1923 ^ Sept 20, 1923 



Tbe Illinois Agricultural Auodation Record 



PagsS 



m- 

 the 



State Tax Commission Upholds 



L A. A. In Demand For Equalization 



Reassessments will be ordered in six counties by the State 

 Tax Commission if the County Boards of Review do not equal- 

 . ize valuations of different classes of property. 

 ■» That is what the Illinois Agricultural Association asked for 

 'after a, hearing before the State Tax Commission September 5, 

 ■at which county farm bureaus and Boards of Review presented 

 / their cases. The counties .in which the State Commission ha.s 

 1 said they will order reassessments if valuations are nol equalized 

 Ijire Cass, DuPage, Kane, Marion, Montgomery and Vermilion. 



In 24 counties tbe farm bu- 

 reaus and Illinois Agricultural As- 

 sociation lield hearings before the 

 ' local Boards of Review. The re- 

 sults of long Investigations were 

 ■presented, showing that the full 

 Valuations of farm lands was a 

 jnacb higher per cent of the ac- 

 tual sales values than the full 

 valuations of city property w*re 

 of tbe actual sales values. And 

 In each case the Board <>f Review 

 was ^Id that the^ law directs 

 that valuations must be equalized 

 between classes, of property.. 



The Excnses 



In a large share of these coun- 

 ties the farm bureau hearings 

 were taken seriously and in many 

 of them adjustments were made 

 to equalize valuations or at 



) least partly equalize. In the six 

 counties named above, the Boards 

 of Review didn't -take much stock 

 1— 



vestigation. Following are the 



figures showing what j.. per cent 



the fult'\valuatlons a^ of the 



actual sale\ values : 



Klad at Pro^Frtr ^al. Ratio 



. Farm land 45.7 



•^■.Aurora .-. .' . J2.1 



Xisneya ... .t .......... -38. 



ScLtavla .....V 69. 



Dundee 29. 



Elgin .• .S5.6 



St. Charle* SO.? 



J. W. Winterhalter and H. O. 

 Peterson, two members of the 

 Board o'f Review, who appeared, 

 tried to excuse their refusal to 

 equalize among the citios, towns 

 and villages and betweei. lots of 

 land'by the usual argument\>f in- 

 Jury to sbme property owners. 

 One member of the Board argued 

 that homes could not be assessed 

 as high as farms, but later admit- 

 ted that there was no warrant In 

 the law for such action. 



Vermilion Board Split 

 A former member of the Board 

 of Review, H. L. Bracken, pre- 

 sented the farm bureau case for 

 Vermilion county. Following are 

 the valuation ratios for different 



In the farm bureau information, 

 and they refused action. "Taxes 

 are already too high" is the brand 

 of weak excuses that were made 

 by the Boards. "We haven't got classes of property and towns 

 time," was another, and others 

 are: "It will cost money," and 

 "It's not fair to tax homes as 

 high as farms and business con- 

 cerns because they have no In- 

 come." 



But there was nothing in the 

 law that made any one of these 

 a valid excuse. So tar as tbe 

 County Board was concerned, 

 there was nothing left for the 

 farm bpreau to do. At this point 

 of the'feame, the State Tax Com- 

 mission was asked for a hearing 

 of the cases in these six counties. 

 The bounty Boards of Review 

 were called In by the Tax Com- 

 mission and the farm bui:eaus 

 were on hand with their facts. . 



i 



One by one the county farm 

 bureau representatives were 

 called on to give the facts of 

 their case and tlie Boards of Re- 

 view were given opportunity to 

 defend taeir position. John Wat- 

 son, in charge of tax 'work tdr 

 the I. A. A., and Attorney Newtpn 

 Jenkins were there to help in 

 {naking the charges against 

 Boards of Review. 



The following table shows the 

 facts of the case in Montgomery 

 county as presented by tbe farm 

 bureau. The valuation ratio is 

 tbe per cent which the full valua- 

 tion is of tbe actual sales values 

 for each class of property or for 

 towns or cities named. 



Ktald »t Proprrty Val. RaMo 



Farm land 49.9 



All towns 17.6 



Nokomls 40.( 



LItchfleld «e.7 



HlUaboro 40.9 



Martin Bray, a farmer, member 

 of the farm bureau and a member 

 of the Board of Review, testified 

 to the effect that there were in- 

 equalities in valuations and it 

 was his opinion that they should 

 be corrected. 



The two members of the Board 

 who refused to equalize classes 

 of property did not appear to de- 

 fend their position. 



Kane County Fights 

 W. C. McQueen, Vice-President 

 of the Kane County Farm Bureau, 

 presented the resnlts of their In- 



Klnd of Propprtr Val. Ratio 



Farm lands 62. 



