The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1914-05-27
THE SEAL OF TAX INJUSTICE.

INHA4OR WILSON complains because the 4V1 State Board of Equalization has boost ed Bridgeports grand list $1 100000 over the increase of g year ago. He will endeavor to have the Increase set aside. We regret to say that if he succeeds in this mission 1t will be through the good nature of the board and not because of the justice of the claim The reasons underlying state tax equaliza- ton are simple. The basis of the state and county tax is the grand list Of the city or town. The state law has always required the valuation Iofsproperty for taxation in the municipality at Tits full value
 But practice grew up by which. some towns assessed at full value, some at half value and some at quarter value.
 Within the town this praetice-when ap- |plied equally to all classes of property-ma little difference. If the property was valued for less, the tax rate was higher, and vice versa. But when it came to aSlevy for state and county tax the towns whose list was most in conformity with the law paid a larger share of the tax than those in which the valuation was smaller
 To remedy this condition the equalization law was passed. Under this law the board scrutinizes the grand list Of each individual town, and raises it, or lowers it, until the in equalities are presumptively Y eliminated.
 The grand list of Bridgeport is measured against the grand list of towns in which, today, the full valuation plan is followed
 
 Connecticut They are for the most part towns in which the bulk of the property is in dwell ings and farms or in dwellings alone
 But 6 double inequality has always existed in the cities and larger places Property in factories and in public services and in some of the other large forms has never been valued at the same percentage as dwelling house property, but has always been set in the list for a smaller proportion of it's real value.
 This practice worked injustice both at home and abroad. It made property in lands and dwellings pay undue tax at home, and it made the same property both at home and else where pay 8 too large share Of state and county taxes.
 Measured against full valuation towns in which the property is mainly in homes and farms, Bridgeport does not show an adequate grand list.
 If the factories, and public services of Bridgep port could be omitted from consideration and the dwellings and lands of the city be con sidered by themselves, our grand list would show large beside any other grand list in the state.
 But when the larger forms of property are considered, it is seen clearly that the value of local property is enormously understated.
 Three public services report to the Public Utilities Commission values some millions in excess of the values upon which they are taxed
 Manufacturing property here as early as 1910 had a reported value of some S35,00O,0OO in excess of the values appearing in the grand list
 This discrimination between the taxation of dwellings and the taxation of more produc- tive property works it's most serious injustice at home.
 The dwellings pay almost twice much to the support of the city as equity demands.
 The dwellings pay almost twice much to the county as equity demands. The dwellings pay almost twice as much to the state as equity demands.
 It is in the hands of the tax authorities whoever they may be. to repair this wrong. The way to repair it is to tax all property fairly dwellings, lands public services and manufac- turing property, at full value as the law re quires.
 It ought to be the object of taxation to en- courage the building and ownership of homes It ought to be plain that the taxpaying power of the man whose only property is his home cannot be greater than the tax paying power Of corporations which do monopoly business in commodities which all must use, or greater than the tax paying power of enterprises which are able to produce each year more than dol lars worth of value for each dollar of invested capital
 Mayor Wilson's trip to Hartford win but serve to call public attention to the tax injustice which exists in Bridgeport
 Since public opinion in time rights all wrongs the mayors efforts ought to be ben ef1cial.
 The Decoration day addresses will all ex- L. .,Iof1 oPP1 1<xf