The Monmouth inquirer. [volume] (Freehold, N.J.) 1865-1933, 1923-10-25

made per capita by the state.
Against County Assessments
The report by DR.. Van Dyke is to be
sent to each member of the State
Board of Education, which may take
action on it at the November meeting.
In the report DR.. Van Dyke said, in
part:
THE levying and collecting of school
taxes by the state is a necessity, other
wise sufficient school money will not
be raised and distributed.
There is necessity for uniform as
sessment Of taxable property through
out the school districts of the state.
Such assessment should be made by
the State Board of Taxes and Assess
ments in order to insure equality and
fairness.
Assessments should be by school
districts, not by counties. All property
should be valued on the same percent
age basis.
cit is generally understood that the
State Board of Taxes and Assessments
already has in its possession sufficient
data to say at what percentage Of
value any school district in the state
is assessed.
IF that value in any given case
should be only 80, 40 or so per cent Of
the real value it should not be an i'm
possible or difficult matter to fix the
value at 100 per cent.
No Increase Under Present Condition
1T may not be desirable to raise the
values to 100 per cent throughout the
state or the mileage tax could be low
cred, but the percentage of either as
sessment or mileage should be the
same in each and every school district
in the state.
There should be no increase in the
present mileage tax until assessments
are uniform and proper system OF
distribution is established.
1.-THE bill introduced in the state leg
islature last winter which suggested a
repeal Of the present "a mill tax and
in it's place levying of a state income
tax at a minimum of mills should not
become law.
such change would merely dupli-
cate to a certain extent the Federal
income tax and would result in the
few rich districts paying practically
all the school tax and the poor rural
districts paying practically nothing.
Realty as Tax Basis
There is no great injustice in realty
being the basis of school taxation.
The burden falls on city property as
well as farm property. City real es-
tate is often quite as improbable as
farming property, but it is not, should
not be, exempt from taxation on that
account
THE real injustice at the present
cine is that some real estate is as
sessed as high as 100 per cent and
some as low as 80 per cent
when the valuations for tax pur-
poses are uniform throughout all the
school districts there will be more rev.
enue and less injustice to those from
whom it is collected.
ITO shift a matter of millions in
taxes from real and personal property
to income is a violent experiment and
besides does not really solve the ques-
ton. 1t is not so much the raising as
the distribution of the tax that is per-
picking.
Direct Distribution
Ninety or perhaps 100 per cent of
the school tax raised should be re-
turned to the districts by ratables as
raised The state handling of this tax
merely insures it's being raised and
applied to school purposes. Under
the proposed plan no 10 per cent re-
serve should be necessary.
"All the state school moneys aside
from that raised by the school dis
.tricts-that is, the railroad tax, the in
come of the state school fund and the
appropriation by the legislature
should be distributed directly to the
500-odd school districts of the state.
The state should deal directly with the
district as a unit and not with the
county as a unit
Cities and Country
"In previous distributions the large
cities have Jared better than the rural
districts. The reason is not far to
seek. The basis OF distribution here
tofore has been teachers and attend
ance.
''The cities have better attendance
than the country districts, whereby
they profit, and they also have more
teachers to a given number of children
than the country districts, whereby
they again profit
''If the State Board of Taxes and As
sessment should establish the true val
ne for the purposes Of taxation of the
property of District A and District B
we could then ascertain the value OF
property per capita per pupil in each
district That would give the ability
to pay of each district.
1.-THE cost per capita per pupil per
year in each district could be ascer-
tanned and would show what each dis
trict has been paying per capita per
Y1s,rtl