New-York tribune., 1903-02-02
INEQUALITIES IN NEW-JERSEY.
A Go-As- -You-Please Application of the Full
Valuation Plan.


In one respect at least the constitution of
the State of New-Jersey is. for all practical
purposes. d dead letter. Paragraph l., section
{. of that instrument says: Property shall be
assessed for taxes under general laws and by
uniform rules according to its true value.
which means that the rate of assessment shall
he 100 cents on the dollar. This rule is not
only almost universally but persistently and
constantly violated by New-Jersey assessors.
SO agrant and of such long continuance has
this defiance of the organic law become that
Justice Dixon. of the most fearless as we'll
of the ahlest judges on the Supreme
Court bench sorIe years charged the grand
juries of his cirCIit, in Bergen and PasSalc
counties, that the local assessors were violating
their oaths ana laying themselves liable to in
dictment by their methods and practices of as
sessing property at percentage valuations. AS
result of this vigorous utterance by the bench.
the assessors of Bergen County gave heed TO
the admonitfon. and i'm 1898 the local assessors
raised their total valuations from S25.325.6O3
to S44 13O 6i.. or to between one-thrd and one
half more than the valuations of the previous
year. The assessors of Passaic County, how
ever. paid little or no attention to Justice
Dixons plain warning and continued in the
of their ways
The State Board of Taxation has repeatedly
in its reports called attention to the fact that
percentage reports unconstitutional, but
with strange inconsistency the board itself.
when 1t has gone into the tax districts of the
State for the purpose of adjusting valuations,
has as repeatedly recognized if not approved.
assessments under the percentage rule and made
the adjustments on that basis
Property in New-Jersey is assessed a. sort
Of go-as-you- please valuation. and it is doubt
full if any two localities are assessed according
TO any fixed rule practice In some localities
the assessment has been low 80 per cent
lin some individual instances it may have been
even Iess) while in others the rate has been
high as so per cent. The low valuations
prevail in the suburban districts. and frequently
to their great disadvantage, for this reason:
When persons go from New-YOTk to NeW-Jer-
sey to buy suburban homes they inquire what
the tax rate is. The reply often IS. from s. 80
to 81 on each 500 of valuation. Hence
the outcome often is unsatisfactory. to say the
least. In New-Jersey where the valuations
are low. the tax Ieves are high and where the
valuations are high the tax rates are low. The
injury, therefore, falls upon the townships.
because people generally look at the tax rates
rather than at the valuations.
Taxes in NeW-Jersey are assessed by the coun-
ties upon the valuations returned by the munic-
palties. and thereto a county rate is fixed
in addition to the municipal rate. Take the city
of Newark, which might have a tax rate of
81 20 on each 500 of valuation: the county tax
rate is 80 cents each valuation which would
make the total city and county rate for the
city 81 10. The school taxes are paid to the
county. The county pays the money ITO the
State custodian. The State then pays back
90 per of the amount to the counties from
! which it was received which leaves 10 per
cent to be distributed to the counties accord
ing the census of school children. This pro-
cedure is not infaliible by any means. as there
are instances on record to show that vacant
lots and graveyards have figured in the school
census
Naturally municipality desires to see to
it that the valuations of other municipalities
not too low. the tax being based on the
valuation This desire frequently causes differ
ences of opinion of an inharmonious nature in
the county boards of assessment, but inequality
goes just the
Prior to 1854 there was no tax on miscella-
neous corporations in New-Jersey except a total
tax amounting the insignificant sum Of S14-
900 a year on foreign insurance companies
doing business in NeW-Jersey. and that money
was paid into the widows and orphans fund
of the State Firemen's Association. Before 1884.
also. the railroads We're taxed only one-haIf of
l per cent OH property not exempt by their
charters. Now. 1t happened that nearly all
of the railroads had exemption privileges written
into their charters, the total tax paid by all
of the railroads prior to 1884 amounted to less
than $S00,0CD d year The legislature in 1884
passed the corporation tax law, which included
railroads and miscellaneous corporations The
total tax collected on miscellaneous corpora
tions in that year Ghe law went into effect I'M
mediatey) S9S3S1 10. Last year 09O2l the
miscellaneous corporations paid a tax of 81 959-
206 90 Since 1884 the miscellaneous corporations
have paid in taxes and fees a total amount of
about S160OOOOO The assessments of rlisceIla-
neous corporations made the franchises
ways-some on gross receipts and some on CAPT
tai stock. The term miscellaneous corporations
includes everything except railroads.
The question is often asked. why is there
no State tax in New-Jersey?" Previous to 1884
there was a two three mill tax assessed
the people This tax amounted to about $500
900 a year. The larger revenue derived from
the corporations made the State tax unneces-
sary and it has been levied since 1884.
The railroad corporations last year paid total
of 81 .52S .255 IL and in addition to this amount
they paid taxes in their localities at the local
rate on all of their property not used for rail-
road purposes
Another question that is frequently asked is
whether all property should not be assessed
locally for the benefit of municipalities and
State tax assessed for State purposes. This
matter has been only recently brought up in
New-Jersey The State Treasury surplus has
been steadily climbing up, even though the
} haar extraordinary