The Birmingham age-herald., 1915-04-08
TAXATION PROBLEMS CONSIDERED BEFORE RECESS COMMITTEE Weatherly Says City Is Practicing a Form Of
 Polite Piracy
TESTIMONY OF ALL
 WITNESSES SIMILAR
Weatherly Urges Constitutional Con- vention to Remedy Defects in Taxa ton System-Tucker, Ferguson
 and Rice Indorse Idea

Just Naiuauon on real estate for the purpose of taxation, and the taxation scheme of the State Tax league were l subjects considered throughout yesterday by the legislative recess committee on | finances and taxation. James Weatherly, one of the city commissioners testified
 that through necessity the city was prac- ticing form of polite piracy on the busi- | ness men of Birmingham. Other wit l nesses examined were Hill Ferguson and | Jerome Tucker. president and vice presi- | dent of the Birmingham Real Estate ex- change, and Charles E. Rice, a local ex- 1 pert on taxation
 The witnesses yesterday strongly urged the committee to recommend the separate | taxation of land and improvements there
 on. It was the general conclusion, also, that the committee should recommend the appointment of residents in each county as a board of "equalizers' MT. Rice
 caused the committee to gasp when he ] expressed the opinion that these equal | izers' should be remunerated in sum between $10 and 1925 per day.
 From 12:15 o'clock until 3 o'clock the committee was at Exumville, where Gull pepper Exum entertained with a barbecue
 the members of the Rotary club. Testimony Is Similar | The testimony of the witnesses yester- day was almost identical. Each was of the opinion that "equalizing" should be accomplished by committee of three res idents to be appointed rather than elect ed MT. Ferguson and MT. Tucker advo- cated the unit-foot plan of taxation, and
 the latter in Illustrating that plan gave
 the committee considerable data as to how | local real estate was assessed
 MT Weatherly and Mir Ferguson ex-
 pressed the opinion that Birmingham and | Jefferson county were more cruelty op- pressed under the burden of taxation than
 any other city or county of the state MT 1 Weatherly told the committee that Jeffer-
 SO county paid one-fourth the taxes col | lected in the state, and that Birmingham ! paid one-seventh MT. Ferguson sur prised the members of the committee by ! stating that real estate agents of Bir-
 mingham had estimated that one-hfth of
 the money collected in this city for rent was expended in the payment of taxes. | MT. Weatherly urged a constitutional convention for the semedying of apparent ' this suggestion was concurred in by other witnesses
 Tucker Illustrates Points Mr. Tucker, in giving testimony, illus | trated his points by map of Block S6, the | most valuable, he estimated, in Birmng- ham. That block Is bounded by Second
 avenue Twentieth street, Third avenue and Nineteenth street. The property of
 that block, he added, was of an estimated value of s2000 a foot on Second avenue, s175o 1 a foot on Twentieth street and $500 a | foot on Third avenue. He explained to the committee how a just assessment
 could be obtained by computing the feet l facing in the several directions and talk | ing a percentage of the averages. His figures indicated that through his | process, the property could be assessed at practically uniform percentages of it's real value. Then he indicated the inequalities | of the present.
 | Norton's corner he declared to be the | most valuable corner in Birmingham. He declared that the man who acquired that property for $250000 would be acquiring it | at bargain. It is assessed for taxation, | he said, at sos, GOO. The Farley corner, he | estimated to be assessed fully at 60 per l cent of it's value. The Simon corner Third avenue and Nineteenth street, he stated, is assessed at only 31 per cent of it's value. The Peerless corner, he declared, is sessed at only 35 per cent of its estimated value. He explained that the valuation
 placed by him on these corners was sim ply the expression of his opinion, but an opinion in which other real estate dealers concurred.
 Rice Explains Bill
 MT. Rice occupied an hour in explaining to the committee the details of the bill drawn up by the State Tax league and already introduced into the legislature. The bill provides that in each county of the state there shall be a board of ap- praisers consisting of three members, one named by the board of revenue, another named by the state taxing board and the third to bechosen by the first two named. The bill provides that this board shall place value on all property in Birming- ham, and after an inspection, assess all property as equitably as possible. The bill provides that land and buildings shall be separately taxed.
 The committee found fault in the bill in that it doubted the ability of three men to acquire the real valuation of Jeff ferson county property by the beginning of the tax year, October 1. MT. Rice, however. contended that this work could | be done in five or six months.