86 UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO STUDIES 



administered. A large part of the personalty in all states where 

 this tax prevails escapes the assessor. Realty is also assessed greatly 

 below its cash value. 



It was pointed out above that the assessor is anxious to keep the 

 valuation of his county or local unit low, so as to avoid high state 

 taxes for his constituents. At the same time the taxpayer is inter- 

 ested in making himself out as poor in this world's goods as possible, 

 to avoid paying a high tax. Hence the assessor and the taxpayer 

 liimself are both unduly interested in making low valuations. The 

 result is such as might be expected so long as the asssessor is prac- 

 tically certain that his assessment will not be disturbed by any 

 meddlesome board of review, and thus far little has been done to 

 correct underassessments in Colorado or elsewhere by the ordinary 

 nominal board of review or equalization. Underassessment has 

 therefore become the rule. Let us see how this has developed in 

 Colorado. 



By way of introduction, the following quotation is worthy of 

 note. It is from the report^ of a committee of the county assessors 

 appointed to investigate variations of assessment in the different 

 counties. 



We find that most of the assessors in the agricultural counties have their 

 best land assessed far too low in proportion to present cash value, and too low 

 in proportion to the value placed upon other property. In their assessed values 

 they have not kept pace with the rapidly increasing cash values of the past few 

 years. Their values might have been high enough under the conditions that 

 existed a few years ago when they were placed, but in our opinion, this class 

 of property demands the most thorough equalizing of anj' single account in the 

 state. 



There are hundreds of acres of agricultural and fruit lands in the state, having 

 a market value of from $io to $1,500 per acre, that have been given a valuation 

 for assessment purposes of from 5 to 30 per cent of their market value. On the 

 other hand, we find thousands of acres of grazing land that is assessed at its full 

 cash value, bringing about a very unequal state of assessed valuation. 



In 1904 an estimate of the true value of the real property and 

 improvements of the state of Colorado was made by the Census 



■ Report oJUie Committee of County Assessors 0/ Colorado, 1906, p. 4. 



