Revenue. 113 



banks, never before had it let them remain unpaid for more than 

 a year. The loans had been made merely to carry the treasury 

 through an emergency until the state taxes were paid. Now, the 

 expenditures were exceeding the receipts and therefore the tempo- 

 rary debt accumiilated. Finally, in the sessions of 1850 and 1851, 

 the general assembly revised the entire system of taxation and the 

 system which was evolved bears all the earmarks of the present 

 system. In the first place, instead of attempting to name every- 

 thing which should be taxed,^ the law was made to read "all real 

 and personal property, except that which is exempt from taxation, 

 shall be valued and set in the list."^ A list of exemptions was thus 

 substituted for the list of taxable property. The second change 

 to be noted was the provision that both real and personal propert}- 

 should be listed at three per cent of their true valuation. ^ Previous 

 to this time personal property had been listed at a higher rate than 

 real estate. These two modifications made the law in regard to 

 the taxation of real and personal property substantially the same 

 as it is to-day.* Personal property was made to include all goods, 

 chattels, money, and effects (except wearing apparel) and all vessels 

 owned by residents of the state in addition to all personal property 

 already taxed. ^ The assessment of professions and occupations 

 was dropped in the new system developed in 1850.^ Polls con- 

 tinued to be set in the list at ten dollars each until 1860, when they 

 were raised to three hundred dollars.' 



2. Increase in Grand List. 

 Under the new system of assessing and the increasing prosperity 

 of the state, the grand list increased from $4,704,612 in 1850 to 

 $7,479,302 in 1859, the list on which the last state tax on the towns 

 for the period was laid. The rate of the state tax was reduced by 

 the legislature in 1851^ to one cent and a quarter on the dollar and 



1 Cf. pp. 22 and 62-64. 



2 Public Acts, May 1850, chap. 64, sec. 1. 

 ^ Idem. 



* In 1860 the law was changed to its present form, so that all taxable 

 property was to be set in the list at its actual valuation instead of at three 

 per cent of its valuation, but for practical purposes this made no change as 

 the rate could be correspondingly lowered. 



'" Public Acts, May 1850, chap. 64, sec. 2. 



" Pubhc Acts, May 1850. chap. 6, sec. 4. 



" Pubhc Acts, May 1860, chap. 15, sec. 2. 



** Private Acts, 1851, p. 188. 



Trans. Conn. Acad., Vol. XVII. 8 March. 1912. 



