PRINCIPLES OF TAXATION. , yj^ 



In most of the States of the Federal Union the tax laws re- 

 quire that the assessment of all property shall be at its full and 

 fair cash value ; and the judicial authorities of the United States 

 have furthermore held that the requirement of approximative 

 equality inheres in the very nature of the power to tax, irrespec- 

 tive of any constitutional or statute provisions. 



In the State of New York each assessor on the comiDletion of 

 his official labors subscribes an oath of which the following is the 

 material portion : 



" We do severally depose and swear that we have set down in 

 the foregoing assessment roll all the real estate in , accord- 

 ing to our best information, . . . and that we have estimated the 

 value of said real estate at the sums which a majority of the as- 

 sessors have decided to be the full value thereof" And the law 

 further provides that " every assessor who shall willfully swear 

 false in taking and subscribing said oath, shall be guilty of and 

 liable to the penalties of willful and corrupt perjury." 



It is difficult to see how language, other than this, could be 

 made more clear and explicit; and it is accordingly evident that 

 if the law fails in its execution, as it certainly does, the fault is 

 not in the statute but in its administration. 



Let us now see what are the acknowledged facts in respect to 

 the valuation of real property in New York and other States 

 where the observance of substantially like conditions are impera- 

 tive. 



In some instances in New York the valuation of real estate for 

 taxation is reported as low as twenty per cent of its real value. 

 In a majority of cases in the country the rate varies from twenty- 

 five to thirty-five per cent, and rises in the cities to fifty and pos- 

 sibly sixty per cent of the maximum. In one case, mentioned in 

 the report of the State assessors in 1879, two adjoining counties of 

 the State made a difference of twenty thousand dollars per mile 

 in assessing the same railroad. In short, there can not probably 

 be found a single instance in the whole State, unless possibly in 

 the case of certain unoccupied lands, the property of non-residents, 

 where the law as respects the valuation of real property is fully 

 complied with, and where the oaths of the assessors are not wholly 

 inconsistent with the exact truth. The official reports of other 

 States abound with like reports of flagrant inequalities in the as- 

 sessment of real property. As a rule, where assessors are depend- 

 ent for their tenure of office on political favoritism, there is no 

 pretense, notwithstanding their oath, of complying with the law.* 



* " The strife between counties to reduce assessments has not ceased, and in all proba- 

 bility Tvill r,ot as long as assessors are elected, or selfishness be a passion in the human 

 breast." Report of the California State Board for the Equalization of Taxes, 18S5-S6. 



