The Birmingham age-herald., 1904-02-24
.SEDBERRY FILES A
 VERY WARM REPORT
Charges Officials of Bibb COun-
 ty With Negligence
TAXES ARE MUCH TOO LOW
The Assistant Examiner Makes Strong Complaint and Says That New Tax Assessor and commis-
 sioner Are Needed.

sioner Are Needed.
 Montgomery, February 2S,-(Special)- The tax assessment of Bibb county is made the subject of a hot report to the governor on the books of the officials of that county by Assistant Examiner sed- berry, which were filed today. The report was read by the governor with something like consternation, and it Is very like ly that immediate steps will be taken to have a more equitable assessment.
 Bibb county is looked upon as one of the richest counties in the state, having third the largest output of coal, and there are also valuable pine and hard wood forests that are practically un- touched. And yet the examiner says that the lands are assessed at from 50 cents to 8 per acre. In his report on the books of Assessor T. c. Wallace, Mr. Sedberry makes this comment:
 q find the assessment books as prepared by Mir Wallace for the year 1903 practi- cally correct so far as the mechanical part of the work is concerned. As to the valuation of property, both real and per- sonaL it Is far below what it ought to be-so low, indeed, that the entire tax l received by the state from this county is barely sufficient to cover the amount paid back to the county by the state for school purposes, pensions to Confederate sold iers, etc.
 Valuation Should Be Double.
 This ought not to be the case, es- pecially in a county such as this-rich and prosperous in mineral wealth, tim Der lands and railroad mileage beyond any other county in the state with only two or three exceptions. The valuation of property in this county certainly ought to be more than double what 1t is now assessed at, and I think the facts amply justify me in saying that it could and would be so if the assessor would even | halfway do his duty. l have talked with nearly all the officers and many citizens, 1 who without exception, agree with me in | this opinion.
 Tt Is fact disclosed by witnesses ex- amined under oath, that the assessor rare " administers the oath required by law to De administered by the assessors to all parties who make assessment; and fur ther, he permits the property owners to fix the value of their own property an parently without regard to it's real value. when the law plainly requires that this should be done by the assessor himself The assessed value of lands in the conn 1 " varies from 50 cents to S3 per. acre averaging about $1.25 Thousands of acres l embracing the most valuable coal and timber lands in the county, are owned by large corporations and are assessed at about the last named price, when 1t is 1 well Known that $10 to $15 per acre has been repeatedly offered and refused for 1 them.
 Testimony of One Witness.
 "l desire to call especial attention to l the testimony of one witnes sexamined by me. He was a country merchant. He testified that he sold annually about s7O00 worth of goods. The record shows that he paid tax on a $500 stock of merchan- l disc. This one fact is convincing to my mind that the county badly needs a new ana competent tax assessor and a new and competent tax commissioner as we'll Below 1 hand you a statement of val ues as shown by the assessment books of 1903 to which l invite your attention.
 Total value of real estate, inelud- Ing town property. 594.036 l Total value of personal property.
 not including railroad. 533, ,3S6 Assessed value of railroad mile
 age, included under general
 head as personal property...... 1oi9,965
 Total assessment. ................. s25s7.ss7 i "On the above amount the state re- ceves for general tax $6,34347. special sol dier tax $2537.3S, special school $76l21 H. l Total. S16492.99.
 Reporting on the books of County Sup i erintendent of Eudueation R. H. Pratt, I Examiner Sedberry says:
 Pratt's Accounts in Confusion. While there is no evidence or even indi- cations that Mir Pratt has been guilty of any intentional wrong, it is a fact that his accounts are in very great confusion. He has not been careful in dlsbursing 1 the school funds placed in his hands. having paid out large sums of money to persons claiming to be teachers without proper vouchers being filed by them. In some cases where vouchers were filed, he l has overpaid them. At other times he l has paid them without any voucher at all, at least there are very many cases wherein no voucher or teachers report was furnished me.
 'It is true MT. Pratt has pay rolls signed in name of teachers alleged to have l been paid and he has his bank checks | showing that the money was paid them by the bank. but in the many cases named below he has no reports whatever | from teachers showing they had earned the money or taught the school for which they were paid. Hence the money paid them in such cases was done wholly without authority of law.
 | 'I therefore charge him with the various amounts paid out. amounting in the aggregate to $2775.0s. It may be due ! to MT. Pratt to say that he claims to have had vouchers for all of the several amounts charged to him but has either I lost or misplaced them. He thinks 1e can produce many of them if he is allowed | time to do so
 l Teachers Should Learn Better. ! "In closing this report beg permission to report what I have said in former re- ports on the same subject 1t appears that some of the county superintendents and many of the teachers as well, have an
 idea that the school law should be com | piled with in but one particular. which
 is that the state must furnish the money to pay teachers because the law says so and that they should be allowed to dis | pose of it without regard to the palnest | requirements of the law. It is high time | they were learning better. They should l be made to understand that they must render full, complete. exact and rigid account of all the money passing through | t,.f- Ion. T