Ladysmith news. [volume] (Ladysmith, Wis.) 1906-1907, 1906-07-14
The TEINJUNC TON
@. e. Peterson Makes a Statement OF
the Situation and His Reasons for
Securing the Injunction.

\ the Situation and A1s Reasons Tor
Securing the Injunction.
/ To the Public, In becoming the party
plaintiff to the action restraining the
city treasurer from paying the Menasha
Paper company rebate III their taxes,
I herewith submit the following as my
reasons for so doing:
Last year (1905) the Paper company
was assessed on its realty about S70,
00O If this rebate of S1028. 88 is grant
cd they will be paying taxes on a re-
duction of about $40, 600. Now we
haze two paper mills and if their taxes
are to be limited to only $500, they
will pay on a valus tion of $4,000 on
each paper mill.
Park Falls has one paper mill the
san size as ei.her Of those here. They
assessed their one paper mil 5000, 900.
If they had two paper mills as we have,
it is fair to presume they would tax
them on a valuation of $400, 900 or twice
the amount of the one they have now.
1t will be seen that the Park Falls
paper mill is paying ten times more
taxes on the same property than the
Ladysnnith paper mills are paying to
Ladysmith. If our local paper company
had paid taxes on their actual waltz
alton, the same as the rest of us, their
taxes would have been somewhere be-
tween eight and ten thousand dollars
instead of $500. A fair valuation of
the two paper mills now would be about
$500, 900. If our taxes were only 2 per
cent (they were 81 per cent last year,
they would be paying $4,000 in taxes
each year; in 10 years this would
amount to 100000.
The paper company asks to have their
taxes limited to $500 year for 10
years, which would amount to SIS, 900.
The differene between S1O0, 900 and
/ SIS, 900 is $85, 900, which the paper com
pany asks the tax payers of Ladysmith
to donate to them. The paper company
has offered to give Ladysmith $500 to-
ward public library for rebating their
taxes S85, 900.
The total valuation of all property in
Ladysmith for 1905 as given by the as
SCISSOR was about S525, 900, the total
taxes were about 500, 900. Placing the
valuation of all city property at $500, coo
and the paper mills at $500, 600, it is not
hard to figure out that we will have a
marked reduction in our taxes. 1t is
unlawful and unjust to rebate any per-
sons taxes; it is unlawful and unjust
for the assessor to assess the rich man
only 10 per cent on his property and
the poor man 100 per cent on his pro-
perty.
The local paper mill officials have
stated that their mills were earning 100
per cent profit ON their investment.
The rest of US are glad to make 10 per
cent on our investments and we don t
ask for any rebate on our taxes.
AS soon as the court has decided on
the legality of this rebate ! shall ask
the state tax commission to make a re-
assessment of all our city property in
accordance with Chapter 259, Laws Of
1905.
The commission has informed me that
they would take action as soon as proper
complaint was made. It would be an
excellent idea to have the tax commits
sion re-assess the property of some 9TH
er towns in our county, and | have rea-
son to believe this will also be done.
| have reasons tie believe that certain
parties may charge me with taking this
action because of the manner in wkich
my interest in the water power frar-
chise was stolen from me. Any state
ment of this kind is not true. AS soon
as my attorneys are ready | am going
into court to test the validity of this
transfer and learn whether a person. s
property can be taken from him with
out his knowledge or consent or any
consideration whatever.
The trend of public sentiment is for
square deal" Every person or cor
poration should bear the burden of tax
alton according to the actual valuation
of his property. That is the law in this
state.
Our taxes are too high. If all pro-
perty is assessed at it's true value our
taxes will be low, less than 2 per cent.
O. E. Peterson.
This article was offered to ali the
Ladysmith papers for publication in the
interest of public information.
O. E. P.