The evening Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1918-1920, 1919-08-02

TAX BOARD
is URGED
Burlington Paper Urges
State School and High
way Tax Improvement

The Free Press has more than once
sought to show the need Of board
of equalization of taxation in Yer
mont. At the present time large
towns that seek to establish an hon
est grand list as basis of taxation
suffered in two ways: First, from
excessive state and highway taxes
based on the grand list of the large
towns and distributed in effect ac-
cording to the road mileage and num-
| Der of schools Of the small towns; and
second, through the putting down of
property at excessively low apprais-
! ais in some of the towns to escape
part of this state burden. The law
provides that a tax of ten cents on
thethe dollar of the grand list shall
be assessed for the support of schools
and five cents on the dollar for roads
which throws still more of it on the
large towns that seek an honest grand
list.
No town in Vermont has higher
appraisal of real estate in proportion
than Burlington. AS result of this
constant increase in our realty APP,
praisal Burlington paid into the state
treasury in 1918 state road tax of
/ $1,000, and the report of the super
intendent of streets shows that Bur-
lington received in the distribution
of the proceeds of that tax the sum
of $1,218.S4.
The sum paid by Burlington in
1918 to the state treasury under the
state school tax law was $19,210, and
the city received from the state ac-
cording to the city report $4,000.
The way in which the State road
tax law operates is well brought out
: by the Rutland Herald as follows:
A somewhat striking sidelight on
Vermont tax problems is shown by
the returns made to towns after APP
portionment by the state treasurer.
AS noted in yesterdays news col
umns, three sets of figures tell the
story:
Rutland city pays the state S5,687.-
"a and receives $418.81 on rcappor-
tionment;
Rutland town pays the state $450.05
and receives $286.06 on reapportion-
ment;
Danville pays the state $502.39 and
receives $1,145.33 on reapportion-
ment.
The theory of the present system
seems to be the larger and more able
towns are taxed to help towns with
a large road mileage and with small
grand list. The law reads in part as
follows:
Sec. 4574. A state highway tax
of five cents on a dollar is hereby an
nually assessed upon the grand list,
exclusive of unorganized towns and
cores, for the support of highway, etc.
Sec 4578. The tax so raised shall
be reapportioned and repaid to the
several towns upon a basis or road
mileage, etc.
"The theory of this tax is pretty
nearly pure State socialism, to begin
with land its application leaves the
making up of the grand list practi-
cally centered in town officials, the
result being that hardly any two
towns agree on an equitable basis
for determining grand list values.
"The listers swear that they will
appraise such property at "its just
value in money" but they appraise it
according to their own judgment, so
that Danville, for instance, lists its
taxable property at $9,395.47 and
raises tax of So on such list.
The town of Rutland on the other
hand, with grand list of $9,191.-
AZ raises tax of Sligo. Is there any
justice or equity in such disparity?
Some final authority must be vested
somewhere to adjust these varying
values, because, with state taxes as
sessed on the whimsical valuations of
local listers, the town which deliber-
ately manipulates its grand list gains
just so much in the exchange of road
money, school money and all other
public money based on grand list
values, and the honest towns pay the
difference.
There is nothing fair about such a
system, and it calls for amendment in
no uncertain terms"
A large town with sparse popula-
ton and small grand list but with a
large road mileage manifestly gains
tremendously from this system of
taxation and distribution. This would
be true even if the appraisal of real
estate in all the towns in the state |
were on the same basis. Where al
town with Fermentation puts its real
estate into the grand list at an I'M
usually low rate to escape even that
part of the state taxes that would Il
honestly fall to it, the taxpayers of
that community enjoy double immun-
ity from their fair share of the
burden of taxation for educational
and road maintenance.
If you want to know whether the
assessors of your own community
are fulfilling the requirements of the
law you can ask whether they are
obeying that statute requiring realty
to be appraised at a fair market
value. If real estate is put into the