The Corvallis times. (Corvallis, Or.) 1888-1909, 1903-03-11
BEN TON COUNTY PROPERTY TO
BE ASSESSED THAT WAY
NOW.
Order to That Effect Made by the
Commissioners Court-Pres-
-ent Method the Order Says
Prevents Uniformity
Other News:

At this weeks session, the com
missioners court made an order re
quiring all property in the county
assessed at its cash value, The or
der recites that as now made, the
valuations are not uniform. The
order is self explanatory, and in
full is as follows: ...-
s'It appearing to the court after
due examination and consideration,
of the property shown by the as
sessment rolls of the county, that
the same is very unequal and in
many instances, inequitab1e; said
property being assessed at from 90
per cent down to in some instances,
20 per cent of its true cash value
That the present condition is not
only contrary to the spirit and letter
of the law, but great injury to the
county in depreciating its actual
financial standing to the world at
large. That by reason of the pre-
misses aud the system of low val
uations, we are forced by. the re-
cords to admit that Benton county
is without financial standing and
our property of small value. necessi-
tatiug the court, in order to raise
sufficient funds for the proper
maintenance of the county to make
high tax levy.
Whereas, if the property was
contemplated by law, the tax levy
would be lowered accordingly.
That If certain sum Of money is
to be raised for any purpose, the
raising OF the valuations of the tax
able property in the county, under
our present law, will not increase
any i1AdividuaIs taxes one cent, but
will enable the court to raise
said amount by a proportionate
low levy That the small taxpay-
er is carrying an unequal amount
of the public burden, while. due to
the present system of under val
uatiou and the. apparent inability
of the assessor to reach money,
notes and accounts, his more
wealthy neighbor is escaping tax
alton.
That the tax roll of 1902 shows
that there was but $4,000 in mon
ey in Benton county on the first
. day of March of that year, while
the published report of the First
National bank of Corvallis, shows
the sum of s34e o17.15 on deposit
in its vaults, alone at that time or
in other words, over $500. 900 es-
Gaping taxation.
That sec 3o57 of the Bellinger
Code says: y x x "And said lands
er town lots shall be valued at their
true cash value" x X x "True
cash value shall be held and taken
to mean the amount such property |
would sell for at voluntary sale
made in the ordinary course of
business.
Also section 3o5s. "All person
al property not exempt from tax
alton shall be valued at its true
value in cash, and it shall be the
duty of each assessor to value all |
improvements on claimed land |
within his county as personal pro-
perty." x x x
Also section 3o67, cit shall be
the duty of the county assessors in |
this state, when making their as
sessments for each year to apply to
the proper officer Of every banking |
Institution or express company in
his county, and procure a certified
sworn statement of the names of
depositors of money or. other val
uab1es, with the amounts of money
or other va1uab1es deposited, at
tached to the name of each deposit
or, for the purpose of assessing the
same"
It is therefore ordered that H. L.
Bush, assessor of Benton county,
Or, be and he is hereby instructed
and directed to carry out the pro-
visions of sections 3o57, 3o5S &
3o67 at pages Io4I, 1913, & 1896.
respectively of the Bellinger Code:
and if said assessor fails and neg
1ects to comply with this order and
carry out the provisions of said
above mentioned sections. the coun-
ty court will consider that he has
failed to properly perform his duties
and will not receive his assessment
for the year 1903"
Glens Falls, N. Y, March -
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