The Montgomery advertiser., 1907-03-29
MUST ASSESS AT FULL VALUE Decision of State Tax
 Commission. HOLDS MEETING IN BARBOUR Informal Session With Board ot
 Revenue. Judge Mitchell Makes Clear Method of Procedure of the states New Inauisstoriai Body--Goes
 te Bullock.
BY WILL r. SIBERIAN.

EufauIa. March 2s.--(Special.) )-Ap- bearing in an advisory, rather than an executive capacity. the state Tax Coin, tn,, by the Legislature, held its first meet, ing today. The Board of Revenue ana the tax officers of the county met 6y participated in the general but infor- Tnal discussion of tax values ana as- easements in Barbour County.
 The Commission made no raises n tax assessments. But out of what was said and done, unmistakabie sisnin- canoe came that the Commission ex- bour County to make same. The visit of the Commission, however. was all in all reassuring. Presidens Lee s' stt stt pains to expain the mission of the Com we come to advise with you" he tigate. to ascertain if there are any have found from the figures which Msl Hlaring eain ineousiities. We ask the Board to correct these inequalities. to look carefully after the tax values of wifi do that. We are not here asking you to do anything radical. We do not want you to do anything radical: We only want you to eqTaltze, adjust assessments of your county"
 Farm and Town Property.
 The Commission. by no means con- fined itself, in Its investigations to corporation property, as some errone- ously believed it would do Its first meeting was devoted exclusively to the consideration of farming property and town property In the towns of Eufau- Ia and Clayton. The Commission had before 1t a list Of transcripts. showing real estate transfers made in Barbour County for the past three years. This list had been prepared by Secretary Lloyd, who has been In Eufaula since An item in the list contained the location of the property. it's extent, the name of it's sellers and the name of its purchases. The item then setforth the saxea. ae The S Secretary f of % the %Commis- sion had had considerable communion with the Probate records before the list was prepared.
 This list. with it's exhibit of pur- chase price and it's amount given in for taxation was the text from which President Mitchell spoke. as he talked to the officials. of Barbour county sion. He would remove. he said. the impression that the Tax Commie- sion would arbitrarily raise assess ments in a county of the values of which. the members of the Commission were necessarily ill-informed. But the members of the Commission could detect and had detected inequalities and dlscriminations in assessment.
 
 no doubt would remove those inequal- tiles and discrimination. At the present time the Tax Commission, the duties of which were new to It's mem- determinations and pointing them out to the Board of Revenue.
 It developed in the hearing or rather the conference that Barbour county it's tax assessments. Tax Assessor R, M. McEachern insisted that the Commission investigate and declare whether tax valuations were lower in ing counties. Some of the papers in the State had seen fit to go out o1 their way to level shafts of criticism at the county and to charge that citi- zance of it's officers were avoiding their just obligations.
 Injustice to Barbour.
 Out of his personal knowledge Col. bour county lands appeared to be as sessed at just as high price as tht lands of the counties which adjoineG 1t. He pointed out that the average was ten cents au acre higher than the average land assessment in Henr5 county, althou9h it was asserted tha the Henry county lands were better farming lands than those of Barbour county. The land values appealed ta be quite as high as those of all thu ueighboring counties.
 It was made apparent at the meet ing that the Commission, was going t. stick close to the tax law. The com mission. while 1t proceeded cautiousl! and with the idea that much mtgh be lost by haste nevertheless, mad 1t understood that the law was to b. observed in fullness and completeness
 The commission declined to commi itself to any standard of fixing ta' values. It declined to say whetbe property should be assessed by tn members of the Board of Revenue a seventy per cent. of what the member of the Board knew 1t to be actual, worth or at eighty per cent. of tha amount. Cliff A Locke, member O the Board from Eufaula. stressed tha point and seemed eager to have tn commission draw guide line for tn Board
 Locke Wants to Know.
 T understand the Commission ds sires to equalize all taxes and my pui