Northern Wisconsin advertiser. [volume] (Wabeno, Wis.) 1898-1925, 1903-03-05
STATES ITS TAXATION CASE ON
AID VALOREM.
DISPUTES THE GOVERNOR
Says Figures of La Toilette and State
Tax Commission as to Valuation OF
Property are Wrong and May Not
Be Followed Without Doing Great
Injustice.
Madison. Feb. %.

Madison, Feb. %.
The first brief of the railroads in re-
lation to the subject of taxation was
received yesterday morning. 1t was
that of the Chicago & Northwestern
company concerning the present meth
Cd and proposed change to the al
valorem system. 1t was received by
Chairman Smalley of the assembly
committee on the assessment and col
lection of taxes. The committee met
yesterday afternoon and Immediately
began the consideration of the argu>
ments put forward in the brief in op-
position to the bill prepared by the tax
commissioners.
The brief is an argumen based
principally upon the question of valu.
ing the property of the railroad com.
panies. 1t consists of AZ printed
pages.
1t says that the proposal to alter the
basis of railway taxation in Wisconsin
proceeds entirely from the data which
was laid before the legislature by the
tax commission. The tax commission
placed the value of the entire proper
ty of the state, real and personal at
81, 504 ,346,000 and the average rate of
tax both state and local was $1.2O on
each 81 200.
The value of the railroad property
according to the commission was
$217,S54,0 and the amount of taxes
which the railroads should have paid
upon the basis of this valuation was
1862, 590.62, the railroads paid in
taxes $1,711 ,900.16 or as the tax COM
mission argues, $940,690.14 less than
they should have paid in 1902. The
commission concludes that as the
roads paid less under the license fee
system than they should have paid
the system should be changed and the
ad valorem plan of taxatign adopted.
After stating these things the brief
says in substance:
This logical structure rests on
! premises and must fall if it's premises
are undermined. We shall submit
facts to show that the entire property
of the state has been undervalued by
the tax commission and the property
of the railroads over valued and tina,
the railroads of Wisconsin have for
years been paying more than their
fair proportionate part of the tax bur-
den of the state.
The general inquiries of this brief
will be. How much must the commits
sion's estimate of the property in Wis
consin, outside of the railways, be in.
creased in order not to be palpably too
small; how much must the commits
sion's estimate of the value of rail-
ways in Wisconsin be diminished in
order not to be palpably too large: Ill
view of results reached are the Wis
consin railways now paying more or
less than a fair share of Wisconsins
taxes; is a change to an ad valorem
system of railway taxation desirable
in Wisconsin, or is it justifiable, if al
ready the railways are paying as much
or more than they ought to pay in
taxes?
The commissions value of the
property of the state puts the real es-
tate at $1,226, 376,973 and the personal
property at $277 .969,O27 We will con-
slider these figures on the basis of the
/ United States census reports. First
as to the reality we get the following
data:
Value of farm lands in 1900
....,.. S53U, b42 ,69O
Value of farm buildings.
... anna. ...... 1856, 604,97O