The Mount Holly news. [volume] (Mount Holly, Burlington Co., N.J.) 1891-1942, 1909-07-13

EX-SENATOR Henry D. Winton, who Is a
member of the Bergen County Board OF
Taxation, has issued letter In which he
sets forth his views of the benefits secured
by the County Boards In general. Mr..
Winton writes In forcible manner, and
contends that as body the Boards have
done good work in the state, and have
gone long way In eQualizing values. He
shows the good work done by similar
bodies in other states. Mr.. Winton says;
THAT the system of supervising assess
ments was not new one in the country
is demonstrated by the laws of many
states. AS far back as 1896, the state of
New York found it necessary to have
county supervision of assessments and 1t
placed the work In the hands of the
County Board of Supervisors, board CO.
equal with that of the Board of Freehold
ers of New Jersey.
"Pennsylvania In 1905, created County
Boards. Maryland in 1905, calling them
Boards of Control and Review to be
supervised by State Board. In that
State assessors are appointed by two
Assessors at Large named by the Gov
ernor. The Governor also appoints the
1913 assessors for the taxing precincts OF
the city of Baltimore.
1.-THE western states haye been more
progressive In their tax systems. Wis
consin requires its County Boards to meet
with the State Board each spring and
after several days session they return to
their homes, to supervise the local as
SCISSORS.
missouri established its County Boards
In 1879. and the provision, of the New
Jersey law bear close relation to 1t. CAL
ifornia. Kansas, Ohio, South Dakota, Illi-
nois ali have County Boards. The new
state of Washington in 1898 promptly
awaited itself of the experience OF its
neighbors and created County Boards
Florida followed, to be succeeded In 1895
by Utah, and In 1898 Ohio provided that
the State Board of Taxation should ap-
point, County Tax Boards for terms OF six
years.
'sIt will thus be seen that County Boards
were not an untried experiment else
where"
Mr.. Winton makes q statement about
the railroad taxes and says: This state
ment shows that the amount of taxes re-
ceiyed last year from the railroads was
double that received before the County
Tax Boards were created" This gave
the Newark News a chance to get in a
shot at the Boards chance it never
misses-and 1t tries to make 1t appear
that what it calls ''Mr. Winton's defence"
Is very feeble, but 1t is not nearly so weak
as is the criticism of the Nesos Stress is
laid on the gentleman's statement about
the railroad taxes and the paper says that
the writer of the letter does not claim,
and that he could not honestly do so If he
would, that the County Boards had any
thing to do with this added tax burden
borne by the railroad companies. Nobody
has ever made such claim, but those
who have been loud in their denunciation
of the County Tax Boards have had as
their chief argument that the bodies were
created for the particular purpose OF aid
ing the railroad companies. Now Mr..
Winton shows that the railroads have had
their taxes doubled since the Boards came
into existence and the directors shift from
the other argument and come back with
the statement that the Boards are not
entitled to any credit for the raise. Well.
nobody cares who or what caused the
raise. but 1t certainly has not been shown
that the Tax Boards have reduced the
railroad taxes.