The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1899-09-16
AFTER TROLLEY CARS
STATE BOARD OF EQUALIZATION
is CHASING THEIR ELUSIVE
TAXABLE VALUATION
Yesterday Was Marked by General
Lifting of Valuations All Along
the Line-HousehoId Goods ia
Ramsey County Lifted 20 Per-
Cent, and in eHennepin 10 Per
Cent.

The state board of equalization yester-
day passed a resolution calling upon the
county auditors of Ramsey, Hennepin and
st. Louis counties for detailed state
ment as to the assessment levied upon
the property of the electric railway as
to number of cars, etc. Senator Nc
MILAN secured the desired informant ton
from the auditor of his county, but for
some reason or other the verbal request
made several days ago by the state audi
tor has not met with favorable response
from this county and the letter directed
to the St. Louis county official has been
unanswered.
The board will reach the item of fran
chises and public privileges early next
week, but will respect the governors re-
quest that the subject be laid over I'M
til his return the air is suggestive OF
special investigation of the assessment
levied upon the jobbers, department
stores and electric railways OF st. Paul.
Minneapolis and Duluth. Merchandise
stock will be the first important item TO
be taken up next week, and under that
head the promised investigation of the
returns made by the Twin City jobbers
will likely materialize. The board ad-
journed yesterday afternoon until this
morning.
There was a raise yesterday of from
10 to IS per cent in the returns made
upon household goods, and there was a
constant firing all day yesterday, the
controversy of the day before being a
mere skirmish compared with yesterdays
session.
AS there was no basis for household
furniture except the returns of the year
before, and nearly every member of the
board thought his assessment too low,
it required the entire day to dispose of
the one item. Some got what they
wanted others did not. The total re-
turns made by all the counties was SO, 1885,
$3.50, as against 1862, 454 a year ago. The
advances made just about placed the as
sessment on the same basis. as last years
Every year the board meets 1t raises GER
tain articles, and the t.year the as
SCISSORS make returns at the figure es-
tablished before the raise, and the board
again boosts the figures a few notches
This leaves the figure from year to year
practically the same. -
Ramsey county was. given raise of
20 per cent on returns made, showing a
total valuation of $1,S79,76 Hennepin
county was pushed up 10 per cent, and
- there it is said that $2,22S,0 900 repre-
sents the household goods owned prin-
cipally in Minneapolis s':.
A careful preliminary examination of
the rolls showed that there was very lit
tie equality in the assessments of any Of
the counties. Some were returned on" a.
per capita basis Of SIS and others just
double that. Several claimed that the
country paid a higher tax than the city,
where a better class of furniture was
owned. Mr.. Lawrence wanted the figures
of Wabasha county left as returned, and
asserted that his county paid higher tax
on this item. than any of the surrounding
counties Mr.. Glayin did not think a
county should be assessed on a basis Of
the neighboring county, but upon the
goods owned in the county. The discus
sion resulted in Wabashaa county get
ting raise of 2Qaper@ceft. The board
after considering each county separately,
adjourned.
1t is very probable that the board will
in its report recommend that q new
method of levying the annual assessment
be established in this state. At present
all the counties with the exception Of
Ramsey and Hennepin, that are operating
very town. In the case of the large
cities the work is all done under the
supervision of one man. It is thought by
the board that if the work in every corn-
ty was overlooked by one man much
more satisfactory results would be OBJ
tanned.