The Owosso times. (Owosso, Mich.) 1897-1926, 1901-04-12

lCnalrmrn OF the House committee on Hrlvate
Corporationsl
will be an unwise thing to make the
change, but a majority of the solons
take the position that the people Of
the state have demanded 1t and ought
to have it whether It breaks them or
not
Representatives Of practically all Of
the railroads operating In Michigan
participated in the hearing referred to,
and all Of them talked against prop
erty tax. They readily interpreted
the handwriting on the wall, however,
and finally suggested that if an ad
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
equalize the value Of the property as
sessed by it with the value of other
property Of the state upon which ad
valOrem taxes are assessed for state,
county, township, school and munich
pal purposes. And the average rate
above mentioned shall be based upon
such equalization of values. and said
ter said average rate upon its records
forthwith"
The argument in favor of this pro-
posed amendment Is that it is mani
testify unfair to say that the railroads
and other corporations shall have
their property assessed at its full cash
value when it is a notorious fact, as
demonstrated by the Investigations
nf ctot DO ;e,
sion. that the balance Of the property
of tho state is assessed at an average
of only 81 per cent. Of its value. It
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.
ner of arriving at this average rate.
they could appeal to the courts to de-
termine the validity of the boards ac-
ton.
This entire matter Of railroad taxa
tion will come to head tomorrow so
cerned, an agreement having been
reached whereby bill will be report
ed out for immediate action by that
body. There is considerable opposi-
tlon to the provision creating new
board of assessors. For instance, Sen
ator Nichols, who is himself the au-
thor of a railroad tax bill, AYERS that
he will never vote for bill which does
not 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 a new board would simply
and statistics they desired, thus MAX
ing the additional expense incident to
a separate board wholly unjustifiable.
There will doubtless be considerable
jangling 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 It
Is expected that such of these bills as
are deemed worthy will find their way
onto the calendar shortly.
Question Hard to Settle.
There appears to be n growing be-
lief that the railroad taxation ques-
ton will never be satisfactorily set
tied until the state takes action In the