The Owosso times. (Owosso, Mich.) 1897-1926, 1903-05-08
MICHIGAN TAX RATE
Board of Assessors Will Have to
Reconvene and Again
Compute It.
DECISION BY SUPREME COURT
Legislature Accomplished Little Bust
ness Last Week-Sevcral of the
Committees Were Absent.

Lansing, Mich, May 5.-As the re-
suit of an opinion handed down by
the supreme court late last week, the
state board of assessors will have to
reconvene and again compute the
average tax rate of the state. An
other important result of the courts
decision will be that the railroad COM
| panies operating in Michigan will be
obliged to pay $4,000 more in taxes
this year than previously levied by
the state assessors, providing always,
| of course, that the litigation in which
the companies attack the validity of
| the al valorem assessment of their
property is decided in favor of the
| state. The state board of assessors,
the membership of which is identical
with that of the state tax commits
sion, enormously assumed that in ar
| irving at the average rate Of the state
which the law says the railroad COM
panies shall pay, it was vested with
| judicial powers. What the board did
was to take the total of assessments
of all property of the state other
than railroad property, as made by
| the local assessors throughout the
state and then increase it by about
$300,000,000.
Duty Purely Ministerial.
This increase was based on the con-
vict.on that the local assessors had
failed to obey the law which requires
| them to assess property at its full
value. The supreme court holds that
| the duty of the state board of assess
| Ors in this connection is purely minis
| terial-that 1t is bound to take the
| assessments as returned to it, the pre-
sumption being that the local assess
ors have not failed to do their duty
and have assessed at full value. The
| board, under the order of the supreme
| court, granted the mandamus asked
| for by the Detroit board of education.
| will be obliged to lop off the additional
| assessment or value 1t placed upon
| the property Of the state, other than
| railroad property. This, of course,
| will increase the average rate and call
| for increased taxes from the rail-
road companies. The interest of the
| Detroit board of education in the mat
| ter lay in the fact that the taxes paid
| by these companies goes into the
primary school interest fund and
an increased rate means an increased
| revenue for the schools of the state.
To tell the truth the legislature did
| not accomplish great deal last week,
| The fact that several committees were
| absent during much of the week ac-
| counts for the fact that nothing was
| done with the more important meas
ures, such as the primary election bill,
etc. Matters are expected to move in
this direction during the present week,
| however.
| Advanced to Governors Desk.
| Two of the more than ordinary i'm
portant bills were advanced to the gov
ernor's desk These were the Bang
ham meat and slaughter house
inspection bill and the Moriarity bill
providing for releasing certain con-
victs on probation. The former meas
ure was rescued as brand from the
| burning, as It were, after having gone
down to defeat in the house. The
credit for this rescue is freely given
to Rev. Caroline Bartlett Crane of
Kalamazoo, who has been one of the
principal champions of the measure
from the beginning. AS finally passed
by the house the bill exempts stock
which farmers raise for the market
! and slaughter on their own premises,
and leaves it optional with cities and
villages to appoint inspectors of meat
markets and slaughter houses and ex-
act license fee from butchers. Mrs.
Crane promises to keep up the agita-
| ton in favor of better conditions I'M
| til q revolution has been accomplished
in this line. She engaged In the
work as chairman of a committee ap.
pointed by the state federation OF wo.
mans clubs and has been very ener.
! getic in her endeavors to bring about
a better condition of affairs.
| Worthy of Special Attention.
The Moriarity bill is marked de-
parture from existing laws governing
the handling of convicts and is, there.
fore, worthy of special attention. It
confers upon trial judges the power to
release convicts on probation, provided
such convicts have never been con-
| victed of crime or misdemeanor
Such release can be made after a
plea or verdict Of guilty in any case
where discretion is given the court
as to the extent of the punishment
to be inflicted, where 1t appears to the
satisfaction of the judge that the con-
Wet is not likely to again engage in
criminal practice and that the public
welfare will be as fully subserved as it
would be If sentence were to be In
Hicted. The operation of the law Is
as follows: Before passing sentence
the court before whom conviction was
had may place thp convict I'm tho chs