New Iberia enterprise and independent observer. (New Iberia, La.) 1902-1944, 1917-05-12
TAXATION BY THE BOARD OF
STATE AFFAIRS.

Sni y, -iAdJ 'ib' VII. ~. y
Theriot, the President Of tina
body read communication ad
dressed to the Jury asking then
10 call meeting Of the citizen!
to meet with the State officials il
this City on Thursday May 3lst
The purpose Of the meeting j:
explained below and it bchooye,
those Of our citizens who are in.
tereatcd in this subject to be
present with the Jury on that
date. The communication is as
follows:
In. order to make the ma ter
PERFECTLY clear. the Board will be
required to assess all railroad and
other property Of this class, for
local taxation. on identlcally the
same percentage that is used for
local purposes by the local taxing
authorities; or, in other words, to
use an illustration, if a railroad
should be valued at $40, 10000 per
mile actual value, and the Board
should adopt a fifty per cent basis
for assessment, the same would be
assessed on main line at $2O,-
10000 per mile, or just one-half OF
the actual value. If that road
ran through several different par
ishes which adopted different
percentage Of assessment from
that of the State, the values Tor
assessment purposes in each par
ish will be different
To be more explicit, in case the
State should adopt fifty per cent
basis of assessment and the rail-
roads should be valued at $4O,-
10000 per mile, the assessment OF
that road for State purposes
would be 500, 10000 per mile and
If a parish for local purposes, lev
led taxes on a forty per cent basis, |
the same railroad, for local pur-
poses in that parish, would be as
sessed at $40, 10000 per mile; and
if another parish adopted a thirty
per cent basis, for local taxes, the
same road would be assessed at
100000 per mile, or if sixty
DER cent basis were adopted for
n. essment that same road will be
valued at $24,000.00 per mile; so
hat from this you will observe
hat whatever percentage is adop-
led by the Police Jury and the AS
SCISSOR for local taxes the same
IDENTICAL percentage win have to
be applied by this Board Tor the
assessment of all railroad ana
,thor property that falls under It's
Jurisdiction as the successor OF the
Board of Appraisers.
In many states each individual
county assesses the railroad and
hev have a great fluctuatlon OF
ralues on that account. In this
State the railroads are all as
,essed by one Board, but the per
.entage Of assessed to actual value
must be identically the same as
hat used by the local taxing au-
thorities for local purposes and
he percentage used by the State
Board for State purposes Will APP
Div uniformly throughout the en-
ire State on these as well as on
III other classes of property.
This statement is made at this
time. in order that the local tax
nc authorities NAV all under
stand in advance that the per-
,entage applied to. railroad and
,ther properties that are assessed
BY the State Board will have to
,e treated on identically the same
of valuation as local
property is treated for local pur-
poses, and | would urge upon the
Police Juries and local taxing au-
,horities to reduce their 9lllage
10Th for the levee boards, ssr the
municipalities and for the parish.
IS. and raise the percentage OF
heir assessment, so that there VIII
10 n lower tax rate upon Whlch
he taxpayer will be compelled TO
,ay: and we would also call at
ention that in the future, IN
ewing special taxes, that the
governing authorities should I'M
lertake to levy sufficient tax to
aise specific amount of money,
eaving it to the Police Jury to
TX a sufficient millage to produce
his amount of money, and not
evy a definite tax for a definite
Inmber of years, because III that
ase as the assessments increase
nd the millage is not decreased,
, /