The Forrest City times., 1898-09-30
A Modern Law Needed.

by a change in our assessment
laws.
The member of the Arkansas
legislature who has head on him,
equal to the emergency, will per-
petuate his name upon the pages
Of history:
"The Board of Equalization of
Pulaski county, before adjourn
ment, in the public interest, calls
attention to the many imperfec-
lions in the law which seems inten-
tionally or otherwise to have been
framed with an eye to allowing as
many loop-holes and escapes for
those to escape who are the fortu-
nate owners of that class of prop
erty which is best and most desir-
able, and which makes its posses
sion moro independent than those
holding other kinds of property
which cannot escape and thus
places the burdens almost entirely
upon real estate and personal prop.
erty, which can be easily seen and
recognized. We have made an eff
fort to place upon the books at
least part of the credits appear
ing of record, but in the present
state Of the law our work is neces-
sarily very imperfect. Without
particularlzing further we call at
lentlon TO the fact that q large
maj ority Of the mortgages of rec
ord are in the names Of agents, or
owned by parties who on one plea
or another claim residence else
where. The aa essor nor the board,
under the law as it exists, has any
power to ascertain TO whom they
belong or whether the owners are
residents or non-residents, and
there is an entire absence IN the
law Of any process whereby such
valuable holdings can be assessed
intelligently as justice aud right
require, although, in the opinion
of the board, they comprehend in
amount more than the entire per-
sonal assessments of the county.
These imperfections cannot be
overcome except by a complete re-
vision of the law, with sincere
desire on the part of the revisors
10 make it serve its purposes in
distributing equitably the burden
of taxation" So
The above report isfin line with
the final report made last year by
the board, then consisting Of
Messrs. G. S. Collins, G. G.. Cribs
and w. N. Slack, when the assess.
ment on realty was considered as
well as that on personal, to which
they confined their action this
year. This report, now published
Tor the first time, is as follows:
eve find from inspection Of the
real estate assessments that for
many years the same has been as
sessed at what we consider an In
correct standard and contrary to
the provisions of the law. More
over it is a fact generally that chief
and non-income-ylelding property
away from business centers is as
sessed at higher standard than
business and income-yielding prop
erty. This places an unjust share
OF public burdens upon a character
of property, and citizens least able
to bear the same. We are informed
that these standards were adopted
years ago because there was no
State Board Of Equalization. Since
then 1t has been physical impos-
slbility for the assessor of this
county to do anything more than
TO adopt as rule the assessments
as they have been handed down to
him. As 10 real estate, in order
to overcome marked inequalities
we recommend that the legislature
be asked TO establish State Board
OF Equalization and to enact a
law allowing the assessor
OF this county sufficient time and
means to make a new and complete
assessment with deliberation and
care.
Regarding personal assessments
IN our opinion the statutes could
not very we'll serve the purpose
much better than they do, of as.
sistlng owners of personal prop
crty in eyading taxes. 1t Is u
known fact that IN any community
owners of personal property and
credits are the capitalists, but we
bud that the assessments of per-
sonals are of such character as |
TO convince anyone that not more
than one-tenth part of such prop
erty is taxed at all. Much of it is |
hid away and there is DO adequate
machinery provided TO compel the
owner TO disclose 1t as real estate
owners cannot avoid doing. It'll
has been stated that the cash de.
posts alone in the banks of Little