River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1903-12-17


ty to the town of Trimbelle, and you are
| hereby requested to make proper pro-
/ vision for the payment of said sum OF
/ Seven Hundred Thirty Nine and 50-10(
/ LYMAN HEALY,
i JAMES GILMORE,
/ Special County Bridge Committee.
The annual report of the County
Clerk was received and referred to the
committee to settle with that officer.
! Supervisor of Assessment VIM. l..
Gilman read his report which was on
motion ordered to be filed.
| Gentlemen and Members of the County
| Board:
| In accordance with Sec. s, Chap. AS.
Laws of 1901, it is my duty as Super
the annual ses sion of this Board, to the
best of my knowledge, the work OF the
assessors in the several assessment DIS
trcts in the county, the failure of asses
sors in complying with the law. the rel
alive assessed value to the true value,
and all the information that | may nave
been able to obtain, that will be or any
benefit to YOU in arriving at AUST equal
ization of ali property which is taxable
in the County, in the several assessment
districts, in which all taxpayers are in
terested.
In 1902 made examinations Of the pub
lie records in the county according to
the instructions of the Tax Commission
for the purpose of uncovering intan-
gibles and getting them onto the assess
ment rolls, and I think / am justified
in saying that we were somewhat sue
cessful for we added something like
$500, 900 dollars Of intangibles onto the
assessment rolls that had never paid one
cent of tax before, and during the first
four or five months of 1903 pursued the
same course that I had been working
under the previous year, and were in
fair way to add one-third more to our
assessment in 1903 over 1902, even though
were were laboring to a great disadvan-
tage with the shrewd tax dodger on ac-
count of the existing law providing for
the exemption of so much of the credits
due or to become due as shall equal his
bona fide unconditional debts by him
owing. Innocent as this law may APP
pear at the first glance. nevertheless 1t
is one Of the worst stumbling blocks up
on our statute books, because it works
injustice to the average property owner
on account of allowing debts to be de-
Quoted from the assessments of credits,
which are practically all in the possess
sion of the shrewd business man or the
shrewd capitalist and as a rule they are
not very slow in making oath, that they
owe nearly as much as the assessing Of
hcer is able to find in their possession,
while the average farmer and the labor
er has large amount of debts, but
which under the law cannot be deducted
from his property. But I claim that
their debts are just as honest, and just
as much entitled to be deducted from
their property as the other fellows. Dis
couraglng as this law was to the Assess
ing OfIlcer, only to make matters worse
the legislature of 1903 enacted a law
called the Mortgage Tax Law pro-
viding for the assessment of mortgages
as an interest in the land by which it is
secured. or in other words, enacted a
law exempting mortgages, (when you
put it in plain words that is just what it
leads to-. With the exemption of mort
cages and the exemption of so much
credit as shall equal his Indebtedness
the assessing officer is stared in the face
by a most difficult proposition. And it
hardly seems just and honorable to an
unpreJudiced official to dig up property
belonging to a helpless Individual hold
ing Few notes and perhaps a little
money, and the shrewd man with an en-
ormous amount of mortgages and credits
goes skat free.
1t matters not how much the assess
ing officer may find in the possession OF
such parties that are opposed to paving
their just share of the burden of taxa
ton, even though he may find an enor-
nous amount Of credits held by him, and
assess it to him, he is invariably pre-
pared with papers, purporting to show
that he is indebted to friend or relative
residing outside of the State, land will
ing to take oath" that he owes perhaps
nearly as much as the most diligent as
SCISSOR is able to find against him. But
there is nothing that your honorable
plorable conditions, and l merely men
ton it here to give you an idea of the
disadvantages the Assessing Officer is
confronted with in combating with the
shreWd and willy tax dodger.
The assessors as a rule, with the ex-
ception of a few, have complied with
the law. but their time for assessing tn
year was very limited, on account of not
receiving the assessment rolls when they
should have received them. The asses
sors of this county invariably are made
q and fhn of
ing carried them into the time OF hay
ing and harvest, and they were vely
much inclined to try and rush the work
of assessing with a view of getting
through and entering the harvest field
L have made pretty thorough exam
ination of every assessment roll in the
has tried to comply with the law in as
sesslng at full value, and also in listing
personal property. But generally where
the assessor has dared to do right and
with the law, the Boards Of Review
have taken the bull by the horns and re-
duced the valuation to suit their own
taste, not because they thought the as
SCISSOR had placed too high a valuation
on the property, but purely and simply
because they We're afraid that they
would suffer at the hands of the County
Board in the equalization of the prop
erty in the County.
Those Boards of Review have stepped
beyond their powers. They had no au-
InOrlCy TO reduce the valuation or the
assessor. 1t was intentional deception
and l want to call their attention to
Sec. g. Chap. 379, Laws of 1901, relating to
liabilities and penalties of members of
Boards of Review. And 1 want to APP
peal to you gentlemen of this Board,
where you find that the assessor has
dared to do right and assess at full value
and where the Boards of reviews have
dared to uphold the hands of the as
SCISSOR for making an honest assessment,
1 plead with you to see that that assess
ment district will not suffer at your
hands in the equalization of property
throughout the county. If there is any
doubt in your minds as to equality in
values give the honest assessor the bene-
fit of that doubt, and by so doing you
will encourage others to be honest
Under TIE direction of the State Tax
Commission, and upon blanks furnished
by them, I have prepared tables showing
the relative assessed value and the true
value of all real and personal property
in the county.
The method that I have pursued this
year in arriving at the true value of real
estate was for the Supervisor of Assess
ment to place a value on a number of
parcels IN each assessment district in the
county. Dividing the total assessment of
same parcels by the total value as fixed
by Supervisor of Assessment gives us the
ratio of assessed value to true value,
having the ratio I divided the total as
sessment of district by ration gives me
the true value. Now I am aware that the