Evening star., 1915-02-23

| the accuracy of the reported relations
Of assessed to true value except in
| three states. Minnesota is one of the
states commended for comparative ac-
curacy of the statement of the relation
! OF the assessment to the true value.
Yet it has been acknowledged officially
| that the assessed values reported for
! taxation in that state are grossly mac
curate. If Minnesota, SO often cited as
an example of assessment thorough
ness. is so far from the true value
basis in practice, what unreliabihty
IS indicated as TO others!
| In 1919 the Minnesota tax commits
sion said:
| Ever since Minnesota became state
we have had a law among our statntes
requiring that all property shall be as
sessed at its true and full value in
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 or,
with few exceptions. has any. serious
| attempt ever been made to so assess it.
The uniform, universal custom has
been to assess at from 25 to SO per cent
of actual value; and this custom has
! had the long-continued approval of the
people. the silent support of the law
making. and. in large measure. the ac-
quiescence of the law-enforcing de-
partments of the state government.
AS in Minnesota SO almost every
where nominal 100 per cent valuation
means only from IS 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 in the United
States, NO matter what the nominal
assessment fate of valuation may be.
is realty actually assessed 80 close to
the real value as in Washington today.
Prior to the act of 1902 requiring not
less than two-thirds valuation the law
enacted in 1888 required land to be as
sessed at its true value. 1t was found,
Assessor Richards testifies, that values
assessed under this law were "some of
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
none of these assessments should be
less than two-thirds of the true valua-
ton
| The proposition now is to return to
the old law of 1888, requiring true
value assessments, under which these
widely varying underassessments were
made.
| The District assessor very recently
ga Je out tables making elaborate COM
parisons 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 OF
realty. The result of these comparisons
/
are today 20 per cent Of the actual
value-a little more than the sc 23 per
cent which the law fixes the mini
mum.
1t results that the actual value of
Washington realty is slightly over
assessed by the assessor, while nearly
everywhere else the actual value Is un-
IderasSessed. whatever the nOmina
valuation. in many cases by 80 per cent
of that valuation.
! The fact that in a Warrington ASSESS
ment n nominal 66 2-3 per cent means
an actual 20 per cent. while in most
other cities a nominal 100 per cent
means an actual so per cent and a NOM
inal 80 per cent means an actual Is
per cent, explains the amazing din-
crepancies which confront us when
Washington's realty assessment is COM
pared with that of larger and richer
cities.
Mr.. Prouty injects into his table an
additional element of error in adding to
his mills of fictitious tax rate an
II is shown by thorough discussion in
The Star of December 1S. 1913, and
| March IA. 1914, that county taxes
enter equitably into these calculations
| of city taxes only to limited extent,
recognized by the census, and state
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-
| cerning comparative tax burdens in the
! governments own accredited figures
concerning total and per capita tax
levies.