THE I. A. A. RECORD 



Page Seven 



Hits Politics As Cause 



of Tax Inequalities 



Tax Director Reveals Three Reasons for 

 Bad Conditions In Some Counties In 

 Illinois. 



An Editorial By John C. Watson 



THE State Constitution and the 

 revenue statutes of Illinois clearly 

 prescribe uniform valuations of all 

 taxable property for purposes of tax- 

 ation. The courts always so interpret 

 the statutes. 



The revenue laws provide that coun- 

 ty treasurers shall be supervisors of 

 assessments in their several counties, 

 and shall give the assessors such in- 

 structions as will tend to produce uni- 

 formity in valuations. The Supervisor 

 of Assessments himself is gi^en the 

 power of original assessment whenever 

 he thinks that any property has been 

 improperly assessed. 



In June or July, sometimes later, 

 each supervisor of assessment turns all 

 assessment books over to the county 

 board of review, consisting of the 



chairman of the 

 county board, and 

 usually of two ad- 

 ditional members 

 appointed, one 

 each year, by the 

 county judge. In 

 counties not under 

 township organiza- 

 tion, the board of 

 three county com- 

 missioners are the 

 county board of 

 review. The prin- 

 cipal duty of any 

 board of review is 

 the equalization of valuations. 

 Swear To Accuracy 

 In September or October, though 

 sometimes later, each board of review 

 closes its work for the year, and the 

 members take oath that "the books — 

 in number to which this affidavit is at- 

 tached, contain a full and complete list 

 of all the real and personal property 

 in said county subject to taxation for 

 the year — so far as we have been able 

 to ascertain the same, and that the 

 assessed value set down in the proper 

 column opposite the several kinds and 

 descriptions of property, is, in our 

 opinion, a just and equal assessment 

 of such property for purposes of taxa- 

 tion according to law." 



Following adjournment of the coun- 

 ty board of review, the county clerk 

 certifies to the Illinois Tax Commission 

 the total assessment of each of the 

 three kinds of property locally as- 

 sessed. It is the duty of the Tax Com- 

 mission to equalize valuations of each 

 class of property among the counties 

 of the state. 



DeKalb County Case 



■' In spite of laws providing for uni- 

 form valuations and for an elaborate 

 system of review of assessments by 

 different public officials, assessments in 

 almost every county of the state have 

 gross and indefensible inequalities in 

 valuations which could easily be re- 

 moved. Due to its greater uniformity 



VISITS I. A. A. OFFICE 



John C. Watson 



SENATOR GEO. W. NORRIS 



in value and to the acre unit standard, 

 farm lands within each county are 

 more uniformly assessed than any 

 other property. Yet there is probably 

 not a county in the state in which some 

 farm land, always the poorest land and 

 the least .able to stand the burden is 

 not assessed relative to its fair sale 

 value, several times as high as other 

 farm land. In city and village lots, 

 for which there is no standard unit of 

 measurement, the situation is much 

 worse. It is at its worst in personal 

 property, especially unenumerated per- 

 sonal property. An example of such 

 inequality was found two years ago in 

 DeKalb County. The manufacturing 

 plants in the little city of Sandwich 

 had valuations for manufacturers' 

 tools and implements ten times as high 

 as the much more extensive and much 

 larger number of manufacturing plants 

 in the City of DeKalb. 



The foregoing remarks apply to 

 valuations within the same counties. 

 Between counties inequalities are far 

 worse than within counties. It is not 

 too much to say that in the state as a 

 whole there is no class of property in 

 which there are not some assessments, 

 relative to fair sale value, at least ten 

 or twenty times as high as other as- 

 sessments. If the comparison is made 

 between different classes of property, 

 the inequality is many times worse. 

 Three Reasons 



The principal reason for the virtual 

 failure of equalization of valuations 

 are three in number. First, it: ignor- 

 ance of the facts. Second, is timidity 

 of public officials. Third, is politics. 

 Sometimes two or even all of these 

 rersons operate at the same time. 



County treasurers usually do not 



know the: facts about the assessments 

 or what Should be done to correct in- 

 equalities^ They can give no proper 

 instructions to assessors. The stand- 

 ards of assessors vary widely, since 

 each one :knows little or nothing about 

 how oth^r assessors value property. 

 Boards oi Review likewise do not know 

 what is required for uniform assess- 

 ments of different classes of property. 

 Their equalization, so far as they do 

 anything, is too often equalization of 

 a comparatively small number of prop- 

 erties, or equalization of classes by 

 guess wdrk only. Even the Illinois 

 Tax Comfnission can only guess at the 

 facts about assessments of different 

 classes ofi property. 



In mariy counties the Supervisors of 

 Assessmeints and Boards of Review 

 have some knowledge of the inequal- 

 ities in assessments of different classes 

 of property, but are too timid to cor- 

 rect them. It is easier for such boards 

 to permit inequalities to continue than 

 it is to perform their proper duties. 



: Politics Interferes 



The experience of the Illinois Agri- 

 cultural Association in the last few 

 years proves conclusively that politics 

 often interferes or attempts to inter- 

 fere withj proper equalization of valua- 

 tions. Appointments of members of ' 

 Board of. Review by county judges are 

 often made for political reasons. The • 

 refusal o|f boards of review to remove 

 admitted; inequalities in many cases is 

 clearly djie to the political ambition of 

 one or rhore members of the boards. 

 It will be recalled that last year, after 

 the Tax Commission had ordered reas- 

 sessment! of real estate in four coun- 

 ties, powerful political interests in 

 every one of the four counties, did 

 their utmost to pirevent the orders of 

 reassessment from being carried into 

 effect. The Tax Commission itself was 

 bombarded on political gfrounds to such • 

 an extent that it Tvas slow and hesitant , 

 in carry^g out its own order. i ^ 



Ignorance of the facts about assess- 

 ments, timidity ih correcting inequal- t 

 ities, anj refusal for political reasons, 

 do not mix well with proper tax equal- 

 ization. I 



-■\ |— : ' 



Senatol" George W. Norris 

 J Speaks Before Committee i 



Relates l^xperiences as Chairman of Ag- 

 ricultural and Judiciary Committees in 

 United States Senate. 



SENATOR GEORGE W. NORRIS of 

 Nebilaska visited the I. A. A. offices 

 on Friday, Sept. 9, long enough to de- 

 liver a Bhort address before the Ex- 

 ecutive Committee in session that day, 

 and to ^et acquainted with the Asso- 

 ciation [officials, ! staff members, and 

 their activities. 



Commenting upon his experiences as 

 a Gongj-essman and Senator over a 

 period ocf more than 20 years. Senator 

 Norris *aid, "I have been impressed 

 with th* seeming injustice shown by 

 so many legislators and others toward 

 agriculture. In all my experience I 

 hav^ mver known any group to be 

 more fafir in their demands than rep- 





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