The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1898-09-29
FIGURES SHOW UP.
Absurdities in the System of Making
Assessments In Kansas.

The forthcoming report Of Labor Com
missioner Lee johnson will contain one
class of statistics which has never before
been gathered in Kansas. 1t is with
regard to the agreed basis Of assessment
in the different counties. Reports were
received from IS counties, and the result
shows a diversity that is surprising in the
In Barton county. one of the great. wheat
producing counties of the state, wheat IS
assessed at 10 cents per bushel- In sum
ner county, which is the only one that
during isS If # i asseesed at at 70 cents In
Cowley county, adjoining Sumner, it is 50,
is only 20. The majority of the counties
run from 20 to 40 cents.
The variation on corn runs from cents
in Barton county to 20 cents in Mcpherson
and Lincoln. The average is about
cents. In Washington county so bushels
of corn for feeding 200 bushels of oats
and so bushels of wheat, and all other
grains for seeding purposes, are exempt.
bicycles are from IS to s25 in most coun-
ties, but in Wyandotte are placed at $50.
Osborne county placed the assessment
at 40 per cent of actual value and then
specified that the constitutional exemp-
tion should be put at $50
The report has been analysed by Prof
lege, who is recognized as tax expert.
In regard to the difference in land taxa
1.-The worst feature of tax administration
appears when individual properties and
examined. Here is Butler county, for
example. with one farm assessed at nearly
third its value, and Ellsworth county,
where farms are assessed all the way from
One-seventh to seven times their true
value and in Wabaunsee county from one
ninth to six times their value. 1t is not
different in the case of town property.
There is Sedgwick county, with such prop
critics assessed from one-twelfth to seven
and s1x-tenths times their value; in shaw
times their value, etc.
rough measure of justice and equity of
treatment of small and large holders of
property by the state should examine the
division made in this report of all hold s9!d-
group B, those selling from $3.50 to $500;
group e, from $500 to 81 900; group D, $1,000
to g, 800; group e, 81, 500 to 5000; group F,
5000 to $4,000; and group G., over $4,000
I'VE find in every county examined that
both lands and lots are assessed far higher
and G. In Ellsworth county and Butler
county there are properties IN group A
assessed from three to four times their
value, while those assessed at less than
one-hah their value are in the higher
groups. There are even properties in this
lower class in many counties that are as
seSsed at at, over elgant times t9elr selilng
est per cent of their true value are always
the lowest IN value and the properties as
value are always those of larger values,
with the single eXSleept592In qf Atchison:
grouping tOgether all the properties in
all the counties, it appears that the aver
age assessment of all farm property in
group A is over 107 per cent of it's true
value; in group B. so per cent; in group G,
Il per cent; in group D, nearly 80 per cent;
in group e, nearly % per cent; in group F,
1874 per cent, and only 1873 per cent in
decline. They were 4.6 per cent in group
A, per cent in group B, 1.3 per cent in
group c. and 8. =, 6 and s. of l per cent
respectively in the four highest classes.
That is. If fifty men owned properties
worth $500 each, or $4,000 in al, they would
be assessed for s1O,74O and pay $3.50 taxes
on an income, aside from the earnings of
labor, of perhaps $500. If one man. how
ever, owned a $4,000 farm, he would only
be assessed in Kansas 81, $50, and out of an
income of say $500 would pay but $50 taxes
instead of over nine times that amount in
the former case Surely this is a greater
discrimination and social wrong. perpe-
trated by state and local governments
than is charge against the Standard Oil
or any of our other trusts and railroad
corporations.