The Celina Democrat. (Celina, O. [Ohio]) 1895-1921, 1910-07-29
PUBLICITY RULE Of
STATE COMMISSION
Supreme Court Decides Boards
of Equalization Must Com,
plete Work by Oct. 1.
Property-Owners Must Try to
Settle Troubles at Home Be
fore Appeal Higher Up.
Cincinnati Enquirer, July "a. ]

lCluGlnuhll lIuQ ulIbIS y III ~
Publicity will be the keynote of the
State Tax Commission at Columbus,
according to statement made yester-
day by President w. b. Poland of this
city, who arrived in Cincinnati yester-
day. Shortly after his arrival he an
nounced the issuance of the first set of
orders of that body to Auditors of each
county in the State and the Boards of
Review.
The first order requests the Auditors
to send copies of pamphlets issued by
the city boards of assessors for each
ward in all cities and copies of those
issued for each township and village.
The commission wants to be notified if
any complaints have been made by
property owners who may not have re-
ceived these pamphlets. Speaking of
the pamphlets, President Poland made
the following statement:
1.-THE Tax Commission regards the
publicity feature of the quad ennial
appraisement law as of vital import
ance. In many citieS the pamphlets
will be of great help in the matter of
equalizing values and correcting errors
that might have worked hardships.
"In the cities the pamphlets issued
in each ward contain the name of the
owners of each piece of property, the
number of the lot, the foot frontage,
the value of the land fixed by the ap-
praiser, the value of the building or
buildings erected on it and the street
number at which it is located. By
this method property owners have an
opportunity to compare the value put
Iot FI,a I,,a
on those of their neighbors, thus max
ing discrimination impossible without
detection.
"The Tax Commission, in making
its request for copies of these pamph-
lets, assumes, as a matter of course,
that the law has been followed, and
that the pamphlets have been printed
and distributed as the work ofappraise-
ment has been completed. If, through
oversight, such pamphlets have not
been distributed to each property ow-
ner as the law requires, the absense of
such pamphlet can be noted by the
commission, and the derelict official
or off cials can be notified to comply
with the laws provisions.
Time Limits of Work
The Board of Equalization must COM
plete the work by October l under in
structions from the Tax Commission
and the Auditors shall transmit an alb
stract of all real property in each tax
ing district prior to Novem ber l, 1910.
Considerable confusion appears to
prevail in the minds of some of the
county officials throughout the State as
the result of two conflicting laws hav-
ing been passed by the Lewlslature on
the same day relating to the work of
the Boards of Equalization. One pro-
vided for the completion of the work
in February, and that introduced by
Senator Roger, of Tiffin, set the time
as the first Monday in October. The
Supreme Court has decided that it su-
percedes the Hendley law, in that the
Roger act was found to have been
signed last by the presiding officer.
Both sections, however, were reinsert-
ed in the new General Code, which has
just been issued. The second order of
the Tax Commission provides that this
information shall be compiled by Octo-
ber /, and the report of the County
one month later.
The House of Last Resort
President Poland stated property
owners with kicks must first use every
known resource in their home districts
to have the alleged errors remedied
before marching on to Columbus.
"The Commission, he stated, "be-
lieves in home rule under all circum-
stances. When all known methods of
correcting faults have been used, then,
and not until then, will the case of a
CONTINUED on fourth page)
Wanted--A middle-aged man to rep