The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1901-04-12

LChairmrn of the House Committee On Private
Corporations
will be IN Unwise thing to make the
change. but a majority of the solons
take the position that the people Of
the state have demanded it and ought
to have it whether it breaks them or
not.
Representative Of practically all OF
the railroads ouerHtirg i'm Michigan
participated i'm the hc1riug referred 10,
and all Of thou talked against u prop
erty tax. They readily interpreted
the handwriting on the wall. however.
and finally suggested that if an al
valorem bill is passed. it should con-
tain the following provision relative
to the average rate to be paid:
Provision Is Suggested.
"And said state board of assessors
shall be and are hereby authorized to
cQuallZe the value of the property as
sesSed by il with the value of other
property of the state upon which al
v6lOrem taxes are assessed for state.
county, township school and munich
pal purposes. And the average rate
above mentioned shall he based upon
such equaliZ9t ton Of values. and said
state board If assessments shall en-
ter said average rate upon its records
forthwith"
The argument i'm favor of this pro
posed amendment is that ii is mani
festly unfair TO say that the railroads
and other corporations shall have
their property assessed Mt its full cash
value when II is notorious fact. as
demonstrated by the Investigations
md report Of the state tax commits
sion. that the balance Of the property
Of the state is assessed at an average
Of only 81 per cent. of its value II
Is doubtful however. If this concession
Is made The Chandler bill which is
the favorite I'm the house. leaves the
manner Of determining the average
rate to the state board Of assessors
which is to consist Of the lieutenant
governor. state treasurer and attorney
general and the members OF the state
tax commission If the corporations
deem themselves injured by the man
Nner Of arriving ut this average rate.
they could apppal TO the courts to de-
termine the validity Of the boards ac-
ton.
This entire matter Of railroad taxa
tiOn will come 10 n head tomorrow SO
far as the house committee is CON
rerned an agreement having been
reached whereby bill viii be report
ed out for immediate action by that
body. There is considerable opposi-
ton to the provision creating q new
board Of assessors. For instance. SEN
ator Nichols who is himself the au-
thor Of Il railroad tax bill. AYERS that
he viii never vote for bill which does
cot provide for the assessment by the
state tax commission. He takes the
position that the commissioners have
plenty Of time TO make the assessment.
and that new board would simply
COX TO them for al the information
and statistics they desired, thus max
ing the additional expense incident to
A separate board wholly uniustifable.
There will doubtless be considerable
Iangling over the various provisions OF
the bill, but the clouds have broken
significantly to warrant the prediction
that the subject will soon be dis
posed Of.
On Thursday Chairman Mccall OF
the house committee on private cor
porations will give n hearing on nu-
merous bills affecting express, tele-
graph and other corporations, and IL
IS expected that such Of these bills as
are deemed worthy will find their way
Dnto the calendar shortly.
Question Hard Co Settle.
There appears TO be a growing be-
Iief that the railroad taxation ques-
ton will never be satisfactorily set
lied until the state takes action in the