Perth Amboy evening news., 1906-08-15
Vss5BHION ON
LOCAL PLANTS
State Board to Investigate the
Taxation Problems in
This Vicinity.
NEW BRUNsWICK, AUG. la.

ms Vicinity.
NEW BRUNSWICK, Aug. ID
Acting under the advice of Major
Carl Ientz. who with Charles G..
Black. came here to represent the
state hoard of tax equalization at the
Joint meeting OF the boards, yester-
dav. as told in the NEWS, the county
board of equalization will first try
courtesy and then, if need be, legal
method to determine whether the
conner reducing plants along the
Rarltan and Staten Island sound and
the Lehigh Coal company are tax
dodgers or Soaked" corporations in
the matter of assessments.
It has generally been believed that
the reducing plants and the coal
ccmnany have been inadequately as
sessed in the past. Major Lentz said
he discovered such TO be the case six
wears ago, when he paid a personal
visit to the plants and corrected the
evil in part. President ~Schlessinger,
CT the county board, said there had
been an increase of about 200 per
cent. in the assessments since that
time.
This increase and a further pro-
posed increase is resented by the
companies, who demand exemption
Of personal property on the ground
Of interstate commerce. They assert
that the copper and other ore sup
plies on hand at the works are not
assessable because they are in tran
sit from the mines to their custom
crs in other states, and as such can
rot be assessed and taxed. They are
merely detained at the plants for
treatment, they claim, and then they
continue their transit to destinations
set by the companies sales agents in
New York.
The Guggenheims are in exception
to this claim, however. They have
another plan for claiming a reduc-
ton in assessment. On May 20 each
year they make q return of their per-
sonal property and ores on hand,
about $500, 900, as this year, and set
off against it an Indebtedness of
$125,000, leaving a taxable balance
OF $4,000.
The Lehigh Coal company also
sets up the claim of interstate com
MERGE exemption, claiming that it's
storage coal is merely in transit, and
IL therefore not assessable.
Mr.. Black thought these were diff
cult cases to handle, owing to the alb
sence of facts. Major Lentz shrugged
his shoulders and told the board to
get at the facts. He would be court
eous first, he said, and if that did not
clear the situation, he would hire an
expert bookkeeper for about 500,
subpoena the b~ookkeepers of the cor
porations before the board with their
books, and determine from them
them whether the ores were really
in transit or whether they were in
storage for sale from there.
Major Lentz said that the manu-
%facturers should be treated fairly,
and that 1t was better to sin on the
side of omission rather than load up
the burdens Oil concerns that were
distinct benefits ITO the community
they were in.
Mr.. Haney said that in the case of
the Maurer works this feeling was
general, because Mr.. Maurer had
done a good deal for Perth Amboy,
such as building schools.
"Well," said Major Lentz, 1.-The
fact that a nan builds a school does
not exempt him from taxation. He
must be just before he can be gener-
GUS"
1t was then decided to visit the
plants next Monday and try to obtain
the facts, by courtesy. Major Lent
will come up from his summer homo
at Belmar, and Mr.. Black will como
down from Jersey City.
Major Lentz declared that there
were many districts in MiddlcseX
which needed a raise in their assess
ments. He specified Woodbridge as
a poorly assessed township, and add
ed that he believed New Brunswick
had the only decent assessment in
the county.
New Brunswick and Perth Am
10y are about on a par" corrected
Mr.. Haney.
Mr.. Haney went on to declare that
New Brunswick was so dead, very
little increase in assessment (the
process he previously referred to as
'soaking'D could be made. With
Perth Amboy it was different, and he
pointed out why assessments have
been and may be expected to be in
! creased there.
THE people at Perth Amboy," he
said, ARE crazy. They buy a prop
erty today and over night it doubles
in value. Several months ago |
bought a property for $4,000. l
went west Immediately after. Sever
nj weeks later I came back and sold
the same property for $%1S,000."
1t is possible this enlightenment
Upon Perth Amboy's growing valua-
lions may be used to force upon the
property there q considerable in
crease. At Newark there was a so
per cent. increase. Woodbridge,
Roosevelt and Raritan townships al
so face a considerable increase under
the new regime. which has for it's
object the reduction of the tax rate
by raising assessments, so that the
railroads may get a low average rate
and escape the payment of that pre-
dicted $4,000, 600 increase.
Reported Daniel Wcbster's Speeches.