The Montgomery advertiser., 1907-05-14
WILL OTHER PROPERTY RE TAXED
 IN SAME PROPORTION.

Is $73,S66,575 This valuation does not include the depots, section houses. tanks. wharves, tools and machinery, or any real estate belonging to the Railroad Companies. except their right -of-way easements.
 The valuation of Railroad property by the State Board. for the year 1906, was s5s.426,072.35. So the increase this year amounts to s15.44o,5oS.o5. a raise of slightly more than 26.42 per cent.
 The amount of increased valuation in this class of property this year is more than double that made during any preceding year for the last thirty years, or probably in the whole his tory of the State. It is nearly double the average yearly increase in values of all property assessed for taxation in the State (including Railroads) during the last thirty years. It is over one half of the amount of the increase in assessed values of all property in the State between 1905 and 1906. which was the largest during the last twenty years.
 The total assessed value of all prop erty In the State for the year 1906 Gin clading Railroads) was 71,s27.0O, as shown by the State Auditors report for the fiscal year ending September 30th, 1906, on page 2s.
 If the total assessed value of all fp ha lot roads) for the year 1907. is increased in proportion to the State Boards raise on Railroad property, the total valua- tion this year will be over $473,660, ,250.- % or very approximately one hundred million dollars
 The increase in assessed valuations in the State during any year within the last thirty years {and probably within the history of the State) has never even approximated one-haif the sum mentioned above (viz s100,00O,- ooo'oo) which is to be expected. if the property of individuals and cornora- tons other than railroads are increas- ed proportionately to the increase placed upon the rail1 pads this year.
 The increased burden in State taxes "hich VIII he borne by the railroads thls year bJ reason of the raises made by the Board, will amount to s1oo. ssa.- 27, which goes into the State Treas ury. It means considerably more than this amount additional to be paid in county and municipal taxation. as the county levies average very materially, higher than the State tax rate of 6 1-2 mills.
 The worst part of 1t for the rail- roads, however, is that this is not all. They are not yet "out of the woods" because they will still have to run the gauntlet of the State Tax Commission which is to add to the valuations, fixed by the Board, what the Commission considers to be the full cash values of the franchises or invisible and in- tangible assets of the railroads; the railroads being required to return to the Tax Commission statements of all of their tangible properties in this and every other State, their mileage here and elsewhere, all of their stocks and bonds, with market and par values of same. their earnings and expenses in this State. and elsewhere, etc.
 From these returns and information obtained otherwise. the Tax Commits sion is supposed to value the entire property of each railroad system in its entirety and arrive at what they consider the just proportional value of that portion of the line In Alabama. They then deduct the assessed valua- ton of the tangible property in Ala bama from tho total and assess the balance as the franchise or intangible assets of the corporation.
 Even then. the railroads have not emerged from the woods. there is an admission fee to be paid by every for eign corporation for the privilege of doing business in Alabama, (to be paid once only) although the corporation has compiled with all existing laws and paid the taxes then required when it has heretofore admitted to do busi- ness in the State. Moreover, there is ans annual franchise tax to be paid by them, in the nature of a license for the privilege of exercising their cor porate functions in the State of doing business here. When the State is through taxing the roads, 1t seems that the roads will have a pretty strong argument for maintaining present rates, if not for increasing them. They must live so 1t would seem to think ing people. careful inquiry into the history of the taxation of railroads in this State will show that they bore over 1870 of the ad valorem taxes of the State last year (making very little allowance for the valuation of their To- cal property, which can only be esti- mated) and that this is a larger per centage than railroads pay in any sur rounding State. except Florida. In Florida the railroads paid 1S. 527 per cent of the total ad valorem taxes during 1905 (the total not ob- tainable, which Is due to the large railroad mileage in that State in pro- portion to the population of the State, though the valuations of railroad prop erty per mile there will not average more than about one-half of the aver age for Alabama
 Moreover, the railroads in the South ern states pay an unusually high pro- portion of the total taxes--much larg- CT than in the Northern and Eastern