The Savannah morning news., 1900-08-06
A MILLION AND A QUARTER.
BIG INCREASE IN TAX VALUES OFF
PROPERTY IN CHATHAM COUNTY.

Expected That Tux Digest Will Show
the Increase Indicated, or VIII
Approach 1t Very CIoseIy-Thfs Is
Three Times the Increase for 1892
Over 1S9S-Tax Receiver Dillon Has
Been at Work for Weeks on His
Digest and the End Is in Sight.
Various Influences Have Worked
to Produce the Increase-It Runs
All Along the Line.
The tax values of property in Chatham
county, as shown by the digest of Tax
Receiver John R. Dillon, will exceed
those for last year by an amount that will
c.csely approach million and quarter
OF dollars. This is about three times as
much as the increase for 1899 over 1898.
When the digest was closed last year
and the final work of adding and compar-
ing its long columns of figures was COM
pleted, an increase of $25s. 905 over the
tax values for 1898 was shown. This was
the apparent increase, but 20 this was
to be added about $4,000, the value of the
extensive purchases on Hutchinson's ISL
y,
for which the returns were made direct
ly to the controller general of the state,
and not through the county receiver of
tax returns. With this addition the in
crease for the year was about $685., 900.
That of this year will be a substantial
one indeed. As it will amount to more
than one-thirtieth of the returns for the
county. it may serve to authorize the
County Commissioners to decrease the
rate of taxation. a change that would
be very acceptable to the people of Chat
ham.
Capt. Dillon has been hard at work.
with several assistants, upon the digest
for the past four or five weeks, and il is
now upon the verge of completion. While
there are finishing touches to be put here
and there and additions and comparisons
still to be made, the great bulk of the
really enormous labor that is involved
has been virtually gone through with.
and the end Is close in sight. 1t may very
likely be that il will be reached this
afternoon or tonight
The increase cannot be accounted for
in any one way or by any one theory.
There have been no quasi public works
OF large magnitude to which ii may be at
ter that has been done during the year
is the construction of the Seaboard termi-
nails on Hutohinson's Island and these inn
proVements will not be returned for taxa
ton until the buildings and wharves have
Deen finished. The increase is rather to
be ascribed to the establishment of large
and small manufacturing plants in va
rieus parts of the county, to the natural
and healthy growth in the value of real
BOT
ings of securities and to variety of other
conditions of the like general character
Save in the single matter of the default
tax list, 1t is believed that almost every
column of the digest will show an in
crease over last year. For some reason
the defauters of 1899 were very numerous
and the failure 10 make their returns cost
some of them double taxes. The energy
with which delinquent taxes were collected
by the joint efforts of Tax Collector Nc
Gowan and Sheriff Sweeny, probably serv-
ed to convince those who had been thus
forgetful last year that ii was not well
10 daily with the county and they there
fore kept their memories logged and put
in their returns in time. That there is
decrease in the number of defaulters and
the amount of taxes they failed to return
Is matter ONO regret to Capt. Dillon II
Is understood that the returns of colored
property owners show a substantial in
crease.
Capt. Dillon will turn over his office to
his successor after most prosperous and
| successful year in the history of the
| county. He has every reason to feel
satisfied with the showing that he will
be able to make of the county's financial
| condition, as exempified in the increase
in taxable values, an increase that speaks
nearly as much for his diligent attention
| Of
| for the prosperity of the citizens of Chat
| ham.