The daily morning journal and courier., 1898-11-23

Taxes paid to the state of Connecticut by the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad company for itself and leased lines;
 1SS5-$222, 05S.65.
 1SS6-$266, 6O6.27.
 1SS7-$3S6, 499.31.
 1SSS-$3S9, ,S01 5S.
 1SS9-$450, ,13S. .O9.
 1S90-S492, ,400.0S. "3-
 1S91-$477, ,263. .OO. 'f'"
 1S92-$546, 505. .O6.
 1S9S-$536, ,SO3. .O4. r@
 1S94-$550, ,554.46.
 1S95-s586, 435.54.
 1S96-$6S3, ,47721.
 1S97-$72S, ,51331.
 It also ought to be remembered that Connecticut taxes not only the stock of the company at practically it's full val ue, but also taxes the entire indebted ness of the company, including it's floating debt, and refuses to allow any deduction for actual cash in it's treas ury or in banks which is available to pay off any of such indebtedness. The state of Massachusetts does not tax the bonds or indebtedness of a railroad company. Every other taxpaying com pany paying to the state or otherwise, is allowed to deduct it's indebtedness.
 It would not seem wise and in the interest of the state to so tax the stock of the railroad company as to ultimate ly depreciate it's value in the market, as thereby the state must necessarily be the loser by reducing the valuation of the property to be taxed. However, as l said before, this matter is peculiar ly within the discretion of the board and whatever decision your board may arrive at as to the proper valuation of the stock will be cheerfully accepted by this company
 B. As to the length of the company's lines in this state. The mileage of the main line as reported last year was 298.33 miles, It is returned this year at 252 miles, the difference being the deduction of the Valley division, which, as hereinafter shown, has become a branch line on account of the merger of the Shore Line last year. The mer- ger of the Shore line, Housatonic and Shepaug, Litchfield and Northern roads has created new conditions af fecting to some extent the question of the taxes hereafter to be paid on these lines. Hitherto the Shore Line, Hou- satonic and Shepaug companies have been taxed separately in proportion to their value as represented by their separate stocks and bonds. Since the merger of the Valley road it has been taxed as part of the main line be- cause it's original terminus at State street, Hartford, made it doubtful whether it could be treated for taxa tion under the statute as a branch line. The merger of the Shore Line, however, makes it clearly a branch line connecting at Saybrook with the trunk line. It is manifest that inas- much as the New Haven road has as sumed the bonded debt of all these companies and issued it's own stock for the full value thereof, as found by the statutory board of appraisers. ali such stock so issued, as we'll as the bonded indebtedness of those companies, must be taxed in full and such tax paid by the New Haven road. This would treat all these branches as parts of the main line but it is submitted that the board of equalization cannot tax these com- panies as parts of the main line of the road without doing enormous injustice Such action by this board would be absolutely illegal and in defiance of the plain provisions of the statute. Section 1921 of the general statutes provides as follows:
 'When only part of railroad lies in this state, the company owning such road shall pay per cent on such pro- portion of the above named valuation as the length Of it's road lying in this state bears to the entire length of said road. But in fixing the aforesaid val uation and lengths, neither the value nor length of any branch thereof in this state, which the board of equalization shall determine to be of less value per mile than one-fourth of the average value per mile of the trunk road, shall be included; but every such branch shall be estimated at it's true and just value by the board of equalization, and such railroad company shall pay to the treasurer of this state ] per cent Jn such value, at the time fixed iii the preceding section for the payment of other railroad taxes"
 I call attention of the board particu- Iarly to the words trunk road" and "branches" used in this statute Trunk road' or trunk line is defined as "the
 
 branch lines diverge." Historically the main line of the New Haven road orig inally extended from Woodlawn, N. T., to New Haven. By consolidation in 1872 this main line was made to ex- tend to Springfield Thereafter, in 1892, the New Haven road acquired and merged the New York, Providence and Boston railroad, a line running from New London to Providence. Last year this company merged with the Shore Line R. R. By the merger of the Shore Line railroad trunk line was created from New Haven to Providence so that for the purposes of taxation at the present time we are willing to agree that the trunk line of the New Haven road. as at present operated runs from Woodlawn to Springfield and from New Haven to Providence.
 There is no other part of the railroad property owned by this company that can properly be termed trunk road'' CT trunk line" The main business of +yop