Little Falls herald. [volume] (Little Falls, Morrison County, Minn.) 1889-1950, 1916-03-24
ASSESSORS OF COUNTY MEET
SAMUEL LORD OF TAX CoAmiIs.
SION GIVES INSTRUCTIVE
TALK

SION GIVES INSTRUCTIVE
TALK
The assessors Of the county held
. meeting at the court house yester-
day afternoon for the purpose Of con-
ferrlng with the tax commission in re-
gard to their duties under the laws
lof the state.
les Mr.. Lord, chairman of the commits
ision, was present and explained fully
all of the laws governing an assessor 8
tdnties. He reminded them that they
had taken an oath to perform their
duties in accordance with the laws OF
the state and urged them to be true
to this solemn obligation. He said
that tax paying can probably never
be made a pleasant duty; but if tax
payers could feel fairly certain that
their tax money was honestly handled
and wisely spent, and that the proper
ty of their neighbors was assessed the
same as their own we would probably
hear less murmuring and fewer com
plants.
l 1.-The assessment laws of the state
now require that household goods and
wearing apparel shall be assessed at
20; per cent Of their true and full value
in money; merchandise, farm products,
live stock, machinery Of all kinds and
farm lands at 33 l-3 per cent of their
value; and all other property, includ-
ing plated village and city real es-
tate, and bank stock at 40 per cent of
it's full value.
1T is so clear that it is self-evident
that if the property of every taxpayer
in every taxing district in the state
was, placed on the assessment books
and valued according to the same
rule the result would be a fair and
uniform assessment all over the state;
and this is just what will happen if
the property Of every citizen is as
sessed according to law. We are in
sisting, therefore, that the law must
be- carried out by every assessor just
Las it is written.
!. sn.The opinion is quite prevalent
throughout the state that in some way
not clearly understood the assessor is
responsible for high taxes. Taxes are
unquestionably high; but the assessor
has had no more to do with making
them so than any other citizen. The
duty OF the assessor is simply to value
the property upon which taxes are
levied. The assessment is simply a.
factor to determine how much each
person shall contribute to the expense
OF government, but it does not deter
mine the amount of the tax. It is the
amount Of money that is voted; for
public purposes that determines wheth-
er taxes shall be high or low. Large
appropriations mean high taxes. When
a community is spending large amounts
Of #money-it, matters not what for
/ taxes will inevitably be high but the
7 ssessof as an officer has absolutely
nothing to say about how much money
shall be spent. The amount of money
to be raised 10y taxation is determined
bv town meetings, school meetings, vii
iage and city councils, county boards,
the legislature, and by the people
themselves-not by the assessor.
"There. will be raised in this state
this year by direct taxation for school,
road, local, county and state purposes
the enormous sum Of $4,000, 900.
whether the assessor aoes his work
we'll or whether he does it poorly, and
whether he. lists all of the property in
MS district or only part of it, prac-
Itically all of this very large amount
Of money will be raised just the same.
Except as to very small fraction of
this amount nothing that the assessor
can do will add to or subtract from it
"a single penny.
i "But while the assessor has practi.
cally nothing to do with making the
taxes OF a community high or low he
has nearly everything to do with max
ling them fair and just. From the
q standpoint Of the individual taxpayer
he is the most important officer who
has anything to do with taxation. If
he complies with his oath of office and
, does his work in the way that the law
: provides, approximate justice will pre-
} vail among all Of the taxpayers of his
district; but if on the other hand he
} departs from the standard fixed by
!: law, or if he omits any considerable
amount Of property from his list his
; assessment will inevitably abound in
| the grossest inequalities and result in
the rankest injustice. Taxpayers whose
property is not all listed and assessed
will pay less than their share, and tax
! payers whose property is ali assessed
will pay more than they ought to.
HIn nearly every community tax
lodging is resorted to most by people
who are best able to pay. It is not
the citizen of limited means whose
property is all in sight and easily
found by the assessor who escapes.
Such people as a rule pay taxes on
every dollars worth of propert~ they
have in the world. It is among peo-
pie with bullying pocketibooks where
we find our fragrant tax dodgers. Many
OF these people by one dishonest de-
vice or another evade every tax that
they safely can. It is this class of
citizens that make the burden of tax
alton harder than it should be for hon
est taxpayers because all taxes which
!by trickery and dishonest methods tax
dodgers get out Of paying must be
made up by the less favored and more
honest taxpayers Of the county.
"The tax commission will aid as
SCISSORS by every means in its power to
enforce the law against this class Of