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owner before the products tax was paid, or which has been fixed by 

 assessors, in absence of said declaration by owner shall be reduced for 

 purposes of future annual taxation by the amount of the value of stumpage 

 upon which said tax is paid, provided, that said value of stumpage upon 

 which said tax is paid must have reached a total of at least five per cent 

 of the original listed value of timber taxable in any one town assessed 

 against said owner, before said reduction in assessed value becomes oper- 

 ative, and provided, that when the value of said stumpage upon which the 

 tax has been paid shall have equalled the original declared or assessed 

 value of the timber listed by the owner, said annual taxes shall cease and 

 thereafter any timber standing or growing upon said lands shall be relieved 

 of annual taxes and shall pay only the stumpage tax on the products when 

 cut. 



10. That an account shall be opened with each owner of land having 

 standing timber whose value has been assessed for taxation, on which 

 shall be entered, the assessed value of standing timber, the value of the 

 stumpage upon which a products tax is paid, and the rate and amount of 

 the tax. Whenever said value shall equal five per cent, of the assessed 

 value of the timber, a reduction shall be made in said assessed value equal 

 to value upon which tax has been paid, and the annual taxes shall there- 

 after be assessed against said reduced value. 



The purpose of these provisions is self-evident. They are to secure a 

 complete or universal adoption of the law within a reasonable time and 

 with minimum cost and effort and least injustice. 



It is made an object to timber owners to list the timber values, as by 

 doing so they secure a fixed value on this portion of their property and 

 protection from increase in total assessment for three years ; namely, from 

 any action on part of assessors to nullify the effect of listing timber values 

 by simply adding said values to value of the property. They also secure 

 a definite procedure by which said values can be extinguished by payment 

 of products tax. It is to their interest to declare full values, since this is 

 bare land on which taxes will be continued. Failure to declare any value 

 permits and justifies the continuation of correspondingly high values on 

 the only portion of their assessed value which can subsequently be so ex- 

 tinguished. Failure to declare value, or declaration of too low a value 

 permits the assessors to determine new value at any future time, both for 

 land and timber, while declaration of timber values confines them to re- 

 valuation of the land without timber, on the assumption that existing 

 values having been the basis of taxation when the law was passed, shall 

 equitably remain the basis of taxation of the timber. 



The public interests on the other hand, as represented by the assessors, 

 are thoroughly protected. The total assessed value is in no case reduced. 

 After three years, the value of the land can, if equitable, be reassessed, 

 and within the requirements of the statute, be further adjusted. The loss 

 of annual taxes does not occur unless timber is cut, when they should in 

 any case cease, and the increasing value of young timber and old stands 

 is taxed by a products tax. 



Failure to declare and pay the products tax on old timber carries its 

 own punishment in that the timber although cut, will continue to be as- 