Danville M.l 



Hoopestown 46.0 



Georgetown 4S.8 



Small towns & vtllases. 43.3 

 Two Board members appeared 

 before the Commission — one in op- 

 position and one in favor of equal- 

 ization. Chairman Snyder, who is 

 an attorney in Danville, had re- 

 fused to equalize. He said that 

 the Board had considered the 

 matter and that there was not 

 time to do it. He stated that tbe 

 Board would be glad to "pass the 



to thd state commission if 

 wanted to talce some ac- 



buck 

 they 

 tion. 



Sam Pumell, a second member 

 of the Board, strongly supported 

 the farm bureau contention. 



The assessor of Danville ad- 

 mitted having received instruc- 

 tions which implied a 60 per cent 

 level of valuations In assessments, 

 yet he lowered assessments on 

 property already assessed last 

 year, making a total decrease of 

 ^388,000 in full valuations of 

 town and city lots in his portion 

 of the city. 



In Marion- 

 Two hearings were held before 

 the Board in Marion county. In 

 the second, the assessor from 

 Centralia, afte^ receiving Instruc- 

 tions, with other assessors, to 

 fix full valuations of all property 

 at 70 per cent of the fair cash 

 value, acknowledged that he bad 

 tried to fix them at one-third, or 

 less than half the percentage 

 named in the instructions given 

 by the supervisor of assessments. 

 A wide variation of valuation 

 rates was found in Marion. Tbe 

 figures for different classes of 

 property and for cities follow: 



Ktod of Property Val. Ratio 



Farm land 69.6 



Centralia 26.6 



Salem 46.7 



San'ioval 69.2 



Patoka 41.4 



All otI»er towns 42.7 



The Board of Review has unan- 

 imously agreed to equalize land 

 among the several townships, but 

 two members inconsistently re- 

 fused to take similar action on 

 equalizing among the cities, towns 



and villages. The same two men 

 refused to equalize between 

 classes of property. The third 

 man of the Board heartily fa- 

 vored equalization both among 

 cities, towns and villages and be- 

 tween classes of property. He ex- 

 pressed his belief that the farm 



Farm Bureau To 

 Broadcast Weekly 

 Programs By Radio 



The American Farm Bureau 

 Federation installed a regular 

 weekly radio service on Wednes- 

 day night, September 5. at Station 

 KYW. Chicago, when President 

 O. E. Bradfute spoke on "The 

 Voice of the Farmer." followed 

 by Secretary J. W. Coverdale, 

 talking on th^ theme, "Together 

 We Win." 



On each Tuesday night follow- 

 ing this, the Farm Bureau pro- 

 gram will be broadcasted at 8:01 

 p. m., standard time. Broadcast- 

 ing is made possible through the 

 courtesy of the Radio Corporation 

 of America and the co-operation 

 of Westinghonse. 



Farm Bureau leaders and oth- 

 ers with real messages for facm- 

 ers will speak on the new radio 

 service. Farm Bureau news bul- 

 letins will be broadcasted from 

 Station KYW every day as they 

 occur. 



JOHN C. WATSON 



bureau figures w*re a substan- 

 tially accurate measurement of 

 the inequalities existing. 



DnPage Stayed Home 



The DuPage County Board of 

 Review was not present to explain 

 its action; but the Assistant 

 States Attorney of the county was 

 there to represent the Board, but 

 when the case was called, there 

 was no States Attorney in sight. 

 President Fischer, Farm Adviser 

 E. A. CamcroBS and several oth- 

 ers were on hand to tell their 

 story. 



Here are the figures: 



KiBd or Property Vat. Ratio 



All city property 34.7 



Downers Grove 41.22 



Wheaton 15. 



Glen Eaiyn «I. 



Hinsdale 27.6 



Elmhurst 32.6 



One member of the DuPage 

 County Board of Review admit- 

 ted in the Farm Bureau hearing 

 that for years he had known of 

 Inequalities in assessments of dif- 

 ferent classes of property and 

 had not corrected tbem. His 

 chief defense in refusing to rem- 

 edy the Inequalities of present 

 valuations was the lack of time 

 and the cost it would involve. 



a Cass Refuses 

 The three members of the Cass 

 County Board of Review refused 

 to equalize between classes of 

 property. Their only action has 

 been to make some adjustments 

 of individual properties and to 



The NcLeaa Connty PanM Barca« 



has ordered 14 cars of rock phos- 

 pliate for distribotion thus f.ir in 

 1923. 



reduce valuations of a compara- 

 tive small amount of farm land. 

