The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1932-12-09
MINNESOTA TAX SYSTEM
DISSEcTEDBY III" PROFESSOR
regulary of Assessment Chief Faults Major Changes Are
Disqualification of Low Grade Ores Need Changes, Ac-
cording Dr. Bakely.

Major shortcomings of the present
Minnesota tax system, which the author
calls Anticipated, are listed by Professor
Roy G. Blakely of the University of
Minnesota in study of the Minnesota
FAX system, recently completed by him,
which is to be published Immediately
by the University of Minnesota Press.
The study was financed by the Univer-
sity'S graduate schools with part of the
money received by it two years ago from
the Rockefeller Foundation to foster re-
search. DR.. Blakely's book is entirely
non-political and strikes out impartially
at weaknesses in the states present
system Of taxation. Practically all of
the money spent on the book went to
the costs of field investigations and
clerical work. The study of forest areas
and their problems was made by the
Federal Lakes States Forest Experiment
Station. In an introduction credit is
given to many university people who
helped produce the manuscript.
DR.. Blakely favors an income tax, a
revised and more reasonable system of
taxing low-grade ore, and some amend
ment of the Minnesota auxiliary forest
act, said now to be wholly imperative,
to make it practicable He finds
marked irregularity in the assessment
and taxation of both agricultural and
urban real estate, which he attributes
to the fact that most assessors work
ing in Minnesota are poorly qualified
to do their work and do not have proper
public support. Irregularity of assess
ment exists, he declares, both within a
given agricultural area or urban COM
munity, and as between different agri-
cultural regions and different cities and
villages. Present funds make it impos-
Sible for the tax commission to super
wise effectively 1900 part-time assessors.
When income from the land itself is
taken into consideration, as apart from
the total income of the owner, agricul-
tural lands produce an income that is
seriously depleted, first, by taxes, but
more especially by mortgage interest in
the case of lands that are subject to a
mortgage. In the case of rented agri-
cultural lands, taxes took 45.8 per cent
of the owners income from the land
alone, or 10.4 per cent of his entire in
come from land, labor and equipment.
This was in the case of lands not sub
ject to a mortgage.
The author found that go per cent
of all owner-operated farms were
mortgaged for an amount equal to So
per cent of their appraised value Taxes
took in that year, 1930-'31, liza per cent
of the entire net income of the owners
of mortgaged land operated by it's
owners, while an additional 10 per cent
was required to pay interest on the
mortgage. Throughout the study it was
found that the mortgage interest on
mortgaged lands amounted roughly to
twice the tax payments on the same
lands.
Among the sensational findings of
the study was the fact that in the case
of a mortgaged farm that was rented,
mortgage interest alone required about
SO per cent of the income of the land
before payment of taxes.
OF the assessment of agricultural
lands Professor Blakely states the fol-
lowing conclusions:
There is a marked irregularity in
assessing, and this applies to all angles
of assessment, within district and be-
tween districts that are compared.
Almost universally, the more valuable
farms are under-assessed, actually and
by comparison with the less valuable
farms. The value of buildings and i'm
provements seems to influence assess
ments less than the value of the land.
Lands owned by non-residents of a
county are over-assessed in comparison
with lands owned by resident of the
county in which they lie.
Most assessors are not well qualified
to do their job, although they are al
ways some who are capable.