The silver state. [volume] (Winnemucca, Nev.) 1909-1925, 1912-01-09
ODD|F ADDRESSES
STATE ASSESSORS

exception of Arid, of Douglass, who
was represented by Chairman Spring
meyer, of the board of county com
missioners.
The feature of the session was the
address of Governor Oddie, who spoke
as follows:
Taxation is the fundamental busi-
ness proposition Of any form of gov
ernment. To conduct civil government,
to maintain law and order, and to car.
ry on cooperative institutions for the
general welfare requires money, and
that money is properly raised only by
taxation. II 1T is just government,
the burden of taxation must be equal
ly distributed. No man should be com
PEELED to pay more than his proper
share of taxes and no man should be
permitted to pay less. These are
axioms which no one will dispute.
Their application presents many com
plex difficulties
j believe that Nevada is far behind
many other states in the solution of
the problems of equitable taxation.
Yet 1 believe that there is no other
subject of such immediate Importance
Z
We have an ad valorem system of
taxation on all property in this state.
The tax rate is fixed by the state leg.
lslature and applies uniformly to all
Kinds of property, real, personal and
possessory. Any inequality in the
system of taxation, therefore. must re-
solve itself to inequality in the ap-
praisement of valuation upon different
pieces, kinds or classes of property.
Sixty per cent of the cash value of
the various kinds of property in this
state is popularity supposed to be the
uniform basis of valuation for assess
ment purposes. 1t is matter of com
mon knowledge that while residence
property in the towns and cities is gen
orally taxed up to this basis, as well as
the realty and improvements of small
property owners in many instances,
very little other property in the state
IS anywhere near so highly appraised.
The testimony of the assessors at the
meeting of this board held on January
~, 1910, showed a range of appraise-
ments OF from 30 per cent to go per
cent or the cash value, and it is prob
able that the variation on close inves-
tlgatlon will be found to vary within
wider extremes than this, or to as low
as 20 per cent, at least on certain
classes OF property.
1T IS interesting to note the effect
on the taxpayer of such variations in
assessment valuations. Not everyone
has given IT due consideration, and
Few have worked it out by the proper
method of computation
Let us assume, for purposes of illus
tratlon, that 800 is required to be
raised by taxation, and that the real
cash value of the property which must
be assessed is $4,000 Let US further
suppose that this $4,000 worth of
property may be classified as follows:
Residence property, actual cash
NaIue .-....-. ........... 81 200
Farm property, actual cash
Ndlue ....,... ............. 1000
Railroad property, actual cash
value ........... ..... 1000
Industrial business property, ae-
tual cash value ........ 500
Public utility property, actual
cash value .................. 1000
Stock range and live stock prop
erty, actual cash value 80. 1900
Total actual cash value $4,000
Now If this $4,000 worth of prop
erty be assessed at its full cash value
IN each instance, tax rate of 81 on
each 500 of valuation would produce
the 500 revenue required. If the
basis of valuation be 90 per cent of
the cash value, a rate of $1.66 2-3 on
each 800 valuation will produce that
aomunt of revenue. In each instance
the amount of taxes the owners of
each class of property would pay and
which may be termed the just amount
each class should pay, would be as fol
lows:
Residence property would pay. s 10
farm property would pay .. 20
railroad property would pay .. 40
Industrial business property would
pay 's.....,..... .........a 5
Public utility property would
pay '.......... .............t 10
Stock range and live stock prop
erty would pay ........ is
Iotai taxes paid 800
but let us suppose that instead of a
UNIFORM system of valuation applied
to each such class of property, that
the basis of valuation in each instance
varied as follows:
Sl,ooo residence property, as
sessed at 60 per cent of its
cash value Observation-Disclosures. GOO
1000 farm property, assessed
at 20 per cent of its cash
value ....s....., ............ 500
1000 railroad property, assess
ed at 30 per cent of its cash
value ',.....,. ............ Il 200
800 business property assess
ed at 80 per cent of its cash
value ...,..... ...... 25
Public utility property, assess
ed at % per cent of cas- value $50
l,500 stock range, etc, proper
~ assessed at 30 per cent
cash value .....,....... 450
Total assessment valuation. So $50
TO realize 800 in taxes on $3,250
worth of property, the rate will have
to he S30S on each 400 valuation