 At the Springfield hearing their 

 excuse was that equalization 

 would do injustice to some prop- 

 erty owners. 



Following are the ratio figures 

 for -Casb county: 



Klad of Property Val. Ratio 



Farm land 43.46 



Swamp or duck land. . .29.46 



Beardatown 35.22 



Other cities and towns. 59.11 ' 



It was way past milking time 

 when all of this Information was 

 presented. 



At ten o'clock the next morn- 

 ing Mr. Watson and Attorney 

 Jenkins appeared before the com- 

 mission to sum up the case and 

 ask for action. 



Mr. Watsoa named the facts 

 in each case and accused the 

 Boards of Review of evasion of 

 their sworn duty to observe the 

 law. Mr. Jenkins followed with 

 an interpretation of the law show- 

 ing that tbe State Tax Commis- 

 sion not only has the power to 

 call for a reassessment in coun- 

 ties, but that it Is its duty to 

 do so. Mr. Jenkins stated that 

 there was not an iota of evidence 

 given by any of the counties that 

 was defensible and not a single 

 Board of Review questioned the 

 power of the State Tax Commis- 

 sion to demand reassessment. 



Reassessment was asked for in 

 all of tbe counties and without 

 any hitch the State Tax Commis- 

 sion gave its answer. It stated 

 to the I. A. A. representatives 

 that It would immediately inform 

 tbe Boards of Review in the six 

 counties that equalization between 

 classes of property must be made 

 or a reassessment would be or- 

 dered. 



MADISON WAITS 

 TO TEa BOARO 

 I lOFTWFACTS 



Livingston IValuation 78.1 

 PerCMt;|Worden, Zl.i.- 

 Both in| Same Twp. 



Another cli aptcr' is written in 

 the tax sitilation in Madison 

 county. The Farm Bureau fiist'f 

 had trouble ia gettii% access to 

 the ta.x book; so it could make 

 an investiga ion. After that 

 trouble was roned out and the 

 cas' was reidy to present, a 

 date was ma ie with 'the Chair- 

 man of the I oard by; Farm Ad- 

 viser Alfred Raut, ^ he states. 



But when tbe Farm Buretia 

 Committee aiid Jo\pi Watson of 

 tbe I. A. A went to see the 

 Board, the el airman appeared at 

 the door and iiaid that no arrAge- 

 mei^s had be?n made for a Farm 

 Boreau heari ig and It wou^ 4>e 

 impossible to bear the Farm bu- 

 reau before September T, which 

 happens to lie the last day, by 

 law, on wbic i the board may Ibe 

 in session wi h pay. 



The Farm Bureau did not want 

 to run the rii k of losing its le(al 

 rights by baling the informatloa 

 reach tbe Beard later, than ttie 

 seventh of September, so, it put 

 the facts of ^he investigation on 

 paper and bahded it tc the chair- 

 man. 



The invec^atlon ehows that 

 tbe full valuations of farm lands 

 are a much |igher proportion of 

 the actual sajles val^lM than tbe ,^ 

 full valuations of cit^ property 

 are of tbe aciual sales values. , 



The following tabl%~ shows what 

 per cent the ^nll valuations are of 

 tbe actual sales values, for tbe 

 principal towtis in the eonnty sad 

 for farm laa4s. 



r 



Ptoav 



Altoa 



Colllniville . 

 E:a«t Altoa . 

 Edwards villa 

 Uraaltr City 

 Madla«i 



4- 



Maaiami ., .i.i a 



Vraleo \. i.. d 



Wood River ( >•• * 



I.lvlaKatom .JL i T 



Wordea ....1 1....;. ..1 



.411 other t«4'Ba I ■ 



LiVingstoq, with a full valuation 

 of 78.1° per, cent of the actval 

 sales vaiuea,4ia in tbe same town- 

 ship with V^orden, which baa a 

 full valuation of 2L4 per cent 

 of the actukl sales valnes In 

 only a few tastances city property 

 is assessed as high a per cent of 

 tbe actual sales values as is farm 

 lands, and In several cases the 

 ratio for city property Is lea^ 

 than half that of farm lands. \ 



WOOt RLAIOCRTS 



The I. A.j A. Live Stock Mar- 

 keting Departmebt has several 

 hundred wciol blankets for sale 

 to farm buneau members at III 

 and at $13 ko non-members. 



WHITE wagons, drawn by well-sraotned gray 

 horses and driven by gray-uniformed drivers, 

 carry milk and other dairy products to the doors of 

 customers of the recently opened plant of the Rock 



Island Dairy Company. This "co-op" It making the 

 attractiveness and cleanllncis of its wagons and 

 other equipment speak of the quality of It* prodaets. 



I 



