Palatka daily news. [volume] (Palatka, Fla.) 1919-1994, 1922-01-18
ASSESSING PROPERTY
AT Full LVALUE.

y Last night council passed, unani-
nously, resolution asking the city
AK assessor not to take any "dras-
C action" in making the assessments
VI 1922. The words asking the col
tor to make the assessments on
fly per cent basis" were stricken
of the original resolution.
egally and morally council had no
1t to pass such resolution. No
slative body has right, legal or
al, to direct an official which it
to a created office, to deviate
the duties prescribed by law.
resolution which council passed
just as we'll have been left on
BILE.
News believes, like many 9TH
n, payers, that the taxes are as
IsJ,some as they can be. Taxes
a,~ are. 1t appreciates fully the
e,.. that fesets the average prop
Doc. ,lder when any change is pro-
but :. 4 method or rate of taxation,
fu 20 AUST appear to all, after care
k:sI asideration that the present
system in Pdlatl:s~cannot longer con-
>,ue, and that it is decidedly to the
rest of the great majority of tax
rs to have the assessments made
basis that will guarantee equity
e Council has no authority to
the basis of valuation. That is
ked by the city charter. 1t is fixed
at one hundred per cent. But council
haas the right to fix the millage, which
governs the amount each taxpayer
Will be required to pay.
Alderman Smith, who has been q
consistent opponent of full valuation
expressed, ON several occasions ir
open council, that his fear is that the
next council may take advantage Of
the high valuation and increase the
amount each tax payer must pay pro
PoTtionately by increasing the proper.
tomato millage. If the next council
has any such desire it can do what
Mr. Smith fears it might do, whether
tho assessment now is made at one
hundred or fifty per cent, for it can
instruct the tax assessor to edo his
duty" under the law. Whatever the
present council may or may not do is
no insurance against what the next
one might do, for if it is really dis
posed to increase the city's revenues
it <an do it whether the present coun-
xii provides fifty or a hundred per
cert assessment. If the present coun-
Gil has right to fix the valuation the
next council will also have the same
right. So it is as broad as it is long,
and it make no difference what the
valuation is as far as the actual
money collected from each tax pay
er is concerned, for the millage gov
erns that.
But there is a very serious ccnsid-
GRAFTON which was evidenced when
S155, 900 worth of city bonds were of
fered for sale last Tuesday. Bonds
that would have brought par, or per-
haps, above par, were sold considera-
sbly below par, or at loss of several
thousand dollars to the city. This
must come out of the pockets Of the
tax payers. 1t represents no actual
investment, but a real loss, taken
solely because of system of collect
ing revenues. Add this amount to
the revenue which will be expended
and 1t will run the millage up, in eff
feet, so that even if one or two more
mills is assessed under higher val
aation, the tax payer will have to pay
10 more in actually.
We would like to ask opponents to
a full valuation just one question,
and our columns are open to reply:
Why does the city assess its property
at half value?
HOME SALE DAYS.