Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1923-08-04
THE COUNTRY HOME
BY MRS, w. H. FELTON,
THE EQUALIZATION BILL ONCE MORE

TIME state of Georgia adopted system
of taxation in 1877--the ad valOrem
system-meaning exactly this: accord
ing to value. The tax receiver was expect
ed to be an intelligent man, acquainted with
prevailing prices of real estate, etc. The
owner was required to get from the tax re-
ceiver form of questions and answers, and
from 1877 EDWARDS until 1913, the >taXpay-
ers of the state were prosperous and willing
to pay all the taxes which the law required
In 1913 plan was set on foot to make
three other men the judges of these tax
returns, and bill was passed, called equali-
zatlon of taxes, and these three men were
to examine the returns and protect those
who were OvertaXed and to lower tax values
where they were thus over-taxed, and also
raise tax values where they were undoubted-
ly too low.
Teh law was good enough, per Sc, it
sounded all right on paper, but the thing
was soon "Overdone' in practice. Like the
eighteenth amendment, the trouble lay in
law enforcement If we now had active, Wig
liant tax receivers today they would come
nearer to tracking the constitutional law of
1877 than the equalizers, so called, have
ever done.
We are living under the law of 1877 the
old ad valorem law, with five men dickering
with tax returns, instead of permitting the
tax receiver and tax collector to carry doubt
full returns to the grand jury in each county
and permitting the grand jury to call these
supposed tax perjurers to their presence and
thus remedy whatever was wrong. All the
present legislature has to do now is to rub
off those extra three names, the three as
SCISSORS, and allow the 1cturns, whenever and
wherever questionable be examined by the
grand jury when the tax receiver was in
doubt as to their quality, when the tax
collector saw where an error had been COM
mitted. They elected by the people at
the ballot box and the tax assessors are
KIDD NV no nrdin hTy
commissioners.
These elected men should give their en-
tire time to the county's business of collect
ing tax returns in the spring and collecting
the tax money in the fall The constitution
al law of 1877 thus directs.
All the present legislature has to do is to
clean off the tax assessors as worthless, aud
get back to properly elected, intelligent tax
receivers and honest tax collectors. A leg
iislature tackled them on and certainly a leg
islature can take off this incubus thus tackled
on in 1913, which has been exactly what the
people of Georgia voted to take off in the
elections of 800 and 1922. Twice the peo-
pie have thus spoken with authority And
the legislature of 1923 could remove those
men in jiffy if they were not afraid of
losing the votes of those who have been
able to dicker with these outside men and
have their property protected while the
masses, the less wealthy ones are made to
pay to the limit
To talk about being unable to repeal the
present equalization law until one is
voted on is like refusing to turn the hose on
a burning house until they put in set of
new hydrants and the new set of hydrants
haven't been ordered or paid for.
The manifest thing to do is to remove
these tax assessor barnacles and then make
the receiver and tax collector do their duty
as the law of 1877 plainly directs.
The ship owners do not destroy the hull
of the vessel which is loaded with valuables
because the barnaces have glued themselves
on to the hull They scrape off the bar
nacles and put the ship in clean running
order as before.
To say to the world, you must destroy
the hull because it is infested with bar
nacles, is begging the question. That is the
chief error of the lawmakers.
The legislature of 1913 made the mis-
take of allowing the barnacles to gather on
the hull, and although the people of Geor-
gia have twice gone, as before stated, to
the baIluy 10 and ordered their representa-
tives to remove these hurtful things; as soon
as the representatives gather under the
dome Of the capitol they begin to hedge
around and say, we must get something bet