The herald and news. [volume] (Newberry S.C.) 1903-1937, 1920-12-10
Efficiency Engineers Report That Tax
camn,isrion Should Be Given
More Power and Board of
Review Abolished.

Abolition of the state tax board
Of Review, strengthening the state
tax commission in a number of ways,
amending the constitution so as to
allow a. general change in the prop
es4y and personal taxes and suggest
q ing that more, authority be given to
remove local boards Of assessors is
contained in the second installment
6 OF the report of Griffenhagen and as
scciases, efficiency experts, to- the
I budget commission and the COVER
nor.
The section of the report today
takes up the following subjects: De
fecfs ID the present tax system; the
general property tax in operation
corporation and other business h
cense taxes IN operation; recommen-
dations for revision of administra-
Eve features of the tax system; rec
! concentrations regarding the tax
commission; Recommendations re-
gaTding the tax board Of review; rec
concentrations regarding local assess
sslg officers; recommendations regard
The general property tax; state
property tax statistics; state license
lax statistics.
The general property tax in opera
ton The general property tax, as
S S SD important source Of revenue, and
81 the form in which it is operative
1 ii South Carolina, meets with UNI
,versal criticism on the part Of stu
dents OF taxation, taxpayers, tax
commissions, and tax officials in gem
eral. III IS an old tax, with q ven
cradle history Of 3inadequacy, IN
/; 8 equity dishonesty, and faulty admin
istla III Europe, where It first
originated, il was long ago abandon
ga Ia recent years many American
81 atates have also abandoned it, either
B wholly 81. Is an important source OF
! revenue, after repeated attempts to
fbrn it, had proved unsuccessful.
There appears on The surface to be
good deaI TO be said for the consti-
d tuticnal provisions whereby all prop
arfv III Snlifh Carolina must be taxed
uniiferna rate, Super6cialiy, con-
iderasipls Of justice and equity ap-
eaT 10 demand such q Imita Zion of
the tsxing power Of the legislature.
ID praesice, the chief defects Of the
tax sas st operates ID South Carolina,
D and ii other states where there are
! sitssilar eonstit titutiona limitations,
I 8 aiss out of this constitutional pro-
; vision.
tax On property is uniform only
la name and highly unequal in fact
H the assessment Of the property
81 upon which the tax is levied is not
unHerm. Something has already been
said of the competition for low as
sessments which develops between
local districts when a tax collected
Of state purposes is administered
by IocaI officials. The assessors, no
now good their intentions,
can not resist the pressure of then
ab1rs and electors for low as.
assmeats. They often feel that d
tt,aV retarn proper valuations. then
istrict will thereby be forced to bear
part Of the burden of taxation fol-
Gsaar districts whose assessors are
not 50 conscientious. They do not
and under the circumstances they
ear not be expected to, make full
and proper assessments Of property
q in their districts. The powers con
fsrred upon the tax commission have
undoubsedly resulted in an improve
ment Of the situation, especially
with respect to those corporations
that are directly assessed for taxa
tion by the commission itself. A fur
{ ther extension of the powers of the
commission and an increase in its
4 staff would with equal certainty leae
to further Improvement, and even te
the elimination of all glaring in
! equalities in 50 far as the assessment
Of tangible and especially real prop
erty is concerned.
inequalities in assessments OF
property rarely result from the over
assessment Of some property, while
other property is properly assessed
They almost universally result from
general under assessment below
the legal rate, but with different de-
grees Of under assessment for diff