The Minneapolis journal. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1888-1939, 1902-01-10
TAX Man APPROVES
Assessor Fort Has No Criticisms on
the Tax Report
SOME HEAVY WORK IS ENTA1LED
For Instance, Mailing a List Of All
Assessments to Each
Taxpayer.

City Assessor Fort finds much to COM
mend In the report Of the tax commits
sion, SO far as 1t affects the manage
ment OF his office. When seen o-day ne
was rather reluctant to express an opln-
|>1on, as he had not yet read the full re-
port. V However, when he had read e
Jou I'm a l's synopsit, he expressed him.
self as favoring many Of the changes pro-
posed.
Regarding the abolition of. town boards
Of review and city boards of equalization
Mr.. Fort said that the work to be done
was altogether two vOlumlnous LOT one
man, but that he believed the substitution
OF county board for the various city ana
town boards woulr be a good thing.
The proposed law requires assessors TO
view the property they assess This. MI.
Fort, explained, Is done now Wherever
possible. : He believes that assessors
should be given the authority TO make
personal examination Of the property they
are required to- assess; and says the lach
offthat authority has hampered the WORK
in the past, many taxpayers having re-
fused to allow an. examination, preferr1ng
to accept an arbitrary assessment.
He rather doubted the utility OF the
provision requiring assessors 70 seno
printed list Of all assessments IN tne
county to each taxpayer, but SAID tnal
the publicity attained in that way Woulo
unuuestionably be good thing. his oD-
lection was on, the ground OF expense,
while admitting that the value of the
plan could only be determined by expert
ment. Said he: 'In Minneapolis that
would mean the copying of $4,000 names,
addresses and assessments. 1t Woulo
mean, also, the addressing of $4,000 en-
velopes. The work could be done by tae.
regular Office force employed curing Tue
busy season after they had completed
make their period of employment SOME
what longer than usual. I can make no
estimate Of the COST ,,,
The report requires taxpayers TO list
their property under oath. 10 some eA-
tent that is done now. but the assessors
have no power to compel a sworn state
ment il the taxpayer is unwilling to make
one. Mr.. Fort believes that the law
might we'll go farther in this respect anu
compel the taxpayer not only to list MS
property under oath but to swear as 70
its value. He believes that II the tax laws
compelled disclosures along these !lnes
and provided definite penalty Tor Vlola.
lions of the provision the true Va1ue OF
taxable property: could be brought OUT
with much greater accuracy than IS pos
sible under the present system.
hTe section requiring corporations 10
provide exhaustive reports of their bust
ness meets with his approval. SAID ne:
"This is something we should nave nao
long ago; but under existing laws we nave
not been able to get it. I have myself re-
qeusted such reports from certain com
panies and have been refused.
''The present law" he continued, like
the new, requires all real estate to be
listed at its truefyalue; but it is generally
known that conservative system,of yalu-
atoms has grown up. I believe 1t would
be a good thing if the state board should
say to the various county assessors:
Bring in your assessments at their true
| value and we will see that other sections
of the state do likewise AS matters are
| arranged to-day lit gWeuld seemf'unjust to
ask a property owner in Minneapolis to
pay taxes on the full value Of his prop
erty, while tho Taxpayer in another part
Of the state escapes by paying on only a
small percentage OF the legitimate value
of his holdings. sa!ft
value of real estatetis to be fixed every
four years instead of, every other var as
is now the case. Values in city property
are. subject to great change within four
years and am not prepared to say that
Inequalities would, not result from an
adoption Of the proposed system, that
might prove most burdensome to property
owners. ..,..-s,-,
"Si far as the :street railway Is con-
cerned, its franchise is taxed now, In,
directly. The franchise goes to make up,
the value Of it's Stock. and the stock Is
taxed. The same thing is true Of other
public service corporations operating
wholly within the state.
''The plan of assessing telegraph, tele--
phone, express, -sleeping-car freight line
and equipment companies on their true
cash value, apportioning the assessment
to localities on mileage basis, think,
move along the right line. I do not favor
the gross earnings tax. Under its opera
ton Minneapolis gets no local taxes from
the railroad companies although they own
SIS, OOC, 900 to 0,000, 900 worth of property
n this cttv ~ ~ -