The Pensacola journal. (Pensacola, Fla.) 1898-1985, 1922-09-28
Public Forum
Editor Pensacola Lourna

Editor Pensacola Journal.
Being very much interested in a recent
editorial appearing in The Tampa Tri-
bune, under the heading, THE Great IN
known" and referring to the vast amount
of land that is constantly carried on the
tax books of Florida with the ownership
shown as unknown. 1 wish to submit a
few suggestions for your consideration.
with the hope that possibly the germ of
an idea may be therein contained that
will result in beneficial legislation by the
1928 legislature.
During my late lamented race for the
honor of representing Sarasota county in
the legislature 1 advocated three meas
ures that in my opinion would have gone
far toward remedying the condition
which was mentioned in the editorial, as
follows:
First: To require the clerk of the cir
cult court to furnish the tax assessor with
a certified copy of all real estate trans
fers filed with him for record, giving the
tax assessor authority to change his
books to show the ownership as given In
the transfers, (This certified copy would
not necessarily be a copy of the instru-
ment Of transfer, but just enough to snow
the description of the land, the former
owner and the new owner.)
Second: To provide for deputy tax as
SCISSORS in each commissioners district,
who would be required to personally visit
each piece of property in the district and
assess same; afterward sitting as board
of eoualizers, with the tax assessor, their
equalization being final. The work of
eoualizing is now done by the board of
county, commissioners, and in many in
stances they have no idea of the i'm
provement, location, etc., of the prop
ertv which they attempt to place values
upon.
Third: To provide for the sale OF lands
that have been held in the name Of the
state for unpaid taxes for three years, in
small tracts to actual settlers, on easy
payments, after giving the former owner
due notice and chance to redeem the
property. provision would have to be
made in such law to exempt home
steads so that it would not work a hard
ship on persons actually occupying their
land. who were temporarily unable to
pay their taxes).
believe the latter provision would do
more to settle up vast area of now un-
developed land than any other plan that
could be carried out. There are now
thousands of people who are anxious to
come to this state and settle who are held
hack by high prices of undeveloped land
which is held for speculative purposes.
At the same time 1t would bring many
thousands of dollars into the state treas
urv that must now be met by the smaH
home owner who pays taxes.
It is we'll known fact that there are
In this state thousands of acres of land
that are held for speculation upon which
the taxes are not paid until the owner
sells the land, in the meantime the land
lies in the name of the state and the
small taxpayer must pay to make up for
these idle lands.
The second provision, would in my
ooinion, come as near to giving a fair
equalization of the burden of taxation as
is humanity possible. as the deputy tax
assessors would be personally familiar
with the improvements and character of
each piece of property.
The first provision would undoubtedly
go a long way toward eliminating the
unknown owner from our tax rolls.
A further measure which I advocated,
which however, is not an original idea
with me, was the separation of state and
county revenues. 1t seems to me that a
plan could be worked out whereby the
the state could derive sufficient revenue
from a tax on corporations and from Ii
censes to provide for the state govern
ment. Then each county could pay a
certain amount per pupil for each pupil
attending the state institutions of higher
learning, which would stu be under state