The Birmingham age-herald., 1915-05-02
RADICAL CHANGES IN SYSTEM OF TAXING ARE URGED BY PERCY Advocates Establishment of Central Taxing Commits
 sion in Letter WOULD ABOLISH THE
 OFFICE OF ASSESSOR Says Present System Would Be Laughable if It Were Not Tragic. Average Assessment of Prop erty Is Thirty Per Cent 

That the county tax assessors pf- flee should be abolished, that the pres ent taxing system would be farce if it were not a tragedy, and advo- eating the creation of central taxing commission are among the opinions of Walker Percy in regard to the re- formation of the taxing system which is being looked after by the recess committee on taxation and finances
 In a letter addressed to Representa. tive John B. Weakley of this city, MT. Percy uses perhaps the strongest lan- guage in regard to the taxing system that has been printed since that subject has been under consideration.
 Letter of Percy
 The letter of MT Percy follows:
 Honorable John B. Weakley. Chair
 man Joint Committee on Finance
 and Taxation. Birmingham, Ala
 My Dear MT Weakley: Knowing how many problems your committee has to deal with, and how valuable is the limited time at its disposal. I hesitate to venture any suggestions with reference to your work. but I am profoundly interested in the questions coming before you and before the other committees now engaged in recess work. l sympathize with you in the difficulties by which you are con fronted in work requiring wisdom. nsa- turity of judgment and patriotism, and yet which is so inadequately compen- sated that your labors should be re- garded as given without pay. And yet am frank to say tbat I envy you the opportunity of isefulness. There Is no public positiol that ,I know of In which an earnest ma1l can so qu,sKly and certainly hope to zee the oenefic- ial results of intelligent %Srk.
 Our System of Taxation
 There has not in recent years been such in our state government outside f the work of our appellate courts to which the thoughtful Alabamian can point with pride. but l am quite sure that there has been no department of cur government which Is of such vi- tai importance and which has been so badly handled as the department of taxation. I am not one of those who believe that we should spend less money upon our Sldte government l believe that if the revenues of the rtate during the next four years could be doubled, and large portion of tfe money spent on better roads and scien- tific agriculture, that the wealth of the state would be increased many times the amount invested I haven't any sympathy with lamentations about the burdens of taxation from taxpayers who are paying less than the taxpay- nf m otlxN a a h l in the union. I believe our people should pay more taxes. not less, but 1 that the burden of those taxes should te imposed upon all property owners | in Alabama. rich and poor, big and lit | He, with a greater degree of equity gnd uniformity. We all recognize that l our present system of assessing taxes
 would be farce if 1t were not trag- 1 edy. The question confronting your committee Is how to improve our sys- l .em of assessm ents, and it is to this question that I wish to address myself Fundamental Weakness
 "The first and fundamental weakness | in our present system is that the county tax assessor elected by the people usually
 shirks his duty and allows the taxpayer to value his own property. The tax as'
 sessor of this county is supposed to re-
 celve about $25.000 a year. The office is one Of the best conducted Tn the county 1 For many years the tax assessors of Jef' ferson county, including the present as sessor. have conducted the office witt
 unusual efficiency, but as a general prop osition the system Is in vogue here, as 1 elsewhere that the taxpayer and not thu l tax assessor values the property assessed 1 Isn't 1t manifest that so long. as thu l tax assessor is elected by the people. | l is going to be impossible for him to con l sider the property and not the people | who own 1t in making up his assessments l The boards of revenue or courts of coun l ty commissioners of the various counties under our present system review the as sessments of property. It Is matter O common knowledge that the boards 0 revenue and courts of county commis | sicners of the various counties are mucl more interested in seeing that the tax payers of their respective counties do no | bear an undue share of the burdens O | taxation compared with other countie than they are in seeing that property | assessed as the law requires. confident I ly assert, as a fundamental proposition l that there can be no real improvement in the assessment of property in thi state until the responsibility for assess nents is taken out of the hands of eiecte'
 county officials. The office of county ta, commissioner has been abolished, and heartily approve the action of the legisla ture in this regard Let me venture t suggest that in the assessment of prop
 erty, property throughout the state shoul
 be viewed by a central authority. withou