The San Francisco call., 1899-07-16

| w = and Attorneys f. S. Pillsbury and
Thomas B. Bishop and half
! dozen other representatives of more dol
| lars than could be stuffed into the gas
! companys great safe, went before the
! Board of Equalization yesterday morning
| to protest against the values that Asses
! sor Dodge has placed upon their mo-
/ nopoly.
| The combined gas companies were there
! to ask in few words for a reduction of
! cool three millions and a half in their as
| sessments and they had the best legal
! talent in the city with them to make any
| argument that might be needed. The
| financial woes of the Pacific Gas Improve
ment Company were heard first and they
were ably set forth by Mr.. Miller. Mr..
Miller stated that the franchise under
which his company is permitted to do
business was this year assessed at 81, 40
450. a figure which he considered pre-
posterous and for which he could find no
excuse He requested a reduction of an
even million.
THE Pacific Gas Improvement Com
pany has no exclusive franchise de-
clared Mr.. Miller. Il do not see why AS
SCISSOR Dodge sees fit to tax it at all.
There are franchises now in operation in
this city which he has not touched at all
that of the Equitable Gas Company, for
instance. Why should not its franchise
be taxed as well as ours?"
That's just the beauty of this system
of franchise taxation, said Assessor
Dodge ION the 4th of March the Equit-
able Company had only sixty meters set
and was not making money. Consequently
it was not taxed"
Mr. Pillsbury took up the argument at
this point and it progressed with interest
for some minutes. why do you tax us
at an?" he demanded. Our franchise is
not exclusive Any one may get fran
chise and lay gas pipe and charge the
/ same prices we do.
! Mr. Dodge here referred to the taxation
of franchises in the State of New York.
Yes" replied Mr.. Pillsbury, fran
chises are taxable in the State of New
! York and properly So for the laws OK
/ New York make franchises perpetual and
exclusive, and they, of consequence,
! have a certain tangible value, but the
laws of California are vastly different.
/ Here any one may get a franchise. 1t is
not even necessary to incorporate Any
one NAV dig up streets and lay pipe and
| make gas and sell 1t for the same price
that we do. Nor are franchises perpetual
under the laws of this State. They are
| limited TO a term of years and are not
! exclusive and have no tangible, hXed
value upon which to base an assessment
! for taxation. Another thing about the Cal
! ifornia franchise: We could sell ours to-
day to a company and you as Assessor
! could not assess or tax 1t.
Mr. Miller relieved Mr. Pillsbury for
| few moments with the statement that by
the reduction of the gas rate to 81 so in
tereSt on the money invested had dropped
from to per cent. and that If the as
sessment were nearly doubled this year
| even that figure might be reduced. Mr.
Miller attempted to show that Dodge had
Disseminated against his company, and
by way of comparison referred to the
newspapers, which he said were under
assessed He also declared that Mayor
Phelan had escaped taxation altogether
Dodge replied that the assessment of
each of the newspapers had been raised
over last years figures and that Mr. Phe-
Ian was assessed on all his taxable hold
ings ,
Crockett. who opened the case for the
other branch of the combination. Mr.
Crockett was accompanied by his attor-
pared to show why the assessment of
Sc 170,612 should be cut down to A 1852 900,
| including .$2,Ooo,OOo which he was willing
to allow for his franchise. Mr.. Crockett
met with but one difficulty in his eXposi-
ton. 1t was in making his present allie
cations of failing interest and deprecia-
ton of values jbe with the claims he set
up when a few months ago the gas rates
were being established. He objected
strongly to the valuation put upon the
| land covered by the company's immense
plant and the numerous stations. North
Beach block No. 257, assessed by Dodge
at $105 900, ne wanted reduced to $4,000
and he made the same demand for several
other blocks in the same district The
company's gas mains and pipe lines
when the gas rate was being fixed. were
assessed at half that amount, but he de-
sired a reduction to $250000. Gas meters
valued by the Assessor at S115, 900 he want
ed cut to $57 500. Dynamos and electrical
apparatus listed at 900 he said were
worth only $4,000, and he brought J. f.
Green. his engineer. to prove it. Under
ground construction and conduits billed
at $3.50 900 he declared were worthy of an
assessment of only $500 600.
The rest of Mr.. Crocketts ideas of value
had warped to about the same degree
since March last and it was an evident
relief when he finished and asked only