The Bennington evening banner. (Bennington, Vt.) 19??-1961, 1916-03-21
LISTERS ATTEND
SCHOOL WITH TAX
COMMISSIONER
Annual Meeting For Inst uCtiOn at
Court House Today
Mr.. plUMLty EXPLAINS LAWS
Goes Into Details Over Offset Amend
ment Enacted by Last
Legislature.

Bennington county listers met at
| the county court house at O'Clock
| this afternoon for their annual confer
ence with Tax Commissioner Charles
A. Plumley of Northfield in his in
structions the commissioner said that
the Office of lister requires the exer-
else OF good judgment and impartiali-
ty; that the lister is pre-eminently the
most important official in the whole
scheme of general property taxation.
Every effort to better the system
should be concentrated upon him and
his work The law prescribed the
standard Of value, the plan to be fol-
lowed, and the lister is armed and
equipped as the law directs. He does
not make, and is not responsible for.
but he has taken an oath to enforce
the law. If law is not right, is in
equitable, or unjust, the surest way to
have such law corrected is to en-
force it impartially II is the duty of
the lister to see that he who has been
paying too much should pay less, and
he who has been paying too little shall
pay his full share.
He emphasized the fact that per
cent Indebtedness does not entitle
man to claim the benefit of an offset.
that it is only indebtedness on which
6 per cent or over is paid that en-
titles the taxpayer to an offset. He
distributed illustrative examples which
he had worked out in detail covering
the matter of offsets involving the par
tioular problems which the listers
viii be apt to encounter in their work.
These examples are based upon sec
ton 4 of No. "a of the acts OF 1915,
md will simplify the work OF the list
ers if they are followed ,.eci w y
incidentally, Mr.. Plumley distributed
4 bulletin showing the number Of ped
Hers licenses now issued in the
state, the law relating to the licensing
Of peddlers and the disposition which
Is made of the fees received from the
licensing of peddlers. The fees are dis
tributed among the various towns for
the purpose of equalizing opportunities
in the public educational system. Ii
IS apparent from an examination of
this schedule and from ones know
ledge OF conditions as they exist that
large number of peddlers are not
licensed as required by law
Mr.. Plumley referred to bulletin
No. Z, which he has recently distribut-
ed to listers, town clerks and others
throughout the state, and called atten
ton to certain typographical errors in
that bulletin. paying particular atten
tion to page 20, lines % and %. He
said that the words subdivision OBJ
Of section g" should be struck out, and
that the words section 4" should be
Inserted in lieu thereof The context
iiscloses that this is u typographical
error, but in order that there may be
no confusion. Mr.. Plumley has dis
tributed 'Errata' slips calling attei
ton to these matters. For the benefit
of the newly elected listers, he dis
cussed the changes in tax laws made
by the legislatures of 1908, 1910, 1912
and 1915. He referred to No. 4S of the
laws of 1915, which facilitates the col
lection of poll taxes. and to No. 54 of
the acts of 1915, which provides for the
appointment of limited number of
special deputies to determine the
valuation of power plants, mills. dams
and other special forms of taxable
property
Amos j. Eaton, esq.,, of South Royal
ton, of the state board of forestry,