Martinsburg herald. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1881-1920, 1907-10-05


eTecting a saving to the taxpayers
To-. about twenty-five thousand dollars
lin several other districts reduced lev.
les are being urged. In no instance
where reductions were made have the
Interests of the schools been effected
disadvantageously In a large num-
| Der of cases larger school leyies are
laid. within the limits Of the law, than
are deemed necessary by the tax com
missioner office, but the levies were
allowed 10 stand upon representation
| Of the school boards that the amounts
levied would be needed.
In the laying Of county leyies, ia
Guiding road taxes, more or less sharp
controversies arose in ten counties as
to what Is the Imitation OF the levy
as defined by the law Of 1907 IN all
Instances. however, but two of the
county courts ultimately complied
with the rulings of the tax commits
sioner's Office. The county of Writ
decided to test the law and at the
September term Of the supreme court,
held at Charles Town, Jefferson coun.
ty, the matters involved were argued
and a decision Of the court is expect
ed shortly. Should the ruling OF the
tax commissioners office be sustained
1t is putting the matter conservatlgely
10 say that the aggregate saving TO
the taxpayers of the state, from IL
legal or excessive county taxes, will
amount for the current tax year to
fully fifty thousand dollars-possibly
much more.
The same vigilance has also been
exercised in regard to municipal lev
les. though there has been no contro.
versy as to the limitation by law or
the levies. The effort has rather been
to keep the levies within reasonable
limit.
1t Is probably not overstating the
mater to say that the action of the
tax commissioners office, as to levies
of all kinds, has saved to the taxpay-
ers of the state considerably over one
hundreded thousand dollars.
Other Important Work.
The preparation of the forms and
supervising the returns of the large
number of public service corporations
analyzing and compiling the same for
submission to the board of public
works, estimating the values, etc, is
of itself an enormous task, involving
months of labor and much of it of a
technical and expert character This
work is being further systematized
and improved.
The work of the Office embracing
all froms of taxation and including in
/ 5 scope the supervision of the entire
system of taxation. involves the enor
nous amount of correspondence with
assessors. clerks and other officials,
as well as the individual taxpayers,
aud several hundred rulings, involv-
ing the Interpretation of the tax laws
have been made during the past year.
The legal suits and important cases
in court have been too numerous to
in detail in this article, but
involve such important matters as the
appeals from the assessments made
by the board of public works of rail
road and other public service corpo-
ration property, leaseholds, compensa-
tion of sherffs. collection of capita
ton taxes, liability of liquor dealers
for increased taxes after May 22nd
assessments of bridges, limitation of
county court levies, etc These su is
have keep much property on the tax
duplicates. involving many millions of
dollars. have added increased reven-
ues to the state effecting savings,
etc
a Great Department