The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1901-03-28
THOSE TAX LAWS
What Their Revision Means
For Topeka.
Would Raise Assessed Value to
$3O,OOO,OOO.
BETTER FOR EVERY ONE
Rate Would Be Much Lower
Than Now.
BETTER FOREVERY ON
City Officers Will Take a Hand
in the Work.

The city officers of Topeka are greatly
interested in the assessment and taxation
commission which was APPOINTED accord
ing to the bill which passed the legisla-
. ture last winter The commission will
hold its first meeting in May and Will
hold another meeting later in the year.
It will recommend new assessment and
next legislature will enact a law embody-
ing the recommendations of the commits
The city officers are interested for vari-
Gus reasons, the principal one being that
made BY the assessors works to the dis
advantage of a city of the hrst class,
which must float bonds for municipal i'm
Assessors in Kansas under the present
law VIII assess property at anywhere
from one-half to one-tenth the value OF
the property. 1t IS true the law states
the assessment shall be at the full value.
but there is no penalty for the violation
of the law and it might as well be or
the statutes to be on; it would save
If Topeka was assessed at the actual
be at least thirty million. This would
show UP well for out OF town purposes,
such as selling bonds. Offering induce
ments to prospective buyers Of real estate.
etc. In the cities of the east all property
is assessed at actual value and tn bonds
The bond buyer looks at the rate OF bond
win see that Topeka IS bonded for almost
6 per cent That is very high. and, as a
by this city Will not sell at par if thew
carry a rate of interest as low as per
cent. ii this CITY was assessed az Inc
actual value III bonded indebtedness
would not be mos than 21z 1er cent, and
a per cent bond would sell at par or
above par The bond buyer does not stop
to ask how property is assessed in the
orrchaser Of real estate-thev ask the
rate Of the bonded indebtedness and the
rate Of taxation. They will not listen
laden community that the assessment is
they have heard that talk before
What the city officers Of Topeka and
the other cities of the first class want
is that the commission shall ask that
law be passed making il obligatory that
property be assessed at its actual value
and that a failure to do SO on the part Of
the assessor shall constitute felony II
at least olie-thi- of what it is al present.
1t does not take a smart man to see the
Unless this is done the city Of Topeka
and other Kansas cities have reached the
limit Of issuing bonds unless they are
willing to sell them at a great reduction.
The present method of assessment works
a great hardship on t'e poor man and
this was discussed by several Of the Of
ficers in talSing of the subject this morn
ing. An incident ike this was cited: A
in sight-nOthing was said of the bonds
and stocks a man Of this wealth would
have .ecreted from the assessors-is as
sessed at 100000 He pays taxes on that
amount and escapes taxes on the 100000
4 Door man who owns a home worth So
600 is assessed at $1,000 and escapes taxa
ton on $1,000 One rich man would es-
cape more taxes than 100 poor men would
escape.
The mistake of differentiation by the
assessors was originally begun to avoid
state taxes. One county commenced it
and all the other counties followed suit
because they feared they would pay more
than their share of state taxes If all
the counties assessed at actual value the
per cent of state tax would be reduced
and it would injure no county,
city officers and by all the men who are
really Interested in the matter TO insist
that the legislature recommend that the
assessors in the state make their assess
ments at actual value or go TO the peni-
Tertiary.
Incidentally it may be added that if the
water company paid taxes on the amount
that its engineer said that its plant was
worth-that IS. the amount they wanted
the city to pay for 1.-THE rate OF taxation
the taxpaying property owners would
think the millennium had come Ihey are
now paying on a little more than 800, 900
and they say the plant is worth over
S7n0 0QO