The Montgomery advertiser., 1907-03-31
TO REDUCE
 TAXES Is AIM State Commissioners Ex press This Hope. UNION SPRINGS MEETING Finds City Folk of Bullock Pay
 More Revenue. Judge Mtchen ana colonel Jenes Reiterate Their Desire to Make Taz Bursss. Mere Esaai
 in state.
BY WILL T. sHErHAN ].

WILL H. SnE<EnAN+ Union Springs, March 30.--(Special Correspondence.)- )--The State Tax Com mission looks forward to the day when the new Commission law having work ed out its destiny, according to the hopes of its makers, the Legislature can reduce the tax, rate of Alabama. The Commission is not prepared to say that the Legislature will do this, but the members of the Commission believe that so large will be the in- creased revenues from the operations of this law that the present tax rate will be materially reduced.
 This was the deliberate opinion of the Commission expressed today at It's conference with the Court of county. The Commissions opinion was expressed as an answer to question of Probate Judge A. E. Singleton.
 Nor does the Commission believe in level or horizontal raises of taxes. Judge Mitchell for the Commission re- pudiated that idea. Again he an- swered q question of Judge Mitchell when he made clear the position of the Commission on q horizoutar raise affecting every tax payer.
 "A horizontal general raise would be unfair. unjust and 1t would work many hardships," said Judge Mitchell. Tt would stand in the way of the purposes for which we are working, the purpose of seeing that every property owner pays a just and fair proportion of the taxes--our purpose to see that the burden of taxation Is equally distributed."
 what is Fair ThtnEF
 Against the Commission was faced with the pressing question: What do you think is fair percentage to assess property, shall we assess 1t at
  or eighty per cent. of it's actual val ue7" Judge Mitchell explained at some length that q direct answer to such a question was impossible.
 This is the second county we have been into." he said. We do not know. we cannot know, what the conditions are In other counties. In time we will visit all the counties. But we cannot know what the proportion of assessment is to the exact value of the property in each county until we have visited that county. At the end of this year we will no doubt be able to form an idea as to what the average per centage of assessment throughout the counties of the State gre at present.
 "But the Commission. even If 1t had this information, now could not ad- vise you to violate the lava. We are hero asking you to equalize taxes in your county. We are asking you 10 look for such inequalities as we have ,,etnted ont to you--to correct them-s to evenly distribute the burden Of tax ation in your county. This we hope you will do. We will watch you-- not in a critical spirit. but with ing terest to see the future of your work'
 No Back Tax Commissioners.
 q It was brought out that Bullock county had no Back Tax Commission CT. The Commission was frank in its statement that this was costly dedciency of the county government. Bnt the county will have one in short while. ;. The Court of Commits sioners seemed to agree that the aid of a Tax Commissioner was absolutely necessary in the important work they had undertaken and they want to get one at the earliest possible time.
 The County Commissioners met the Tax Commission in the afternoon and 1t Is understood that . commissioner was agreed upon. His appointment will no doubt be announced m re" days from the Governors office.
 The absence of the Commissioner was felt in many ways from the showing, as it was presented to the State Tax Commission. This showing was the long memoranda submitted by Seera- tary Lloyd and Mir. Powell It had been dug up out of the Probate Judges N-SoS1~SNtS According to the custom already es- tablished the representatives of the Commission had examined the Probate books for all recent real estate trans fers and then they had followed the transfers to the Assessors books. This is the model of the new plan on which the Tax Commission wants the Court of County Commissioners to work
 Hut in the discussion of the items and comparisons of the memoranda. 1t was discovered that there were an un- usually large number of escapes in Bullock. There were so many escapes that the Commission talked about them at some length. Some of the most valuable property set down in the memoranda had never been put on the assessors books. This was attributed in a large part to the lack of a T&x Commissioner.
 It was developed. too. that many de- scriptions were indefinite and not easily 4raceable. This was especially so of property in the town of Union Springs There was no plat book and no definite way of classifying town property. The State Commission was then moved to urge the County Com missioners to give every help and as- distance to the Tax Assessor.
 Help the Assessor.
 Furnish him with every facility for his work. It will pay the county to spend a little for this purpose. A Rack Tax Commissioner is indispen-