The Leon reporter. (Leon, Iowa) 1887-1930, 1914-08-06
Auditor McI.aughlin's Report OfIand
Assessment Was Correct. y

Auditor McI.aughlin's Report OftLand
Assessment Was COrrect.
AS stated last week in this paper
there was something radicallys wrong
at Des MOines in regard to d state
ment published in the Register and
Leader, in which Decatur county was
quoted as one Of twelve counties in
the state which had failed to obey the
! instructions of the state executive
! council in regard to raising the land
assessments, there being discrep-
encies in the figures Of about three
million dollars. We stated it was
wrong, that auditor McLaughlin's re-
port was correct, and developments
prove such to be the case, as auditor
Mclaughlin received letter from
secretary A. H. Davidson Friday, in
which he repudiates the authorship
or responsibility of the statement
published in the Register and Lead
err. We do not know what the Regis
ter and Leaders object was in pub
fishing this mis-statement, unless it
was to make political capital for Gov
ernor Clarke and try and relieve him
of any responsibility in regard to the
increase in taxes all over the state,
and to shift the blame upon the coun-
ty auditors. The assessment return
ed by auditor Mclaughlin was cor
rect, and it is verified by the card
which secretary Dawson enclosed
with the following letter, the valua-
ton as returned being $45.9S, after
as ordered by the executive council.
10 fo1 nd Is
explanatory:
Des Moines, Iowa, July %, 1914.
TO All County Auditors:
Dear Sir:-I am sending to each
county auditor card which is believ-
ed to be a correct computation of the
average tax valuation of lands as fix
ed by the executive council at it's
meeting in 1915 when sitting as a
state board of review.
1t has come to the attention of the
board since it's 1914 meeting has
been in session that certain errors
have crept into the assessment lists
for 1918. These are due so far as
we have Investigated, largely to cler-
ical errors in the statements furnish
ed the auditor of state by county aud
itors or by clerical errors in making
up the abstract furnished to the ex-
ecutive council by the revenue clerk
in the state auditors office. The err
rors were not discovered until the
writer made comparisons of figures.
Since that certain ambitious newspa-
per correspondents have given out
statements which are not true and
seem to point to the writer as the
author. The writer has given out
nothing but what is correct and has
refused to give out anything until he
has thoroughly investigated the stu
alton.
& We have found in one county that
the statement sent in by the county
auditor in 1913 did not show the cor
rect footing of the acreage of land;
footing of 25S,000 being given
when the acreage actually footed
275,000. The county auditor used
the correct footing in arriving at
his average per acre which was
$6O.22. The auditor of state discov-
ering that the figure was wrong u.s.
ing the acreage as footed struck out
the county auditors $60.22 and in
serted $64.37. In that county. the
board of review fixed the value of
lands at $72.41 and the statute re-
quiring us to certify the increase as
IA percentage, we certified an increase
!of 1871 per cent, which was correct
when applied to $64.37 but as the
|actual average value of the county
was $6O.22 the result has been, in
Guiding the increase, nearly $500 per
acre less than the executive council
actually fixed the valuation. A SINH
lar error has been found in a second
county and lest like errors may have
occurred in other counties am en-
closing to you the card sent herewith.
You are requested to make an inves-
tigation and determine whether the
rate certified to you when applied to
the average valne actually used pro-
duced the average per acre shown
upon this card. If it did not there
must have been an error in the alb
stract furnished the board of review
as to your county. 1t is our inten-
ton to investigate all these matters
as soon as it is possible but thinking
that you are DESTROYS of knowing the
facts we suggest that you make an
investigation yourselves at once.
Inasmuchj as certain of the state
ments above referred to are very
damaging l desire to repudiate en-
tirely the authorship or responsible
ity for the statement which appeared
in the Register and Leader July 26th.
had nothing whatever to do with
giving out the figures and they were
not obtained from this department.
l do not know how much of the same
is correct and how much may be err
ror. In either event I am not re-
spcnsible. This department desires
tie auditors to have fair treatment.
Yours very truly,
A. H. DAWSON,
Secretary of the Executive Council
of Iowa.
Grand River "GOne Dry
w TT Green who was in from