The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1904-11-28

4
Thus it appears that there is no just
ground for complaint on the part of any
citizen of Hudson County as to the best
known and most valuable portion Of the
water front.
AS to the lands lying in front of the
lower portion of the County, from the
Morris Canal Basin to Constable Hook,
there is still less ground for complaint
The owners of the Ripa and upland on
all this front up to very recent time
We're direct descendants Of the first
Dutch settlers in the County. For two
hundred years they had had an oppor-
tunity to secure and improve these lands,
but they were very glad to sell the water
front with the rights TO secure the
States grant to any party who would
pay what they considered a good price.
Much has been thus sold and converted
| from absolutely useless land under water,
too shallow for commercial navigation,
which never paid one cent of tax, to the
uses of railroad companies, the Central,
Lehigh Valley, Pennsylvania. and the
National Storage Company, paying taxes
to Jersey City of over S225, ,000 annually,
one-third of this tax being from lands
which have never yet yielded one cent of
revenue to its owners.
As much more area as will eaqual all
the lands originally under water in the
section in front of old Jersey City and
Hoboken is still in the hands of the
State, untaxed and open to any one who
will pay a very reasonable price.
At a cost per acre of about one-half
the assessed value of the lands in front
+ of the old cities, these lands can be and
are being made much more valuable for
commercial uses.
Is it cause of complaint from Hudson
County that the lands within its political
boundaries, but outside its tax limits al
lowed by its own citizens for two hun
dred years to lie neglected, should be TAX
en-up with benefit to the school fund, and
| made to yield a tax revenue TO the city
by corporations, railroads and otherwise
North of Hoboken, the same rule has
prevailed. Where the old citizen-owner
saw a good chance to sell to a railroad,
| he has had no compunctiens about shut
ting the hinterland off from the water, but
there are still large tracts of which moth
ing could more benefit the tax payers of
the county than to have them taken up
by railroad or any other corporation,
and made to pay taxes where no taxes
have ever been paid before.
As for the Second complaint
1t is true that lands used for railroad
purposes have been by the law of 1884,
put in class by themselves, and taxed
at fixed rates.
The wisdom or equities of the law and
methods which have been practiced in
New Jersey for twenty years, for the tax
alton of railroad and canal property, and
which, while largely preventing State
tax, have paid millions of dollars into the
treasures of the municipalities of Hud-
son County, from sources which never
before paid a cent in taxation, has been
fully brought before you by the gentle
men who have preceded me.
But | submit TO this commission that
the intricate problem Of the taxation of
this great mass of property which, by the
unbroken preeedents Of legislature enact
ments, and judicial decisions in this State
for nearly seventy years since the first
locomotive turned a wheel on a rail in
New Jersey, has been placed in a separ-
ate class of taxation, cannot be deter
mined by the accident of Jersey City's
tax rate, by means Of the vagaries Of
omission or commission of her assessors,
or her present necessities being over or
under the fixed rate and methods which
the State has, for twenty years, deemed
sufficient to produce substantial equality.
and for the best interests of all the peo-
pie from Cape May to the Hudson.
A life prisoner in States prison at
Trenton might as well determine the
geology of New Jersey by the earth in
the walled prison yard, as you to settle
this question as our friends in the op-
position would have you do by the effect
which they claim the operation of the
law has upon certain condition of af-
fairs which the people and officials of
Jersey City have arbitrarily, and in ne
| glect of the law of the State brought
| upon themselves. producing an arbitrary
tax rate Of $2I75.
| say arbitrarily adyisedly, by an
application Of the same methods. the rate
| might be any thing. The only force that
has held the rate below $50 is the fear
of losing the advantage Of the Martin
act.
We have seen that if her assessors
I assessed at full value and included in
their assessment the personal property as
the law and constitution required they
should, the rate would at once drop be-
low the one and one-half per cent of
railroad taxation.
If her representatives on the Grand
jury of the county enforced the law upon
the other municipalities, to compel them
to assume their proper share of the mil
hon or more Of county tax. of which she
bears about twelve per cent more than
she should, the rate would drop
$s0000,000 invested in industrial
plants earning net $1,000 900 annually in
the city, or Is per cent Of the annual
gross earnings Of all the railroads in the
State, and the total assessed value Of all
real and personal estate is 500, ,904. 466.
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