106 



MASS. EXPERIMENT STATION BULLETIN 235 



ing table, where farms were ranked in descending order of their total invest- 

 ment with the smallest at the top, and the median farm taken as the dividing 

 point. If the taxes paid are computed in dollars per thousand on the entire 

 investment, the large farms in Littleton paj' at the rate of $16.81, while the 

 small farms pay $18.09. The differences vary with the town, but the small 

 farms are consistently taxed higher than the large farms. 



Table 11. — Relation between Taxes and Investment on Large and Small 

 Farms, Seven Massachusetts Towns, 1922a 



a Large and small farms refer to size of farm investment, not to acreage. 



Assessment of City Property. 



It has been shown that the ratio of assessed to owners' valuations of farm 

 property varies between towns, between farms and between types of farms. 

 Another angle to the same question is the relative difference between assessed 

 and actual values for farm and other property such as business, residence 

 and industrial property in cities and large towns. A generation ago farm 

 property was relatively overvalued and equality of assessment was considered 

 the outstanding farm tax problem of the day. Today the situation is changed. 



Property in cities and large towns is generally assessed at a higher per- 

 centage of its cash value than property in small towns. This is to be explained 

 bv the ever-increasing demand for ftmds to meet the increasing expenditures 

 of growing cities and towns. Under the spur of necessity boards of assessors 

 in the larger cities and towns are attempting to put assessments on a system- 

 atic basis and are beginning to assess by uniform rule rather than by rule 

 of thumb. Zoning systems are gradually being adopted, under which uniform 

 land values per square foot or per front foot are applied to a given area. 

 7\llowances are made for special locations, and values decrease with an in- 

 crease in distance from main streets. Under such a system inequalities in 

 assessed values between neighboring property owners are practically elim- 

 inated if the building valuations are made in a similarly careful manner. 

 Particular attention has been paid to assessing factory and corporation prop- 

 erty because such property pays a substantial share of taxes in most cities, 

 in several cases over 50 per cent of all taxes levied. It is estimated that for 

 the entire state, corporations of all kinds pay approximately $35,000,000 in 

 local property taxes, or 18 per cent of the total collections. The relative impor- 

 tance of corporation taxes in several cities is shown in the following table. 



