Amador ledger. (Jackson, Amador County, Calif.) 1875-19??, 1908-12-11
CARELESS OWNERS.
Controllers office swamDed BY
Calls for Tax Redemption
Certificates.

Tax redemption certificates are
coming in to the office of the state
controller at the rate of two hundred
and forty or two hundred and fifty
per day from the various counties.
There Is always a rush of these oerti-
flcates during taxpaying time, but
the number received this year is
larger than in any preceding year,
and each year marks a considerable
increase over the year before. State
controller Nye, in speaking of this
subject, said:
1.-The more | see of this business,
the more l am impressed with the
magnitude of the evil of uninten-
tIonal tax delinquency. It is grow
ing rapidly, because with the sub
division of real estate more and more
people become owners, and because a
certain proportion of them will
always forget to pay their taxes or
will in some manner fail to do so,
even when they do not forget. To
illustrate the point, l Will say that
the assessor of San Alateo county
states that within the last two years
900 lots have been cut up in that
county and most of them sold off,
the sales being made not only in
California, but all over the United
States. 1t is certainty that good
many Of these people will, through
neglect, ignorance, or other cases,
fail to pay their taxes and ultimately
lose their property.
Every year there is a vast mum Der
of sales of property to the state for
delinquency. The number of REDEEM p -
ton also grows rapidly, and this year
we will have at Iesat 10000 of them.
Still, a great many people whose
property is sold do not redeem and
ultimately lose it.
After sale of property for de.
linquent taxes is made to tht state
there is period Of five years before
the state can take a deed. During
that five years the property continues
to be assessed to the owner. Many
persons miss year in paying their
taxes and afterward go on paying
their taxes regularly, and a good
many of them fail to discover that
the property has been sold to the
state until years later, when it has
been decided and perhaps disposed of
by the state to some speculator. AT
any time after a deed to the state has
been made a person who desires. to
buy the property from the state can
make application to the tax collector
and in due time a sale is author
lied. After sale by the state there
is DO way IN which the property
owner can redeem. His property is
lost, unless he can buy it back from
the purchaser, who generally wants
all it is worth or little more.
"This is such difficult and com
plicated subject that it is almost i'm
possible to suggest a remedy. But
| lu6IG 10 OnO pIOISCJlUu W bu6 DIO
perty owner which would be of great
service if the law we're generally
observed. When property has beer
sold to the state for the taxes Of one
year, the tax collector is required tt
stamp on next years tax bill tht
words, Sold to the State which
naturally puts the taxpayer on his
guard and he can then redeem fol
the year he failed to pay. But {
good many tax collectors fail to oh
serve this provision of law, and there
is no penalty provided to act as az
incentive and make them recollect
AT the last session of the legislature
senator Belshaw introduced a bill tt
create a penalty, but 1t was so late il
the session when the measure wa
presented that it failed to pass.
is to be hoped that this and any otheI
device which promise to serve as
protection to taxpayers, and not t.
embarIass the revenue officers. will
, be looked after by the coming legis
lature. "-Sacramento News.