Evening star., 1934-11-30
RICHARDS FAVORS
PER CAPITA PLAN
FOR TAX STUDIES
Would Divide Total Levy on
Comparable Cities by
Population.
COMPARISON OF RATES
| AND RATIOS IMPOSSIBLE
/ Tax Burden Per Capita Figurc1
by Assessor for Report to
Commissioners.

When the tax experts to be selecteI.
by President Roosevelt begin theii
study of the tax burden in the District,
as compared with other cities. the
fairest method for them to use, in
Richards, would be to take the total
tax levy on cities of comparable size,
divide by the populations of the re-
spective cities. and thus arrive at a
figure showing the tax burden per
capita.
Richards said today 1t would be
impossible TO do the job by compar-
ing rates and ratios of assessment.
To say property in one city is assessed
at 100 per cent of its value is mean
ingless. he said. unless it is possible
for that city to make a comparison
between assessed values and the prices
paid for large number of properties
at actual sales, tremendous task for
even a single city.
Sees Fair Picture.
Richards. who is now preparing
a report for the Commissioners on
the basis he advocates. said it was
POOoAbAO w oAAAfC az a 4dll IlNlulC do
to real estate tax alone by taking the
levy for a number of cities and work.
ing 1t out TO per capita figure.
In one such study which he made
in April OF this year he took the real
estate levies on % cities. including
New York City. These figures showed
the average city had per capita real
estate tax bill of S43.44 $40. Leaving
New York City out and using only the
81 other cities. the per capita tax dill
for real estate is 1920 On the pres
ent rate of s1.50 per s10O valuation
the per capita tax bill in the District
is s35.05, whereas at the previous rate
of Sl.70 per sl00 the per capita tax
bill for real estate was s4180
Assessor Richards also submitted
statistics showing that an average of
about 25 cents of the taxpayers dol
lar in other cities goes to interest and
sinking fund payments on municipal
Indebtedness. Senator Thomas sug-
gested that debt payments should be
eliminated from the comparison of
the adjusted. or per capita, tax rates.
On the basis of these figures. Rich
ard came to the conclusion tina. the
District taxpayers were paying "a
fair amount on their real estate at
the Sl50 tax rate.
Richards said several investigations
made by him have shown real estate
wealth per capita does not very greatly
from city to city. In times of high
prices, the per capita real estate
wealth seems to rise evenly throughout
the country and the decline in times
of depression appears also to be
evenly distributed throughout all
cities. His figures. he said. show that
today the real estate wealth per
capita in large American cities is
approximately $4,000 In 1929. it was
approximately s2.500. In 1916, it was
approximately $1,000. Real estate
wealth, he said, seems to be declining
toward the 81 500 mark per capita, but
he did not believe that that low
figure would again be reached.
The assessor said the per capita
wealth in Washington real estate is
almost identical with that of New
York, although the New York tax
bill is considerably higher.
Cities Included in Survey.
Cities included in Richards survey
besides New York and Washington
were Philadelphia, Detroit. ST. Louis,
Baltimore. Boston. Pittsburgh, San
Francisco, Milwaukee, Buffalo. Gin
cinnati. Newark, Rochester, Louis
vile, Portland, Oreg.; Denver. Provi-
dence, Richmond. Nashville. Des
Moines, Reading. Pa, and Whining
ton, Del OF these cities 10 have
populations larger than the District
and II have populations smaller, the
smallest being Wilmington, with a
population of 106,5
The tax figures given for cities
other than the District include only
the city taxes. In these cities tax
payers also are required to pay taxes
for State, and in some cases. county
governments. The tax bills that the
city resident outside of the District
of Columbia has to pay average. some
| what higher than the figures given
when the county and State taxes ars
taken into consideration. Thus tn,
per capita average for city taxes alon,
is s43.44 6/l0. an dthe per capiti
average for city, State and count
taxes is S5025 $40.