The Daily Ardmoreite. [volume] (Ardmore, Okla.) 1893-current, 1914-12-09
FAV0RSA A
REVISION Of
PENA[TY[AW
PRESENT SYSTEM OF COLLECT
nc DELINQUENT TAXES IS
CALLED UsTEssELE-LEGiSLG-
TLPE MUST ACT


s Oklahoma City. D=e- s-Tls lsgls
Lz-zr= all u asked 70 change thz
part q tie tzI "a pertaining 70 80
notifying q tzIpzyers that taxes AZ
u t@co4@ c=liIgg=lt. il order that Z
threatened repetition Of the embzr
rzssiag and perpleIiug situation thz'
arose tlis year may Be prevented
. Co1-ty Treasurer George Baker De
dared Ho1dzy.
As practically every county in the
state is affected b. the Law" said
[ Treasurer Baker 1t is probable ths,
representatives from many counties
ail come To the meeting Of the legis-
.zt1re prepared to offer amendments
u the isx e. it now stands. Undoubt-
ediy the La Rill be modified or a new
one enacted
1t is utterly impossible for county
treasurer to comply with this law as
it has been construed By the supreme
court. The section in particular that
/ refer U, provides that the county
treasurer shall notify each property
owner On or by November !, that his
taxes are 10 become delinquent and
when. It further provides that he
must be notified By registered mail
and must give receipt acknowledging
that he received the notice.
In the event that this notification
be not made by November l, the Law
holds that no penalty can be assessed
to the delinquent taxpayers.
THE first and most patent reason
why We cannot even start to carry out
the provisions Of this law is that the
tax rolls are not completed by the as
SCISSOR at a date early enough to per.
NIT IT, According to the law this Of.
fee should have had all the property
owners notified more than a month
ago, or by November /. We have not
yet received the tax rolls from the as
SCISSOR and he will not be able to com.
plete them before late in December,
or the first Of the new year. Moreover,
the records Of the office do not give
the name Of the property owner, but
merely the description OF the property
However, even supposing that we
had received the lists before Novem-
ber l. and had the names of the own
ers, fulfilling the law would be highly
If not flatly impossible.
To notify by registered mail the owner
Of each piece Of land in the county
that taxes were to become delinquent,
would cost the county approximately |
$4,000. It must be understood that
we would be forced to send out notice |
on each separately described piece !
Of property We could not send a no. !
lice to a man concerning all his prop
erty, as the lists are not made up in |
a manner that would allow that Ten
men could not do the work in two
weeks
Unless the proposed change be
made by the legislature, it is absolutely |
certain that the same muddle that
arose this year will come up next fall |
Ne will be restrained from imposing |
he IS per cent penalty on delinquent
axes and the county will lose several
more thousand dollars"
Treasurer Baker said that tax col
ections have been better this year
han in the history of the county, not
the temporary mix-up in
he fall.
ALREADY we. have collected more
han so per cent of the 1913 taxes" he
aid. collections daily have been
'etter by far than during the CORES 4
'onding period last year. 1t is my
Ionest belief that had the muddle over
he penalty not been brought up, tax
objections this year would have ex.
eeded by comfortable sum those
4 any year in the history of the
ounty" ,