The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1914-12-01
Auditor Speaking at State
Association CriticiSes Lack
of Power to Enforce Regu-
latiOns.
GOVERNOR PREsIDEs
Wayne County Man Blames
Ignorance and Political
Customs for Many Flaws.in
Taxation Methods.

A revelation in the difficulties Of
Wayne county financing was made by
L. s. Bowman. county auditor. at this
mornings session of the Indiana Tax
association in the Claypool hotel. Indi-
annapolis.
The lack OF proper authority Of any
official in assessment or taxation, the
gross inequalities resulting from igno-
rance of assessors, from the methods
used In avoiding taxation and from
the administration of Indiana's taxa
ton laws. were scored by the auditor.
Our assessing methods are some
what similar to the articles of con-
federation, a code of laws for the gov
ernment of the colonies at the close
of the revolution" Mr.. Bowman de-
clared. Their greatest weakness lies
in their administration which results
from lack of authority. Like the arti-
cles Of confederation, our laws provide
for legislative and judicial depart
ments but do not provide for an execu-
tive department.
Board Without Power.
''The county assessor or board OF
review has no power or authority to
ther can they enforce any uniform
standard of valuations. No such thing
as countrywide equality, much less
statewide equality. exists.
THE assessor, hired at q wage OF
50 day, is presumed by the law to
be an expert judge of all classes Of
property, the products of the farm.
factory, the mines, of bank stock, de-
partment stores and corporations. In
the city of Richmond we were for
tunate enough to get two five-dollar
men on the 81 salary. For the last
two years we have assigned a deputy
who is an eX-manufacturer and busi-
ness man for the assessment of banks,
corporations and factories. A retired
merchant was secured to assess all re-
tail establishments. The result was
most gratifying in increased assess
ments and decreased contention.
Persons List Property.
"Too many persons are permitted to
assess themselves. To simply call and
leave a sheet to be filled out and called
for later is not assessing. Any school
boy could do as much and probably
excel in that he could travel around
faster. Even with conscientious work
on the part of the assessors-and most
assessors are conscientious in their
work-the assessment roll of county
will show considerable inequality, due
to the infallibility of human judge
ment.
Even after the end Of the sessions
Of the board of review, the assessment
roll still contains many glaring in
eQualities at the very best that q
board can do.
"The owners Of modest homes In
towns and cities pay far in excess of
those who have more pretentious
homes or substantial farm improve
ments.
by comparison it Is found that city
residences are assessed for about
twice the amount of similar ones in
rural districts Another gross in
equality Is that a very large part of the
property classed as money on hand or
in bank. notes secured outside the
county, unsecured notes and other
forms of intangible property escape
taxation entirely. This tendency and
the investment in non-taxable secur1-
ties has increased to such an extent
that whether We would have 1t 80 or
not, we are gradually drifting to the
Henry George theory Of single taxA-
ton.
improvements Increase.
Another difficulty in county
finance is how to meet the growing
demand for public improvements, with
no sources of income provided. The
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