Evening star., 1934-11-28
Experts of Treasury to Be
Used in Efforts to Deter.
mine Fair Taxes.
ANNOUNCEMENT REPLY
TO CITIZENS PETITION
Newspaper Correspondents at
Warm Springs Told All Facts
Will Be Taken Into Account.
BY J. RUSSELL YOUNG,
STAFF Correspondent of The Star.

STAFF Correspondent OF The Star.
WARM SPRINGS. Ga. November
28-Before committing himself re-
garding what should be the Federal
Governments share of the costs OF
maintaining the District of Columbia,
President Roosevelt wants to deter
mine whether property owners Of the
Capital are being taxed too high or
too low on real estate.
To arrive at what he terms fair
conclusion the President will very
soon have some Government experts
study the subject. In announcing
this today he said he thought he
would use experts from the Treasury
Department.
This will serve as Mr.. Roosevelts
immediate response to the petition re-
ceived by him a few days ago from
citizens of Washington for a return to
a more equitable basis of sharing the
expenses of the District and between
the Federal Government and the Dis
trict government and specific request
for large lump sum. At his confer
ence with newspaper correspondents
today the President said that before
taking any stand he first wanted to
know all the facts.
Absolute Fairness Aim.
The President gave the clear i'm
preston that he wants to be abso-
lutely fair and that if he can be
shown that the Federal Government
is not paying its share, he will quickly
act to correct this.
In deciding to order a comparative
study of taxes paid in other cities the
President said he wants the experts
to study the tax question in a num-
Der Of cities larger than Washington
and an equal number of cities smaller
than Washington so as to arrive at
an average. In other words, in max
ing this study he wants Washing
ton right in the middle Of a certain
number Of cities so as to arrive defln-
itely at what he described as an
''evalued" or adjusted tax rate.
This study. the President said. will
show definitely what the people in the
cities in question are paying on real
estate. Real estate taxes furnish the
principal revenues of all cities. He
added, however, that some revenue is
derived from licenses and his study
will include license revenues, but he
considers such revenue small COM
pared with real estate tax revenues
and therefore the inclusion of license
revenues in this survey will be only
incidental.
Can Determine Point.
The President is satisfied that he
can determine whether the property
owners of Washington are paying too
much in taxes or too little by arriv-
ing at an "evaluated" tax rate.
He considers an "evaluated" tax
rate or an adjusted tax rate" as
being perfectly simple
The President then went on to ex-
plain an ''evaluated tax rate" by say
ing that if one city assesses real
estate at so per cent of its actual or
selling value and has a tax rate of
81 the people of that city are not
paying any more than the people of
city which assesses property at its
full value, and has a tax rate of
only So.
Relationship to Determine.
In other words. according to the
Presidents definition of this method,
he wants to find the relationship be-
tween the assessed value of property
and the true value When this is de-
termined. he explained further, then
the actual tax rate of any particular
city may be on the basis of the true
value.
Mr.. Roosevelt then gave his rea-
sons for the study he proposes to
make by Government experts.
According to him, nobody in the
District of Columbia has ever agreed
whether the people of the District
are paying higher tax rate or lower
tax rate than property owners of
cities of corresponding size.
WI. lIOOocVtlL leu IL De known Cnat
he has given considerable thought to
the fiscal relationship between the
Federal Government and the District.
This study has not been confined to
the period he has been President.
According to the President, it goes
back from the time he took up his
residence in Washington in 1918 as
Assistant Secretary of the Navy.
Hit-and- Miss Policy.
He made no secret of the fact that
as result of his own observations
and study he firmly believes there
has been sort of hit-and-miss policy
establishing this fiscal relationship.
Without giving his opinion as to
whether the Federal Government had
been getting the better of the bargain
by this hit-and-miss policy, the Presi-
dent did say that he thought it could
be corrected.
Prof. Collier Cobb Dies.