tted to evade any just burden or
to shove any part of it upon the Shout
ders Of another. Neither should anv
be made to suffer doubly for It's own
mfsfortunes If an individual maid
taxes three years ago on 81 ,OOO, 900
worth of property which he then ac
tually owned and has since lost
through the financial reverses of the
times, no assessor would think of pre-
senting to him the same tax bill. and
no government would or could collect
1t. The equity is exactly the same
where the community has suffered a
similar reverse by collapse in the
prices Of its realty.
There are two considerations which
we wish to urge most earnestly upon
the board of equalization The first is
that, no matter what they may see fit
to do with the tax lists of other coun-
ties. they shall permit those Of Ram
sey, Hennepin and st. Louis to stand as
fixed by the local assessors. Even If
they should believe that some ref1uc-
ton should be made in other cases. to
make taxation perfectly equal and
fair, that ought to be done and the
necessary increase in the state tax rate
authorized, rather than to raise the
city valuations above the figures now
agreed upon. For there is another mat