The San Francisco call., 1896-07-03
WILL MAKE HIGH
ASSESSMENTS,
Trouble Between the Local
Banks and the AS
SCISSOR.
SOME INJUNCTION SUITS.
Courts Asked to Prevent the
Collection of Taxes
Due.
SWORN STATEMENTS REJECTED
The Valuations Were Taken From
the Reports to the Bank
Comm iSSion.
SWORN STATEMENTS REJECTED

There will be trouble and law and in
junction suits and plenty of work for
lawyers and the courts before the assess
ment of the banks has been settled and
the taxes paid. Two suits to enjoin the
Assessor from collecting the personal
property tax from the Bank of British
Column bia and the Crocker- Wool olworth
Bank have been commenced and more
will follow.
The suit of the Bank of British
Columbia was filed yesterday. In the
complaint it is stated that the assessment
levied by the Assessor is for 81, ,155, $50,
when, as matter of fact, it should be but
S459,0 9,063 and then it goes on to give par
ticulars. 1t has furniture valued at $1,000 :;
solvent credits not secured, worth S1,5S7,-
355: money to the amount of $346, 1853 and
S250,0O0 belonging to its agencies outside
of San Francisco. The bank owes to its
depositors $1,475,7 760 and this, it says.
should not be taxed. The $3.50, ,000 the
hank claims, should not be taxed either
and the value OF the solvent credits should
be so scaled down by offsets as to reduce
the total assessment to $459, ,063. The
Assessor has taken the cash. the agency
money and the solvent credits, and with
some offsets has made the total the
amount of his assessment.
The question which has arisen concerns
just what portions of the personal prop
erty of the bank is taxable. Ghe bank
claims that money due from other banks
outside of the State is not taxable here,
for it is already taxed in the States where
it is held. Again, they claim that loans
on bonds are not taxable because the Sc
curity for the bonds, the property upon
which the bonds are issued, has already
been assessed, and to assess the loan as
well would be to assess the property twice.
In answer TO this contention the As
SCISSOR claims that bonds are solvent
credits in the taxable sense of the word
Loans upon them stand in the same rela-
tion to the personal property tax as the
mortgage does to the real property tax.
In the one the mortgage is deducted
from the value of the real estate and the
tax is divided between the owner of the
property and the owner of the mortgage
In the other case the borrower will make
his note as we'll as put up his bonds as col
lateral, the loan will be deducted from the
value of the bonds and the tax must be
divided between the bond-owner and he
who holds the bonds as security.
Assessor Siebe has taken for the basis of
his assessments on the banks the state
ments turned in to the Bank Commits
sioners, and not the sworn statement
made bv them to him. Each bank has
rendered an account of its property, but
these have not been followed to any extent,
and so the banks are up in arms.
It had been announced that the taxes of
the City would be raised about $50, 600, 600
and of this amount $50, 0O0 600 should be
secured from the banks and similar insti.
tutions. To this end the statement of the
banks to the Assessor were rejected as be-
ing too low and their reports to the Bank
Commissioners were taken instead.
AS soon as notified of the Assessors in
tention the banks prepared for a contest,
and the result of the preparations is shown
in the suits just filed. There will be more
suits from the other banks and the whole
matter OF bank assessments will be brought
| into court.
In the Assessors office the case is ex-
planned as difference of opinion between
the Assessor and the banks as to what as
sets are liable for taxation and what are
exempt. This, the Assessor says, he wants
| the court to determine, and hence his
course of assessment according to his own
| ideas.