Iron County news. [volume] (Hurley, Wis.) 1913-1950, 1920-11-27
STATISTICS FROM REPORT
OF ASSESSOR OF INCOMES
Pearee Tomkins Reviews Matters Per-
tanning to Assessments Of Property
in His Annual Report.

board, submitted for The purpose Of
assisting the board ia making a prop
er equalization and distribution Of
state and county taxes anu TO poiLt
out the inequalities and defects 10 the
assessment of property IN the various
districts, Pearce Tomblns, assessor
of incomes, said u part.
at is pleasing to find decided i'm
proYement Ia the assessment OF prop
erty as a whole q the county. We
found when We assumed the duties of
this office that little if any attention
was being paid to the selling value of
property n its assessment. You are
all acquainted with our efforts to Sc
cure assessments founded on this
principle. The laws Of Wisconsin pro-
vide for the assessment of both real
and personal property at their true
market value. Necessarily III order TO
follow the law, those charged with
the valuation OF property must ac-
quaint themselves with the real es-
tate sales in their district They are
also required to familiariZe themsel-
yes with the market value Of live
stock, forest products, machinery and
the many items which constitute per
sonal property liable TO assessment.
1--WE feel that our efforts have not
still is much, prejudice to be overcome
To your cooperation must be given
the credit for much of tue improve
ment made. Before going further let
us urge greater effort on your part,
first in securing competent assessors,
second, in commencing their worthy
endeayors and discOuragiDg careless
ness, discrimination aud unfairness.
Three districts have assessments at
or over true value Quincy and Saxon
towns and the city of Hurley The
town of Saxon has the highest ratio
of assessed TO true value, l23.T3 per
cent An application for re-assess-
ment is pending in this district.
The most marked improvement
has come ia the assessment OF the
city of Hurley The local assessor
made noteworthy effort to secure
proper equalization OF this district
This years experience should place
him ia a position to be able to work
out as good an assessment as human
judgment can produce. Again the T.
co operation OF those IN charge of
local government made the results
obtained possible.
Approximately % per cent OF the .
income tax levied in 1913 was offset
by PERSONAL property taxes. The .
question as II whether tue personal 7
offset should be repealed .
given careful thought A great deal
81 the work connected with the max
ng out Of income returns is lost. The .
AK is levied at no little expense, ouly /
20 be offset and not collected. The
work connected with the making out,
auditing and checking Of the returns
If merchants and jobbers is the
most difficult. 1t requires their
keeping accurate accounts and care
.ul work by the assessor of incomes.
We venture to say that without this
class of returns the work connected
With the income tax would be reduc-
ID at least one-half On account of
his class of taxpayers invariably
having a large amount of personal
a small percentage of the
AK levied is collected.
In illustration of the above there
are 3l7 merchants s1d jobbers on the
income tax rolls of the three counties
this district. Their total
act taxable income amount to S972.-
ls2. The total tax levied for 1920 is
82o, 8Ss.20, This is over SO per cent of
he total tax levied against individu-
his IN the three counties as given a.
Dove $50, 047.50"
Tables compiled by Mr.. Tomkins
md accompanying his report showed
hat:
Horses, mules and asses numbered
1928. Aggregate assessed value. s164.-
'65, aggregate true value, SIS, 1872. The
own of Saxon leads ia numbers with
.42.
Neat cattle numbered S,7O9. AqQre-
gate assessed value, s202. $50. aggre.
rate true value s287 .225. The town of
had the greatest number, 758.
With Saxon second with ia. and
Knight third with AS.
sheep numbered 500. Aggregate
assessed value. SD SOB. aggregate true
.alue si5 goo The largest number of
heep were found ia the town of Kim
'all 54!, Mercer second with sol
'arey third with 29q. n
swine numbered 662. Aggregate