Evening star., 1927-11-27
Fifty Years Ago
In The Star

In the issue Of The Star of Novem-
Der 20, 1877, is the text of the report
Of the committee on
4aAdtloH III taxation and assess.
the District. ments of the Citi.
zens' Committee of
One Hundred. prepared as a feature
of the Districts case before Congress
in anticipation of the enactment of a
permanent organization law. The
Star says, editorially:
THE showing of the amount of bur-
dens resting upon the citizens of this
District is not a pleasant one to con.
template, but it is well always in such
matters to know the worst. 1t ap-
pears that the aggregate assessed
value of real estate in this District is
$97 ,609 $50; personal property, 49,
052 1885. The committee find that the
assessment is very much above the
present actual value of real estate
and does not furnish the equitable
data to determine the proper proper
ton as against the real estate held in
the District by the general Govern
ment. The committee conclude that
reduction Of 25 per cent upon the ag-
gregate amount furnished by the as
SCISSOR would approximate a proper
maximum basis in determining values
between the property held by the citi-
zens of the District of Columbia and
that held by the general Government.
BY comparing the rate of assessment
in this District with that adopted else
where throughout the country, it ap-
pears that ours is very much higher,
and taxes based on our high standard
of assessment are really more Op-
pressive than nominally higher taxes
elsewhere, based on q lower assess
ment rate. This fact should be borne
in mind by Congress in levying taxa
tion on the real estate OF the District
for the support of it's local govern,
ment. or in estimating the proper pro-
portion to be paid by the general
Government
ION the point of the proportion of the
area of real estate owned by the gen.
eral Government in the District. as
against that held by the citizens. it
appears that the area Of the parks and
reservations held by the general Gov
ernment contains 81 1,159.320 square,
feet and is valued at S26.592 .174: an
average assessment or only about 45
cents per square foot. In streets and
avenues there are liz, 2,470,0 ,043 square
feet. valued at 80 cents. or $S3.74rOl:.
The public buildings are valued at
S35. .1S7.207: the value of Government
property in the county at S390 900: in
Georgetown, $75.75S. The aggregate
of Government property on this vaitI
alton is about S95. 1856 900; and in the
opinion of the committee. this assess
ment is lower standard than is ap.
piled to the property OF the citizens
for the purpose Of taxation. As show
ing the special hardship of requiring
the taxpayers of Washington 10 bear
the expense of improving the immense
street area Of the National Capital.
comparison Is made as regards the
area occupied by streets of several
large cities. From this it appears that
Washington city has the largest area
reserved for streets of any city in
the world. being 54.05 per cent of the
whole area. The street area of New
York City is $500. Of Paris. 25.0s;
Philadelphia. zoos; Boston, 26.02. Fer.
the Improvement of this large proper
tioi of streets the private property Of
the citizens of the District has been
loaded down with special taxation"