The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-09-20
BRANDON ADDRESSES
 STATE TAX ASSESSORS

effective in eaualizing the values in Ala barna I know that it is the earnest de- sire of the state tax commission to equal ize the taxes in all the counties and you can greatly aid the commission in this arduous undertaking by a careful discharge of your duties.
 Under our laws the assessor is not merely to receive the assessmenS as handed him by the taxpayer, but 1t is made his duty to fix the value of every item, and in a careful discharge of his duty he could see that every taxpayer was equally sharing the burden and one value was not excessive to another.
 The assessment of the railroad property is left to a board consisting of the gover- nor, the auditor, the treasurer, the secre- tary of state and the attorney general. You know the result of the assessment this year.
 This board worked for weeks to find the value of this property, and assess them equally. according to their value; and the result was about s15,000,O00 raise of values. All property should share alike If property is assessed too high, according to the value it should be re- duoed. If too low, it should be raised. The last legislature fixed a value on in- tangible assets. which is in the hands of the state tax commission, and they have fixed the values in Alabama at 01 100000 With this. of course, you as an assessor, have nothing to do, ex- cept to see that the proportionate share of your county is properly placed upon the tax books of your county.
 The poll tax, as you know, is volun- tary but I thing the people generally should be given notice at the time of tax payment that are due poll tax, and be given an opportunity to pay same, as many do not pay it rather from neg lect than desire to be relieved from the payment. In connection with our system, assessors cannot be too careful in the description of property, and should use every endeavor to avoid double as- essment, for many pieces of property are illegally sold for taxes, because of erro- neous assessments by assessor. The ques- ton of the assessment of solvent credits is a much mooted question. It is my opinion that any deed of trust. contract of conditional sale, mortgage, or paper of like character, upon which no privilege or mortgage tax has been paid, would be subject to taxation, for the reason that if no recording tax had been paid it would escape taxation altogether. If the mortgage or recording tax has been paid it would be exempt from advalorum tax, otherwise 1t would be double taxation. The revenue collected on the mortgage tax, which Is 15 cents on every s10O dollars filed for record during the current year to date was $103, ,625. .s6. In addition to the lexy of taxes revenues are raised by special taxes, not on value but in the nature of licenses, or privi- leges taxes levied on persons carrying on business for which q license is re- quired. From this privilege or license tax during the current year the sum of $43S, 927.i9 was realized. There is now q franchise tax upon the capital stock of ts.,,- iah i- T through the probate judge of the various counties into the state treasury, and surely foreign capital invested in Ala bama should equally bear the burdens of government as well as home capital. The insurance department also brings a reve- nue to the state by a tax on insurance companies doing business in this state, and from this source we realized the current year the sum of sl15 SS9.01. The convict department as now managed Is a source of revenue to the state, and we received from this department the current year the sum of S646 334 90, and it will probably increase this year.
 The sale of fertilizer tags is also a source of revenue and from this source was raised about $90, ,9l4. 43.
 This about covers the sources from which revenues are derived and shows the system from which your state re- ceives it's funds. These funds are con stantly being placed back through vari- ous channels into the development of the state in the execution and maintenance of law. Through these various mediums, since October 1. 1906, todate, Alabama col sected $3,972 22 93. and has spent $3,S60 167 05.
 l believe with the new laws passed by the legislature and the enhanced value of property that the coming year will be largely increased, but it must be re- membered that there are more than a million and one-half liabilities for ap- propriatlons made by the last legisla ture, oyer q million of which is for schools and old soldiers. Revenue is necessary to a fast growing state, but only so much revenue should be taken from the people as will meet the de- mands of a properly administered gov ernment,