The Princeton union., 1900-04-26
4 CONCERNING ASSESSMENTS.
The State eAudltor Gives IL Few Poin ters to
County Officials.


County Officials
The UNION is in receipt of an official
circular, which is being sent by the
State auditor to the county auditors,
and as it contains much that will inter-
est the taxpayers we publish it below:
ST. PAUL, April "a, 1900. i
Dear Sir:--There have been mailed
to you to-day enough copies of this cir
cular, and of the proceedings of the
last meeting of the State board of equal
lzatlon, to provide every assessor in
your county with one Of each. I wish
to call your particular attention to the
basis OF value'' fixed by the State
board OF equalization on certain classes
OF personal property, for the purpose
OF equalizing assessments. Impress it
upon the assessors that they should be
governed largely by those figures.
Rest, assured that the State board will
not reduce valuations below what they
are at present so nothing is gained by
under assessing either real or personal
property On the contrary, as you are
we'll aware, changes by the State board
mean Il great deal of work and trouble
for you--work and trouble that might
be avoided if you were to insist upon
the assessors doing their work thor
oughly. In case the assessors and local
boards Of review fail to perform their
plain duty, see to it that the county
board of equalization corrects the err
rors of the assessors and local boards
of review.
Your attention is called to the fol-
lowing resolution adopted by the State
board of equalization at it's last session:
Resolved, by the State board of
equalization, that the State auditor be,
and he hereby is requested to secure
from the auditors of the various coun-
ties in the State, and to present to this
board at its session in 1900, lists of the
assessments made in each county in the
year 1900, in classes Is and II of the
personal property schedule, amounting
to So, 900 and over, and any other in
formation relative thereto.
| wish to call your especial attention
to this resolution; by complying with
it you will save yourself and this office
unnecessary trouble next September.
What the State board wants is list
of the individual assessments amount
ing to $4,000 and over in 'Goods and
Merchandise' (Class l6), land material
and Manufactured Articles'' (Class ~.
Above all this I would caution you to
make sure that each item is returned
in its proper class. For instance
''stocks of Saloons (Class 26) should
not be returned as goods and mer-
chandise" (Class 16). Return each
item of personal property in its proper
class. It is the duty OF the State board
of equalization to see TO it that each
class of property bears it's just proper
tiop of the burdens Of taxation, and
returning property in the wrong class
works an injury to those whose prop
erty is listed in the proper class, for if
a certain class of property in a certain
assessment district shows perceptible
falling off without some good reason,
the State board is pretty apt to raise
that class to what it was in prior years.
Please see to it that each assessor is
supplied with a sufficient number Of
the blanks (which are sent herewith)
for returns by companies and corpora
tions, under Sec. 1880, Statutes of 1894.
TO ASSESSORS.
The burden of a satisfactory opera
ton of the tax laws of our State rests
largely with the assessors. Our doc
trine is that every dollars worth of
taxable property should bear its just
proportion of public expense. 1t is
therefore the duty OF every property
owner to list his holdings with the
assessor. In cases where it is difficult
to secure satisfactory statements, the
law clothes the assessor with ample
powers to go to the extreme if neces-
sary. Sec. 1926 of Gen.. Stats 1894,
authorizes assessors to examine per-
sons under oath. If the party refuses
TO answer fully, the assessor may list
the property at such figures as he
thinks fair. He must give the assessed
a copy Of the assessment so made. Sec
1914 also refers to the same subject
Sec. 1916 should also be read in the
same connection.
Assessors are required by law to
personally view each forty acre tract.
In the timber counties, especially,
assessors should know whether a tract
of land has been denuded of its timber
or not. In cities and villages assessors
should be certain that buildings are
assessed to the right lot.
There is no excuse for an assessor
assessing a lot as containing improve
ments when there are no improve
ments whatever upon the lot in ques-
tion. This Office is called upon annu-
ally to correct thousands of blunders
made by assessors. Errors are una
voidable in some instances, but whole
sale errors through lack of proper dill
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