Putnam patriot., 1908-11-13


 value on your property, you can leave that 10 the assessors, if you wish: it simply requires that you make list.
 The theory that every able. bodied man should bear certain minimum portion of the government expenses, was firmly held by the early inhahi- tants of Connecticut.
 The profits of any and all lucrative professions, trades and occupations, ex- een; huseandry and common labor for hire, were taxed under what was called the .sfaculties and income tax" In 1880 law was passed requiring all property to be listed at its true value. The present financial system of Con- necticut may be said to date from 1850 and 1851, when it TWAS provided that all property not specifically exempted should be taxed, and when personal taxation was restricted 10 the poll lax. In 1885 the present penalty was estah- lished of adding ten per cent for not returning a list.
 The inequalities in the valuation of the different towns on which the State tax was laid has caused the State to appoint commissions al various times to inquire into the subject of taxation and to report what changes they con sidered necessary. The mesure of re- lief which this commission reeommen- .laa ,,.as ,.. a ..f a ra< ,,1,x,
 missioner.
 Another commission was appointed in 1884, consisting of Judge Simeon k.
 Baldwin, Senator Isaac N. Brooks, Charles Hopkins Clark, the late Morris
 F. Tyler, and five other representative ] citizens of the State. This commission
 made thorough examination of the
 entire system of taxation of the State, and reported their findings in Janua- ", 1887, in very definite and com
 prehensive treatment of the subject.
 They submitted several bills near. ly all of which have finally been adop- ted with few changes, including the inheritance tax act of 1889, and the , Tax Commissioner act Of 1901.
 The purpose of the latter office, a' , recommended by them, was to in
 crease the State revenue by the general
 supervision of it's assessment and col
 lection, and to adjust the State taxe i, between the towns on basis of great
 CT fairness and equality"
 When, however, the recommends
 ton of the ditierept commissions wa l. actually incorporated into q law, an
 the office of Tax Commissioner created # in 1901 there was no State tax, and tn a purpose for which the office was to b 0 created, "to increase and adjust th Il State tax in the different towns" wa
 entirety lacking.
 :, The largest State revenue-ose million dolars-eomesi from the rail $ roads. Then comes incomes, insurance companies, etc., amounting in ali t' S4, 900, ,0o0-which is the State income outside that from towns, with the ex l ception of the military tax. There is
 now no State tax collected, and proba- 1 bly, will not be, although there could | be by an act of the Legislature The local or town revenues Of the State are derived from the general tax
 on real estate and personal property. All property not exempt is liable to taxation providing il is so specified in the statutes. The towns also receive a
 portion of the one per cent. corporation tax based on the number of shares Of
 stock owned by it's residents. Every
 male person between 2l and 70 years
 unless exempted, as provided, is liable
 for poll tax of one dollar, and all
 male citizens liable for military du- ty between 2l and 45 years of age with certain exemptions are liable for tax of g. The statutes provide that all property shall be assessed at its "Pres- ent true and actual valuation. This is construed by the statutes to mean "the fair market value thereof A large number of the towns in the State fail to follow the statutory require ments in this respect, through possi- 1 ble delusion that a low grand list
 means . small tax, or because Of the ancient dread and present fear of state tax.
 In peports to the Tax CommisslDner last spring 5s of the l65 towns, an in- crease of II towns or S4 per cent., claimed an assessed valuation of 100 uer osut., S3 towns claimed betweeu 76 l and 100 per cent. of "fair market vat ue.n 25 towns claimed between 50 and l a Der cent. and two towns wers frank l enough to admit a valuation bslow oO | per cent. There Is an increase od "towns which assess their property on the basis of full market value, = re- auised by the stat1tes.n Among them gre Norfolk, Bethel, Sufiield. Newing- ton, Watertown and wooobridge- The detefmining motive in each case seems to have been based on the definite idea on the part of thestosn that II Is more busIness.like and an absolute adsan- tage to the community to have fair grand list and lower tax rate which ought 10 be synonymous. While many of the sssessofs reported last year that they had feyalHed a large portion Of the property in their town: from the time given to the work lt was evident that most Of the ssses sofs cop jed the list of tise previous year. and made littie effort to determine the val