The Newport plain talk. (Newport, Tenn.) 1909-1939, 1912-04-04

Raising tne TAX levy from Sl.bb 10
81. .SS; electing board of equalization;
ratifying the Rankin bridge contract
and taking care of other routine busi-
ness, the county court had short ses-
sion Monday, concluding the session
at noon. 1t was an inexpensive court
from county standpoint as there were
no large appropriations made.
The meeting was without much in
terest, the only question uf Importance
being the report of the tax levy COM
mission which criticised the method of
levying taxes. The committee through
George w. Gorrell, reported that it
would be necessary to raise the tax
from 81 .66 to Sl.S6 because of the de-
plorable condition of the tax assess
ment and it was stated that unless the
Board of Equalization stepped in that
the state board would most likely take
a hand and that the people as whole
would suffer from the condition of af-
fairs. Mr.. GorrelI stated that there
were so many eronous assessments
and so many Others were escaping tax
es that it was necessary to raise the
tax rate. He stated that if the county
was properly taxed that the rate would
not be over 80 and this would take
care of the additional bridge bonds as
we'll as the bonds for the additional
$4,000 worth of pike roads. He cited
the instance where one Parrottssyille
man had been promised that he would
not have to pay taxes on more than
500 where he had always paid on 5000
and that this man just the other iday
came in to pay his taxes, found that
he was assessed at only 500 and that
he would not accept any such reduc-
ton and insisted on paying on the
5000. This Mr.. Gorrell stated was only
one instance in a hundred. He warn
edithe court that unless the equaliza-
tion board took charge that the state
board would moA likely step in here
and make uniform assessment and
that then someone would be hurt.
Mr.. Gorrell asked the trustee how
much he had picked up, and Mr., Sex
ton stated that he had collected $1400
on real estate which had not been as
sessed at all by the assessor.
ID. r. McMahan, the tax assessor,
asked the privilege of the floor and
stated that his books would show that
his assessment called for from three to
four hundred thousand more than the
county had ever been assessed before.
He acknowledged that he had made
some mistakes, but stated he had pick.
ed up more land than he had lost.
Mr.. Gorrell explained to the court
how the figures of the tax assessor
were run up, showing that in the case
of the Chilhowee Extract Company
that he had assessed the same land in
two different districts. Mr.. Gorrell
stated that the raise OF assessments
made by Mr.. McMahan was fiction,
that no one knew how low the assess
ments will fall because of the manner
in which the assessments were made
as there were frequent evidences OF
error,
The report of the tax levy commit
tee which was composed of George
Gorrell, j. S. Green and Oscar O'NeiI
was adopted by the court.
The report of the poor farm COM
mission showed balance of S936.11 on
hand.
1t was brought to the attention OF
the court that many private citizens
were making use of the public hy-
drant in the court house yard and that
the county was having to pay for every
gallon of water being used. After in