The age-herald., 1899-01-27
Charges That Commissioners
 Paid No Heed to Law.
RECKLESS EXTRAVAGANCE
That the Majority Has Been Influenced By Corporations Entailing a Loss Of Many Thousand Dol
 lars to the County.

| to the county and people of Jefferson, but
 will mention some items taken from the 1 county treasury without the slightest color | of law:
 The commissioners pay annually to the sheriff of Jefferson county for | keeping dogs.... ..... ... ... ... =. ...$ 900 | Clerk hire and typewriting for commis- sioners, the law requiring the probate l judge to pay this when he is not keeping the minutes himself. .. .... 5l5 l Appropriation for two years to Mercy hoine:.' ... =. =. =. ... ... ... osO l United Order of Charties..... ... =. ... 465 l Onaha EApositlon'.. zio | Commercial club... ... ... ... ... ... ... 010 Tax Collector Francis for making ab- Stract book... ... ... ... ... ... =. .. 175 1 Appraising properly. 510 The average county in Alabama does not | expend $500 for health officers and physi- | clans; many, unfortunately, spend nothing
 In Jefferson county it has cost the tax I payers for health officers and physicians for | the past two years over A,000.
 | The medicine furnished the county for
 same time (two years) nearly all by an- | other kinsman, has aggregated S1 ,965 under | the liberal system of not requiring itemized | or sworn accounts, and this does not include $4,3S2.20 for vaccine virus that am informed 1 is enough to vaccinate 12O000 people.
 l In the matter of the settlement with MT. l Hewitt, eX-tax collector, the examiner shows that about s7O0 belonging to the peo- l pie was surrendered up. None of the com- l missioners seem to have known why they l did it; one says, if they did not take what | was offered they would have to sue. An l other says some one said it was best, didn't | recolect who The commissioners thought 1 MT. Hewett could explain, but unfortunate | ly he had lost the data since the settlement. | The facts are that on exactly the same | state of facts, shown by the same report l of the same examiner, MT Hewett became | liable to pay the state about the same sum; l he appealed to the state board of compro- l mise to abate the interest, the examiner | had given him every opportunity to correct l the errors and he admitted his liability fully 1 and frankly; the state board declined, and | MT. Hewett promptly paid the exact amount l shown to have been due, principal and ,n- l terest. No one suggested to the state board l that 1t was best to accept less
 At your last session an act was passed re- l quiring these commissioners to keep book l in which all road matters were to be re- l corded showing receipts, disbursements, l new roads, copies of all contracts and all l transactions in reference to roads. The | commissioners did get a book but have | completely and wholly and deliberately ig- nored and disobeyed every single duty im- | posed upon them under the act by the gen.
 eral assembly. They seem not to have had | time to read the law.
 Tax Matters
 l l duct of these commissioners in the matter | of taxation shows a state of facts that | affects, and will appeal, to every honest l tax payer in the state. The examiner says | under oath, 1T am forced to the conclusion | that majority of the court have been in- | fiuenced by the corporations to -such an
 extent that the state and county treasuries
 have suffered the loss of many thousand
 dollars" He proceeds to itemize and shows rtta tatrl.. n l specially named returns it's property at one
 half of it's bonded debt, and some at less | than one-tenth of the mortgage bonds on | their property-one corporation returned It's | property at $73,695; it was very careful not | to make it even S3 100.
 | The city of Bessemer or it's land company | had donated nearly 900 to this company. l The tax commissioner sought to raise the | valuation to $250,000 any raise was refused, l and the corporate property was shortly af- | forwards sold at $S00,000. Another with
 $500 900 of bonds, worth substantially par, | was listed at BPS 900, the raise was refused, | and in less than two months the same cor
 poration assessed it's property at an in- | crease of nearly 900. Still another, in the | teeth of evidence that 1t had refused over l one million dollars for its property, was | allowed to remain assessed at less than | ne-third that value. The tax commission
 CT appealed from these decisions and com | csA | amounts that brought into the state treas
 urv over $10O00 after the refusal to make | any raises by the commissioners One of | them naively testified that the corporations | outswore the commissioner. When examin- | ed as to these transactions, one Of the com- | missioners refused to testify.
 | The report shows that they had employed | an agent to establish the values of proper | ties in Birmingham, and to equalize same, | A gentleman, himself large property own- | CT and conservative and honest. His report | showed raises of $3500 ,000-this was cut | down $2, 700 OO0-and the appraiser was never | secured to come before the court to estab- | fish his own report and valuations.
 | In the city of Bessemer corporation was | allowed to return at $10 and $20 lots that private individuals owning similar ones as- | sessed at $75 to $500, and some of these very
 lots were sold shortly after the refusal of | these commissioners to raise, at from $100 l to $500, or ten times their appraised value. | They refused to even cite number of peo- l pie who were willing that their property | should be raised.
 But the most serious charge comes estab- | lished by all parties to the transaction. It | appears from the report that when the | tax commissioners appeared before the | court and presented two lists, one of private
 individuals and the other of corporations, l which in his judgment were assessed too l low and should be raised, the commission | CTS examined them and made an order that
 they should be docketed, and citations were
 issued to the parties to appear and show | cause why the raises should not be made | these citations were served and the parties ! appeared, each original paper had been | marked by the commissioners with the l letter D." meaning an order docket; in | some mysterious and unaccountable manner | all the private individuals got on the docket 1 but the name of no corporation appeared | An attorney for one corporation made the point that as his clients name had not ac- tually gotten on the docket the commission | CTS could not hear any motion to raise its | tax; after solemn debate on a motion to
 reconsider the order docketing the case the | four commissioners divided even on this | question; the probate judge was called in to
 decide and held that the case not being on
 the docket there was nothing to reconsider, [continued on Second Page.l