The San Francisco call., 1899-09-16
DODGE MAKES A PLEA
FOR MORE CITY CASH
NEEDS MORE DEPUTIES TO DO
WORK REQUIRED.
provements Should Be Revised
Throughout the City.

Assessor Washington Dodge ha5 offered
up to the Board of Supervisors another
plea for more stuff" He handed it into
the Clerks office yesterday disguised as a
supplement to his regular report. In it
Assessor Dodge dwells feelingly upon the
difficulty of properly doing the duties OF
his office with a limited account at the
Treasurer's desk; he also cites figures to
show that he has beaten everything else
in the Assessor line since any one ever
fought at the polls for the job. This is
what Assessor Dodge said he was going
to do before election; he did no. say,
however, that he would require an extra
office and his method of operating it and
the results he has accomplished, Mr.
Dodge has to say in his report:
The total assessment roll for the
year 1S99 after making the corrections
and deductions authorized by your
honorable body, amounts to s465 Iii ,615,
as against sS52, ,344 ,O61 for the year 1898,
assessment of last year. AS the total
assessment of real estate is 1914, 1854
less this year than the assessment of
lows that the marked increase in the
assessment roll has been obtained
through the increased assessment Of
personal property.
An analysis of this increase of S52-
767 ,554 shows it to have been made in
the following manner:
Increase.
Quasi public corporations .s19 ,507 $50
BondS ............. .............. 19 ,507 ,Ao9
Shipping (new) ............ 80. 497 155
Chinese assessment ............ 497155
Estimate In probate. 6,767, ,lT
Insurance companies .......... 5S5 $50
Merchandise (wholesale) ...... 4,S29,261
Total increase .......... ..... s52, ,767, ,554
To discover and properly assess all
of this additional property has been
department during the past year a
large amount of additional work. The
appropriation made for the past year
by your honorable body was found
sufficient only by. greatly increasing
the usual hours of labor that are GUS
tomary for city employees. For many
part of the force of this office has
been compelled to work from a. m.
to and 10 p. M.
In addition to this work, which
must be again performed during the
ensuing year, there is crying need
in this department for a still further
revision of the assessment roll in other
directions. 1t is now many years since
a thorough revision of the assessed
valuation of real estate, with the i'm
pIoyemeIn,ts thereon ma has been attempt
many old dwellings are assessed to-
day for fully as much as they were
fifteen and twenty years ago. when
I first erected. This is an injustice to
| this class of taxpayers.
To thoroughly revise the assess
ment of real estate and improvements
will require the services of at least ten
deputies for the balance of the fiscal
year, in addition to the usual clerical
force of the office. The services Of at
least three additional deputies are de-
manded to act as experts in ferreting
out and properly assessing those forms
of personal property which so readily
and regularly escape taxation.
Notwithstanding these facts, it has
been proposed by your honorable body
to reduce the appropriation of last year
by $35 900.
Then Mr.. Dodge goes on with the argu-
ments he has made use of upon numerous
previous occasions when he has attempted
to have his apportionment increased His
plea will be considered on Monday, when
the Supervisors finally fix the tax levy