The Prescott daily news., 1914-07-01
TAX-DODGER WARNED TO
 VOTE AGAINST ACT NO. 3
Publicity Measure Will be One of the Greatest Equalizers of Taxes the State Has Ever Seen.


 WARNING-All tax dodgers are hereby earnestly requested and warn ed to get busy and defeat Act No. 5. WE SEE OUR FINISH.-COMMIT- TEE.
 The above isn't actually want ad- vertisement which has inadvertently strayed into the wrong column, but doubtless represents the secret aim and desire of the habitual shifter of tax burdens; sometimes the man of excessive land holdings who wants to grab all the unearned increment through annual increase in value without bearing the responsibility, or sometimes the plain citizen who wants to dodge taxes because the other fel- low is shirking. The latter class in- cludes many who would be willing to bear their part of the load if the other fellow would bear his part.
 Yesterday the author of the act ex- plained to the readers of the News how Act No. 3 will make it cas- fer, and at the same time necessary, for public officials to do their duty in the matter of assessments and tax ing. In today's installment continu ing his explanation and comments concerning section of the act, he tells of the effect Act No. will have upon the taxpayer himself, as an in strument of tax equalizing. He says:
 "If John Doe, who had just repre- scented to his creditors that he had assets amounting to $50,000 and lia- bilities of only $20,000, knew that his assessment would be published, if made so low as to require adjustment, he would not place a total valuation upon his property of 5000 when he had just represented himself to be worth $30,000.
 "lf Richard Roe is trying to sell or borrow some money on building and represents that it cost him $25,000 he will not assess it at $7,500, if he knows his neighbors and those to whom he had represented the value of his property to be $25,000 will learn through the newspapers that his as sessment was so inadequate that the board of equalization had to give it attention.
 "Mr TaXdodger will not advertise that he is offering at great slaugh- ter sale, at less than cost, $100,000 worth of goods, if he knows that on another page of the paper the people will see that this same stock of goods has just been assessed at $S.000.
 Will Make Boards Deal Fairly.
 "It is sometimes urged that county boards of equalization do not impar- tially discharge their duties. Whether this is true or false, if the board knew that the people would have in formation as to their action it would be an incentive for more faithful discharge of it's duty. It is urged that sometimes after the board has l fully discharged it's duty, the county court, for reasons hard to understand, will undo the work of the board. Pub licity will have a tendency to correct this injustice. The State and its poli- tical subdivisions are corporations and |
 each taxpayer is member of the cor poration and has a right to know whether the other members are pay ing their just proportion of the ex- penses of the corporations and they have the right to demand that the cor poration furnish them the informa- ton.
 Tt will be observed that the sec tion does not require the publication of all assessments, but only those upon which the equalization board and the county court take action. There is no denying the fact that d very considerable portion of the pro- perty in Arkansas escapes taxation. The farmer with his 80 acres of land and little personal property cannot escape the assessor .nd you will not hear him objecting to section 1, but objection will come from the tax dod. ger, who does not want the people to know how he compromised with his conscience when he made his assess ment.
 CTO Be Continued.) | VILLAS TYR COSTS eEoE