The Mathews journal. (Mathews C.H. [Court House]) 1903-1937, 1911-07-20
DR.. FREEMAN ON
EXCESSIVE TAXES

I
day addressed by DR.. Douglas s. Free
man. secretary Of the State Tax Com
mission, on the subject Of Tax Reform
| in Virginia"
DR.. Freeman was for long time en-
Eaged in editorial work on the Times
| 10 the matter Of taxation and the sys-
I , Iein IN Nogue in the state and the
/ In his speech today he claimed the
! right 10 speak as one Of the house
/ mold declaring that he was n mem
/ per OF the fraternity, and priced that
Or. Freeman took up the subject and
Went INTO an extended diSserta ton on
i'm taxation, found in the Various rarts
OF me state and pointed out much that
In the course Of his remarks he said.
| There are counties that assess lands
! at 10 per cent. of what the assessors
| are sworn TO assess them. and there
are counties and cities that assess at
| 90 per cent. of what they would bring
on the market Thus one county or
city, on the same property. is paying
! seven times as much to the State as
! Is another. Horses throughout the
! state are assessed at an average of
| 5000; Grayson county assesses them
at $3.50; Richmond city at 1918.
! Cattle in GraySOn are assessed at
| S5-14. in LoudOun at $2S.21. Hogs
are valued at an average of 1897 in
/ NhN RAeNtf OF N4-4O III NTaNSO0, at
| Sb.19 in HenricO. Other items of per
Sonalty are assessed at as wide ratios
| as 1.23 between counties. Farmers
lands of equal fertility are assessed
at from IS the acre to $50 the acre:
/ buildings at from 90 per cent. of What
| they would cost to reconstruct in their
present condition to more than they
would bring under the hammer. All
| OF this is an old story. You know its
| details. Naturally. inevitably, these
4 innnrn01fffnG &C.
not as great one as might be sup
| posed, once some central administra-
| tive authority is created.
| Much more battling are the in
equalities between the various classes
| of property. You all know how eX-
tensive this is. Real estate, the Com
| nEonwealth through, is assessed at Al
| per cent. of its real value; personal
property at about 35 per cent; stocks
| and bonds and all intangible prop
erty is assessed at it's fun market
| value. The man who owns q horse
i pays on about 80 per cent. Of the
value of that horse, taking the State
| as a whole. If he sell the horse and
| loan the money, he is expected to
pay on 100 per cent; if he sell the
bond and buy land he pays on Al
per cent. The inequality is manifest
The worst feature of this, however
and. TO my mind. the most outrageous
| feature of the whole tax code. bar
ring meme, is the system of taxing
iduciaries and chooses in action. This
system. though expensive, is perfect
and maddening by its perfection. Not
a dollar can escape the examiners of
records. The result is that those are
! burdened who can least afford to pay
| Let me take a single instance. A me-
/ chanic died in Danville, leaving $3,-
/ 600 of insurance for the benefit of
| his wife and children. The funds
| were to be kept in trust. and conse-
| Quently came under the inspection of
| the examiner. The trustee invested
| this poor womans money as best he
could-on per cent. mortgage,
! yielding her $50 the year This was
! all the woman had. and from il how
] much does the State exact? Precisely
| $3.50, or % per cent. Of all that
/ woman has When we remember that
we, who can earn a living, pay on Al
per cent. Of our realty and 35 per
/ cent. Of our property-or so much Of
Ii as we return-we see how iniqui-
| tous is this system. Civilization in
stances no worse confiscati0n since
the days OF the old Regime in
Francei Frederick II. would have
blushed at such an eXactioni
| 1ndiSsoluhly connected with the in
equalitieS of our code are the under
valuations practiced under our pres
| ent misera BILE administrative system
| differentiation OF itself is a small
matter; were it uniform, the tax rate
could be increased and equality main
/ tanned. But where differentiation is
anything but uniform. il inevitably
begets inequality and presents a mos;
complex problem. For instance. the
census valuation of certain classes {.
personal property in Virginia in 1904
was S361114,24O; the commissioners
of the revenue assessed the same
property at S122.673.713 or at 339I
per cent. The total assessed value Of
all personal property as reported to-
day is only S10.00O.OOO in excess of
the census valuation of 1850. We
had but 43 per cent. as many hogs
in the state in 1910. according to tho
comm ssioners. as were reported in
1904 by the census agents. OU~ os-
seSsed bank deposits on Februa ~ l. /
1910, were $7.S2O.636. while actually
they We're $117,77S,74S on the PIE
ccding day. Wagons arc worth Hu.
50 in Franklin; one falme~ has tcta,
personal property assessed ct but
$3.50, including two horses thirty
six taxpayers in Graysc" have but
500 of personal property; pianos in
Craig are worth $40; horses in Gray
son, in Mathews aid elsewhere are
worth S. a hotel and two acres of
land is assessed at ST.: q village of
about six houses and factories does
not exist according to the land books;
three lots. with two brick stores, in q
! busting county town. are worth, I
think, S54 to the State; one of the
richest citizens Of the Commonwealth
reports but about l per cent. of his
stocks and bonds-I might lengthen
this list tenfOld and not give you an
adequate idea of the fearful under
valuation of property in the Com
monwealth.
] know of commissioners of the
revenue who have never received any
instructions in the discharge of their
duties other than those contained in
the statutes of the Commonwealth,
and ] have on file reports showing
where commissioners of the revenue
have construed the single section of
the law requiring property to be as
sessed at cts fair market value" in
thirty-siX different ways. How can
we hope to obtain equality or uniform
valuation when these and worse
| things exist? What can we expect,
what can we do, when, if it be true
as reported on good authority, that
a judge of a circuit in direct viola
ton of law, instructed the land as
SCISSORS to assess property at 33 per
cent. Of its market value?
The second of these problems re-
lating to the taxation of special classes
Of property is that of public service
corporations, and more particularly of
railroads. We have 7,O52.94 miles Of
railroads in Virginia, whose assessed
81, 10. I 4 4