The Montgomery advertiser., 1907-03-01
Tax Measure Ends
 Stormy Passage.
ARGUMENT ON PROPOSED
 LAW LASTS THREE HOURS
Many Changes Made from Original
 Form Presented.
County Boards Required to Sit With State officers In Advisory Capacity --Lines of Lower Branch
 sharr Drawn.

The tax commission bill. which has had a stormy passage through the House. was finally adopted at 1:ao O. clock yesterday afternoon. by q vots of sixty-one to twenty-three. The votes on three amendments that were offer ed. bringing out the strongest vote of the opponents to the measure, were forty-eight to thirty-four. forty-eight to thirty-seven and forty-eight to thir- ty-four.
 The lines were sharply drawn on practically all amendments submitted. of which there was a considerable num- Der offered. In consequence, but a sim gle amendment was adopted. beyond those accepted " the House Tuesday, and 1t was only q portion of an amend ment that was submitted. the fangs having been drawn before 1t was aI- lowed to be passed
 In the form In which this amendment was adopted, It, requires county boards to sit with the State Tax Commission, in a purely advisory capacity. and con- fer with the state commission as to lo- cal value, before the State commission, acting entirely independently and by itself. shall raise the assessed vaIua- tion of any property situated In that county
 The measure has had a strenuous time since 1t came up for consideration in the House nearly a week ago. The va rlcGs asr;sfl1 alea af es Sscrs 4t tiled EI5r considration by the House last Friday, the first one being passed, with the exception of the tax commission meas ure. which was defeated by very close vote.
 Bill Is Heavily Amended.
 The vote was reconsidered Monday, but only after the friends and suppor- ters of the bill had agreed. after hav- ing once declined to agree to the prop osition. to let the measure be gone ov- CT thoroughly by the Committees on Ways and Means again. That commit tee was in session for over four hours Monday afternoon, so many amend ments being Incorporated, that sub stitute bill had to be drawn up which was reported to the House Monday ev- ening.
 The measure was again taken up Tuesday and was the subject of pro- longed debate on the floor of the House all that day. until adjournment was taken for supper at o'clock in the afternoon. It was then continued over, with the amendments that had been adopted on the floor of the House dur ing the days discussion, for further consideration yesterday, when 1t was finally passed, after being considered again for more than three hours.
 MT. John of Jefferson County, who assumed the leadership on the bill yes- terday, made the statement on the floor of the House. that the tax commission bill had been argued longer and more thoroughly than any other three bills that had been before the House.
 The two amendments which caused the most trouble yesterday were offer ca Dy MT CoIellan or mafShall and MT. Tunstall of Hale. The two were ta bled, both on the motion of MT. John. by the same vote, forty-eight to thir- ty four, though the details of the vote were different.
 Would Make Members Elective.
 The Coleman amendment proposed to make the three members of the State tax Commission elective after the first officials had been appointed bv the Governor. It was already strenuousIv opposed by the supporters of the bilI. but received support from many mem bers of House.
 The Tunstall amendment proposed ,o permit a property owner to show thai he was paying taxes upon as large s proportion of his property as the aver age of the State. upon any hearing to raise his assessment. The proposaI y,ss to add the following to one oS ths sections of the bill:
 The intent of this act is thai all property in this State shall, as nearly as possible, be assessed on the same basis, and in the same proportion to its real value. and in all proceedings and in all hearings before the tax com mission and in all appeals to the cir cult courts. the tax payer may intro duce evidence tending to show that the assessment sought against his property is approximately greater than the average basis of assessment fixed by the tax commission, or greater than the average basis of assessment throughout the State or county"
 The tax commission bill was taken up immedir :ely upon the approval of the journal, according to the rule adop- ted Tuesday afternoon upon adjourn ment, without the consideration of any other business.
 It vas argued on motion of Mir. John of Jefferson, to take up the bill by sec tions. amendments being offered to each section in order as 1t was called.
 MT. sample of Morgan proposed an amendment to section one, preliminary to A series of amendments. striking ont six sections of the bill. relating to the creation of the new board, and placing the supervision of the county assessments with the present State Board of Assessment. The amendment was tabled on motion of MT. John of Jefferson.
 To Avoid Creating omces,
 MT. Tunstall of Hale propoSed to amend the second section of the bill by placing the dutie of the proposed new board upon the Governor, Auditor