The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 18??-1935, 1919-05-09
TAXABLE VALUES.

| Some interesting facts are present
ed by Assessor Williams in his sum-
mary Of the testimony of eighteen
farmers on the actual value of Maury
county farms. According to this sum-
mary the farm lands of the county
are now assessed at $18 an acre and
they are actually worth only $22 an
acre. 1t will probably be surprising
even to the people of Maury county
to know that their farm lands are as
sessed at eighty per cent of their &C.
tual value. There is a good deal of
confusion as to what constitutes ac-
tual value. The assessment laws of
the state define actual cash value"
as the price at which the property
would sell at fair, voluntary SALE"
There is no warrant anywhere, either
in the law or the court opinions con-
STRUNG it, which takes into consider
alton as the determining factor in fix
ing valuation for taxation of real es-
tate, particularly farm lands, its in
come producing value.
1t is Obvious that it would be unfair
to make the income of the farm the
chief consideration in fixing its value
for taxation. 1t would imposes undue
hardship upon the energetic, the pro-
gressive and the successful farmer,
who made larger labor income per
acre than the farmer with even better
| and more salable land made because
the latter lacked in thrift and applica.
ton. Hence if we are to have the d.
rect property tax system the defini-
ton of actual value given in the law
books is probably the fairest. In COM
mon parlance piece of property Is
worth just what it win bring in money
or the equivalent of money.
Applying the standard of the law The
Herald must dissent from the evidence
as summarized by Assessor Williams
and express the opinion that the farm
lands of Maury county, WILL on the av-
erage, lat this time bring more, than
$22 an acre if sold at fair, voluntary
sales. As matter Of fact The Herald
has serious doubt If of the large num-
Der of farms sold during the past
| war q ccoro cor ho found .r,b ow<, I,a,,
were sold at an advance Of only TWEEN
ty per cent over their assessed yalua-
ton. The Herald knows of alarms
that within the past year have sold
for three times their assessed valua-
ton. 1t has in mind farm that sold
for more than $4,000 and has been
assessed at around $4,000 or twenty
! five per cent of its value and this is
not an extreme instance.
There has been little change made
in the acreage assessment of Maury
county in recent years and yet he
would be poor observer indeed who
would insist that land values have
not appreciated more than twenty
per cent in that time. The United
States government report gives the
average actual value of the tillable
lands of the state at around $50 an
acre and it is hardly likely that any
patriotic Dimplian will insist that the
average value or worth of farm lands
in Maury county is less than the aver
age for the state,
AS matter of course and inevitab,
ly farm lands here and in practically
all the states of the Union have appre.
| ciated considerably in recent years.
With the products of the FARMS sell
ing at something like double what
they sold for few years ago increas-
ed value was bound to come. For ex-
ample an acre of land that was worth
only $50 fifteen years ago and has
been properly titled since, will pro-
duce as many bushels of SITS corn
as it would produce Of fifty cent corn.
Likewise that same acre will produce
as many bushels Of two and quarter
wheat as it did of eighty cent wheat 2
1t is insisted by many witnesses
that land values are inflated" That
in one sense is true of all values, be-
cause credit, that which makes value,
has been enormously inflated in this
and in every other country of the
world since the beginning of the great
war. Our tremendous balance of
trade has inflated credit. That is it
has reduced the purchasing power of
the dollar. A dollar won't buy as
much calico, or bacon or farm land
or city property as it would a few
years ago Our standards of value
are changed and it would be indeed
remarkable and serious catastrophe
to the country if this deprecated dol
lar would buy as many feet of farm
lands as it would purchase when one
could buy with that same dollar twice
as much of everything else as 1t will
now buy. If fifty dollars will buy an