Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1914-05-13
An Amazing Appraisement.

An Amazing Appraisemcnt.
The George taxation report Of 1912 al.
Ieges that real property in the District
of Columbia is assessed s414 100000 below
its true value; the true value being $744.-
100000. while the assessment 10 only
1890. 900, COO
This statement is based solely upon the
testimony and argument before the sub.
committee of Witness II. ]. Browne Mr..
Brownies evidence is not direct expert
appraisement Of the value of Washington
realty. but is the deduction OF an ex-
journalist from what persons questioned
by him have said concerning local values
and from what he has read and studied
In the newspapers. or official reports, or
record books OF business men Of Wash
ington on that subject. GenerallzinS
from the statements. sworn and unsworn.
of individuals in respect to particular
cases in selected spots in the different
sections of the city. Mr.. Browne developed
an infallible formula for ascertainng
true values in all parts of Washington.
For the large suburban areas he multi
piled the actual assessment in every
case by five: for the business and fine
residence areas of the northwest he null
case by three and one-third. for middle
class house sites he multiplied In every
case by two. For small home sites he
multiplied in every case by one and two
thirds.
What could be simpler? What more
| foolish?
| This valuation of Washington realty
was in its totals SO grossly at variance
| with the valuations of other far larger
and richer American cities and was SO
obviously unsound in generalizing con-
! corning whole sections from conditions
| thought to exist In particular spots, that
it was promptly and vigorously chal-
| lenged for Washington in 1917 by the
practically unanimous action OF the Board
| of Trade. and by facts and figures fur
| nished by the assessors office.
| The Johnson-Prouty report on the mutt
| lated George bill gave full faith to this
inaccurate and misleading statement OF the
| George report and used it as Weapon
| to injure Washington. The Star repeated
| in 1914 Washingtons 1912 challenge OF the
| accuracy of this allegation, and urged
that thorough Investigation OF II Wonid
| be one of the useful functions of an i'm
| partial tax commission for WASHINGTON
Elsewhere in todays Star Witness
Browne, in response to the latest aues-
tioning of the correctness of his figures,
explains interestingly how Thoroughly ne
| equipped himself by investigation. con
yersation reading and long study 10
guess at realty values in Washington. In
connection with Mr.. Brownies statement
| The Star prints extracts from the i'l-
public comments of the assessor upon Mr.
Brownies accusation of "A S4l4Wo,'Do UNI
| derassessnent in Washington. The as
SCISSORS facts and figures demonstrate the
absu rdity of the attempt to fix an arni-
| trary formula of relation of assessment
| to true value applicable to whole Sec
| ton or to all of any one class OF rtai
property.
| The assessor had opportunity IN
| 1911, to give to the George committee tue
| benefit Of his pertinent facts ana hsufeS
| concerning the accuracy oil ms valuatioii.
| But an impartial commission or l3i'. II
one is amounted, should diSsect and com
| pare Mr. Brownies and the assessor ils-
| ures maps and statistical tables ana de-
| eide between them.
Mr.. Brownies total assessment and tax
! levy, compared with that of other cities
| is startlingly excessive. WASHINGTON
would raise in taxes from its S'iiVpUN
| of realty alone in l?l2 Sll. 10000. me
taxed fraction of resourceless WASHINGTON
would thus raise from its realty aiohe
more than WAS raised on realty ami per-
| sonalty combined III l3l2 by The great;
| rich and prosperous Industrial ci,ies o.
Cleveland Total levy, Slo.ol3.soil. BAIL
| more (Ss, 81; $3.50, Detroit 'Sa.6i! ,bol), BUT
| falo 80 i.a 13l San Francisco $50, i0',-
| To1, Milwaukee tSG,sJ9, 1l3t. CINCINNATI
| 81 5Ss 5iaD. Los Angeles S6,lsi,Ios). NeN-
ark CS6 s46,6o2D and New Orleans s''l
| 42lI, all larger cltleS Win ldi liioie
sources than Washington The taxed
| fraction of the capital would under the
| H. j. Browne valuation pay more taA's
on its realty alone than the realty anu
personality levies OF Minneapolis ,so.o'-
o4D and Jersey City tS35Io.ao4D combined:
| a little less than Seattle tSi. 3oI 80. Kan
sas city lS4.ll5.a95D and Indianapolis Go
| 4.6 $3.50 combined, about three times rs
much as the total tax of Indianapolis or
Providence or Rochester, or Denver or
7 fnIIr
| the total levy of St. Paul and nearly SIX
times as much as the total levy of At
! lanta.
The local taxpayers of Washington
actually raised in 1917 total levy of
| 81, 39S 1854. and to do so endured the bur
den of "A per capita tax levy of Slo.io. a
greater tax burden than that imposed
upon IA out Vi the 1874 American cities.
H ] Browne proposed offhand to MOI -
than double that per capita tax levy by
the tax OH realty alone, and to make
Washington per capita tax levy much
greater than that of amy other American
city. more even than New York with IT'S
vas. wealth and its assessed valuation OF
81, III, i9,. 500"
Evidently Mr.. Browne does not Val %
E.s.si!iilatOti IN this estimate IN Accord
ance with the standards of valuation used
in other cities. The underassessfnents AL
legged by Mr.. Browne relate to ground
values. AS loyal sinSle-taXcr MI.
Browne thinas that all such values so far
as private ownership is concerned are
rightfully so excessively assessed AMI
taxed az to bring about confscation by
the state. Mr.. Browne a snele-taNer
estimates Ground values naturally on this
contiseatory basis and his SI4I,Sa.Io .s-
tiniat.. for Washington is obviously con-
tiSCa;cr:.
Why should not Mr.. George drop MIR.
Brownies contention of fabulous rea ~
values in Washington, cut out the fall
valuation proposition unnecessary and
injurious under existing conditions. and
work vigorously for those propositions OF
the George bill like that for more nu-
merous assistant assessors and more fire.
quent assessrnentsD which promise great
err uniformity and equality of assessment
for the distinct be -efit of all the people oe
Washington?
Uniformity and equality of assessment
can be secured just easily under
two-thirds nominal valuation as under L
nominal full valuation The latter is as
certained primarily in both cases. To Tx
the former standard one divides by three
the full valuation and multiplies by two.
If the full valuation is accurate and uni
form the two thirds valuation is equally
accurate and uniform unless one makes
an error in dividing by three and multi
plying by two.
Since a lowering of the tax rate Is
clearly not to be secured, the full-vai-
uation proposition. coupled with the as
sertion that such full valuation Is
$4,000 600 means an inevitable dou-
h,,, ta