Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1904-02-25
EXEMPTED PROPERTY
More Than Half of District
Realty Nom Taxable.
THE PERCENT GES
TAXPAYERS MEET EXPENSES ON
SMALL ASSESSMENT LIST.
Summary Of Figures Supplied by As
SCISSOR Darneille Upon Request
of Commissioner West.

From more than one-half of the real prop
erty in the District of Columbia the Dis
trict government derives no tax revenues,
according to a statement submitted to
Commissioner West today by Hopeweil H.
Darneille, the District assessor. To be
more explicit. SHOT per cent of all the real
property in the District Is either mon
taxable" or exempted from taxation un-
der special provisions of the law, and Of
this large percentage Of property free from
taxation 1892 per cent Is owned by the
government Of the United States. Elimi-
mating the non-taxable and exempt prop
erty from consideration, 1t is shown that
AZ. 1893 per cent of the property in the Dis
trict is obliged to bear the Districts one
half share of the expense Of running the
local government.
The statement submitted by Assessor OAR
nellie today has been prepared at the re-
quest of Commissioner West in response to
motion made in the Senate about two
months ago by Senator Galhnger.' The
statement is quite comprehensive. and COM
prises list of each piece of property in
the District from which no tax revenues
are derived. The statement will be sent
to the Senate and later will be printed as
public document.
The total assessed value OF property in
the District of Columbia is placed at $497,-
1925. and Of this amount $2S3, SOC, 848 is
either non-taxable or exempt from taxa
ton. All of the property belonging to the
United States which amounts to %. 1872 per
cent of the whole amount Of real property
In the District, 10 non-taxable, and III per
cent OF the whole amount Of property be-
longing to the District is also non-taxable.
The remaining 2.765 per cent Of non-rev-
enue-Dearing property in the District Is
owned as follows: Legations, OH per cent;
religious institutions. LII per cent; chari-
table institutions. o.43 per cent; educational
institutions, OS4e per cent; cemeteries, O.OS4
per cent; Chesapeake and Ohio canal, O.022
per cent.
The Commissioners yesterday granted
hearings relative to the exemption of three
additional pieces of property owned by re-
ngious institutions or associations, and
there are several other requests for exemp-
ton of property now under cOnsidera ton
by the District authorities In view of the
large amount of property owned in the Dis
trict by the federal government, the amount
of property in the District on which no
taxes are paid Is regarded extraorG
narily large. and recently private citizens
and citizens associations have begun to
discuss with unusual interest the subject
of exemption of property in the District.
Favors Strict Construction.
The District assessor has gone on record
as in favor of strict construction Of the
law in cases of applications for exemption
Of property on grounds that the same Is
used for religious, charitable or educational
purposes, and several. other officials have
expressed themselves as opposed to increas-
ing the amount of property exempt from
taxation in the District Because Of the
federal government owning more than half
of the real property IN the District, 1t is
explained, the United States undertakes to
pay one-haf of the expenses; OF the mu-
nicipal government ,r-s--
The following table of figures shows the
amount of on-taxable and exempt property
in the District together with the value of
the exempted property owned by different
interests: