Evening star., 1915-03-29

an example OF assessment thorough-
ness, is SO far from the true value
basis in practice, what unrelIablilty
J is indicated as to others!
! In 1912 the Minnesota tax commits
| sion said:
! Ever since Minnesota became state
we have had law among our statutes
requiring that all property shall be as
sessed at its true and full value ~
money Never since the first assessor
started on his thankless task has prop
| erty of any kind in Minnesota been as
sessed at it's true and full value, OF,
with few exceptions, has any seEtous
attempt ever been made to SO assess IL.
The uniform, universal custom mas
been to assess at from 25 to 80 per cent
of actual value; and this custom mas
had the lonR-continued approvai OF 'ne
people, the silent support of the Ia"
ma king, and. in large measure, the ac-
quiescence of the law-enforcins De
partments OF the state government
AS in Minnesota so almost every
where nominal 100 per cent Valuatlon
means only from 25 to so per cent. and
nominal valuations less than 100 per
cent turn out in most cases to be IN
practice about one-half of the reported
valuation.
Hardly anywhere else ia the United
States. NO matter what the seminal
assessment rate Of valuations may be,
IL realty actually aSseased no close 10
the real value as in Warrington today.
Prior to the act Of 1902 requiring not
less than two-thirds valuation the Ia"
enacted in 1855 required land to be as
sessed at its true value. 1t was found,
Assessor Richards testiies, that values
assessed under this law were some oil
them one-tenth. some one-quarter,
some two-thirds. but none Of them
seemed to be up to the full valuation.
Most of them. however, were close TO
the two-thirds mark. So congress
passed an act requiring that hereafter
ot1 Ngf1
less than two-thirds of the true vaiua-
ton.
The proposition now is to return to
the old law of 1889, requiring true
value assessments, under which these
widely varying underassessments were
made.
The District assessor very recently
ga out tables making elaborate com
parsons of present assessments with
numerous sales Of property in the last
three or four years in all sections OF
the city and including all kinds o.
realty. The result of these comparisons
was to indicate that the assessments
are today 20 per cent of the actual
value-a little more than the Sc 2-3 per
cent which the law fixes as the mini
mum.
1t results that the actual value of
Washington realt! Ii slightly over
everywhere else the actual value In mn.
dcrnssessed. whatever the nomana!
valuation, in many cases by 90 per cent
of that valuation.
The fact that in q Warrington assess-
ment o nominal 66 2-3 per cent means
an actual 20 per cent. while In most
othe- cities Esminal 100 per cent
means nm actual 50 per cent and q nom
inal 80 per cent means an actual 70
pe~ cent, explains the amazing dis
crepancies which confront ms when
WnshingtOn's realty nasesament 10 COM
pared with that OF larger and richer
cities.
.AIr Prouty injects into his table an
additional element of error in adding to
his mills Of fictitious tax rate an
allowance for county and state taxes.
1t Is shown by thorough discussion in
The Star of December is. 1913. and
March "A. 1914. that county taxes
enter eouitably into these calculations
of city taxes only to a limited extent.
recognized by the census. and state
taxes do not enter properly into the
calculation at all. any more than ma
tional taxes or the dues and assess
ments of some public-spirited village
or city Improvement association.
As against Mr.. Prouty's unique and
self-made figures. rooted In error and
applied by him in his own way to a
list OF cities selected by him for that
purpose, is the census showing con-
cerninR comparative tax burdens in the
governments own accredited figures
concerning total and per capita tax
levies.