The weekly Iberian. (New Iberia, La.) 1894-1946, 1913-10-04
SCIENTIFIC TAX
ASSESSMENT
OF PROPERTIES
,lEl AND CoMEs NEXT.

~ ne tie ON -. .JOhuSDD. no
Vas at tl.,1 time linishing his cal
epT as HltAoI If was Just al TINS
flur thai Nh. -,omerS had com
uirtei his mathematical! tables Tor
tie uulck computation uI corner
aud neal corner lots. These Ia
HE, weir used IN Cleveland and
in rulumhns, Ohio. for the first
time foE TAX assessment purposes.
These two cities had not GeeD as
Sc ssrd fo. ten years previous to
1870 While for that reason the
assessments were very low as
compared with present opinions
OF true values, the inequalities as
bet wern individual property own
ers were 40 more apparent nor no
more numerous than in the assess
mcntS Of other cities. including
Chicago aud New York, where
Mr.. Somers had had experience IN
q limited way. Now, three years
after the assessment IN these two
Ohio cities. real estate prices
have been go standardized that
no loan or safe is completed with
out first securing keference 10, and
knowledge Of, the assessment of
that property, which had never
before happent' in either city.
Since that llus the S0mers sys
ten az invented,n st. Paul aud
perfected in Chicago and Cleve
land. has been used for assess
ment purposes IN Springfield,
East ST, Louis and Joliet, III /;
Denver, Colo: Lancaster, Wis:
Houston, Beaumont, Waco and
Galveston. Tex: Augusta, Ga j:
Des Moines. Ia. and Weston.
ICanada. No assessment made in
any one OF these cities has ever
been overturned by court proce-
dure. Indeed, none has ever
been disputed in legal action.
More than billion, one hundred
millions worth of land and build
ings has been assessed FOX tax
purpOses under the SOmerS Sys
TEN methods, over half of Which
is land valne.
All of winch came about be
ctuse lawyer was elected as
SCISSOR Of St. Paul a number Of
wears ago, who knew that he die
not know how to perform thu
task Of assessing.
iGlyES GENERAL SATISFACTION
No other system or method
eycept the rule of.rhumbs methot
has ever been used anywhere II
iAmerica for the actual assess
mrnt of so many pieces OF proper
ty nor property Of SO much gross
value. as has the. system devised
by Mr. SOmers One of the rea
sons for the general satisfaction
Of these communities arising on
Of the use Of the SOmers System
lis that it is the first real effOl
lever made in any Of the citic
where it has been installed t.
Isupplant cahotic lack Of metho'
with system. No small part o
the satisfaction is due to the fac
that the people have the opportu
$ nifty to participate in the actua
e work of assessment.-tO tell wha
u they know of land values IN put
lie. and to learn the opinions 0
!, their neishbors iii public. One o
r the faults Of previous Assessment
methods has been the futile effor
n to equalize the inaccuracies an
e Inconsistencies Of the assessor
IS valuations by boards of equaI'zs
Z ton. Under Somers methods
y is possible to equalize the va'n'
!. tons before they are made.
Any twenty men who live in
d given city or village will lin! upo
comparing opinions, that the
" will practically agree upon a fe'
re fundamental points affecting tn
m value of the land in their HON
town, and theic opinions may b
easily tabulated by use of TIL
Somers method. These point
'e are:
/. The best street tmeani]
n. thereby the most used street,.
" 2.-Ihat this best street is NJ
IS best in all parts-that Is there al
- some parts of this street bette
~ than other parts.
=. 3. The best cross street.
!, 4. The part Of the best stree
that is the best of that street.
s .e The dlsagreements in opinio
5 upon these points will be found
Z; oe negligible, and can be easil
= uarmOnlzed. Yet the same twe
be ~ people who have IN any give
IN town agreed in their opinion AZ
a. the value of the use Of the stree
are likely to vary widely in the
he Judgment Of value expressed
a terms of price for any given lot
C. parcel Of land fronting on any OF
e If the streets or parts OF Il
streets that they had befo
agreed uDOD.