Five Mile Beach weekly journal., 1907-02-13
LANDSOF CAPE MAY REAL
ESTATECO. TOBE VALUED
Assessor Gilbert c. Hughes Must
Make a New Estimate
of its Worth
COUNTY BOARD ORDERS RE-ASSESSMENT
From the Cape May Herald

The Cape May County Board of Tax
alton in the matter of the appeal of the
Cape May Real Estate Company, from
assessment for the year 1906, has made
the following memorandum of judg
ment:
"The testimony taken at various hear
ings before this board shows that no
attempt has been made to ascertain the
true value of this property nor has the
question of its true value been hereto
fore given any consideration whatever
in the matter of its assessment.
at is freely and fully admitted by
all parties to the controversy, the as
SCISSOR, petitioner and the municipal
authorities, that the question of true
value has been entirely ignored and the
property has been both now and here
tofore assessed by mutual consent and
with mutual cooperation, upon a
wholly different basis clearly and
wholly illegal and not sustainable in
any tribunal.
"The common theory upon which all
parties proceeded was to fix the assessed
value if value it might be called) at
such figures as would produce an
amount of tax substantially sufficient
to indemnify the City of Cape May
from the increased expenses made nee
essary by bond issues which were in
turn necessitated by reason of the i'm
provements projected by the company.
In other words, that the projected inn
provements and those under construc-
tion, magnificent and vast as they UNI
questionably are, should, so far as the
City of Cape May was concerned, be
practically self sustaining until such
time as they would be completed.
Nothing more or less. This arrange
ment fully appears to have been made
by the municipal authorities of said
city and said company acting together
for what they probably deemed the
best interests of all concerned.
"This theory was originally devel-
oped not during the current year, nor
even the previous year, but at least two
years preceding the present one; and
the present assessor appears to
have simply followed regrettable pre-
cedent.
"Acting upon this theory, or rather
upon his construction thereof and fol-
loving .tlF5 n'lessssi sasses,ar -sncs. @1<eso-
fore established, the said assessor placed
upon the property for the year 1906, a
valuation of $990,500 basing this, as
aforesaid, upon the aggregate of the
various taxes which under his con-
struction of the said illegal agreement,
the city would find it necessary to de
fray its resulting obligations.
"The company denied its liability for
some of these obligations, alleging that
certain issue of bonds, the interest
whereof was included by the assessor
in his estimate were outside the agree
ment; insisted that those for whose de-
fragment it had assumed liability
would be met by taxation based upon
a valuation of 5000, 600; and asked that
the assessment be accordingly reduced
to that figure.
"These facts have been shown by
statement under oath of all parties con-
cerned; petitioner, assessor and munich
pal authorities, and are uncontradicted
"While the amount of the assessment
is strongly contested, the method of its
making is freely admitted alike by the
assessor and the company as well as
the city authorities.
"Its utter illegality admits of no
question.
"The petition of appeal brings the
whole subject matter of the assessment
squarely before the Board of Taxation
and clearly within its jurisdiction, and
under their oaths of office no escape can
be had from its adjudication.
"It appears to the Board that the
only judgment which can be safely
made and legally sustained, is to order
an assessment do novo of the property
of the Cape May Real Estate Company
as of the date of May Goth, A. d. 1906,
to be made forthwith by the assessor of
the City of Cape May, and in way pre-
scribed by law; having reference only
to the true value of said property on
said date.
"And it is the sense of this Board
that such an order be forthwith made,
subject to the approval of the State
Board of Equalization of Taxes"
Last Thursday Chairman Cole, of
the Board, served the memorandum
and an order on the City Assessor and
Real Estate Company, which directs
Assessor Gilbert G. Hughes to make an
assessment according to the provisions
of existing law, having reference only