VajicTwelve 



THE I. A. A. RECORD 



January, 19)1 



Hope for Reassessment 



Personal Property in Cook 



Local Real Estate Taxpayers Fight 



to iMake Personal Property 



Carry Part of Tax Load. 



AViii. IJ. .'Mnl«»iir 



dOL'S 



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ASIATF-MFA'T docl.uing that the 

 Illinois T.i>^"Cu>mmis»,i()ii will exer- 

 cise everv power it has undei' the 

 statutes to biin.i; ahom an adequate as- 

 sessment of j>erM)nal pri)perty lor 193(1 

 in Ciook county, was issued by Chair- 

 man William I I. Malone recently. 



The commission denied the request ol 

 tlie Association of Real Estate Taxpay- 

 ers in (x)ok County 

 for a reassessment of 

 personal property as 

 ot April 1. 1929, on 

 the .;n--.und that such 

 .\n order would" cause 

 a breakdown in lo- 

 . al i;overnment, 

 since 1 929 taxes are 

 collectible on April 

 1. SuH'icienr time 

 not remain to 

 a reassess- 

 ment b>- that date, the commission said. 



Legislation Needed 



"It is apparent tA the commission and 

 to its advisory committee," the- state- 

 ment continued, "that additional legis- 

 lation Will be necessary in order to 

 make this result possible; anoLihe com- 

 mission and its advisory conimittee will 

 give its assistance in the preparation yf 

 the necessary bills to be submitted at 

 the present session of the legislatuie." 



It is understocKl that 1 layden Bell, 

 attorney for the Cook Count\ board of 

 Commissioners, and 1. T. Grcenacre will 

 assist in drafting ti^e necessary bills for 

 this legislation.. In tlic meantime, the 

 tax commission and its advisory com- 

 mittee will immediately begin the work 

 of mapping out steps that ciit he taken 

 toward bringing about an equitable re- 

 assessment of personal prop.eri) in Cook 

 counts . 



Ohio Makes 'Em Pay 



Part of the legislation desired is a 

 modern assessment blank for personal 

 property, such as is used in Oliio. In 

 Cincinnati and Cleveland about 2 5 per' 

 cent of the total lax revenue is ob- 

 tained from personal property. Only 

 half that percentage is obtained in Chi- 

 cago. 



At a recent hearmg betore the slate 

 tax commission Harry C. Cutmore, di- 

 rector of the Cook county real estate 

 reassessment, charged that personal 

 properly in Cook county is now assessed 

 by pa\iollcrs .ind job holders v. ho make 

 their .appraisals while sitting on their 

 stools i;i the county buijding. "If any- 



one set out deliberately to do the worst 

 kind of a job of assessing personal prop- 

 erly, he would arrive at something like 

 the present situation we have in Cook 

 county," said Cutmore. 



It is urged by lax students that the 

 board of assessors and board of review 

 in Cook county be abolished, that an 

 expert appraiser be employed to make 

 original assessments, and that a review- 

 ing group having well defined and lim- 

 ited powers be selected. 



Too Much Local Gov't. 



Held Cause High Taxes 



Wm. H. Malone Quits 

 * As State Tax Chief 



As we go to press newspaper dis- 

 patches announce the resignation 

 of Chairman William H. Malone of the 

 state lax commission. 



Illinois farmers will regret the "loss 

 ol Mr. Malojie's services to this impor- 

 tant office. He made a record for fair- 

 ness and honesty in administering the 

 tax laws of the state. Orders of re- 

 assessment issued by the lax commis- 

 sion during recent years have been ef- 

 fective in equalizing property values in 

 many downsiaie counties. The cour- 

 ageous order of reassessment issued in 

 Cook county was credited with smash- 

 ing the tax fixing racket which had 

 held full sway for many years. Chair- 

 man Malone and his associates invari- 

 ably gave the Farm Bureau tax com- 

 mittees and I. A. A. representatives a 

 courteous hearing. 



Omcr Custer, former state treasurer 

 from Galesburg, is being prominently 

 mentioned as Mr. Malone's successor. 



More Dividends Paid 



To Bureau Members 



The Tri-County Oil Compan\-, Mon- 

 mouth, recently paid a lO'r patronage 

 dividend and declareil a special 5% 

 patronage refund to be paid at a later 

 date, rive hundred and ihirty-nine 

 Farm Bureau members received an aver- 

 age of $22.66, or a total of $12,215.27.- 



The Peoria County Service Company 

 paid an 8% patronage refund to farm 

 Bureau members and has declared an- 

 other special patronage refund of S'^f 

 to be paid in the future. More than 

 $12,000 will be returned to Farm Bu- 

 reau member patrons of this company., 



The DeWitt County Scrvict Com- 

 pany recently declared an annual pat- 

 ronage refund of 5'< to be paid during 

 the present fiscal year. 



Tax Commissioner Tells How Nev^'- 

 York State Equalized Tax Load 



(^T N my opinion we have too much 

 -L local government — too many 

 units of local government — and too 

 many local officials spending our 

 money." This is the wa\ Mark Graves, 

 New York state tax commissioner 

 sumrriarized his reasons for high laACS 

 in a recent address before the American 

 Farm Bureau lederation at Boston: 



"Just because our forefathers a few 

 generations ago established a certain 

 system of local government constitutes 

 no reason why it should therefore re- 

 main unchanged," he said. "We per- 

 form no part of the work on our farms 

 today as our grandfathers did. Times 

 have changed. Methods ot transacting 

 business have changed and methods of 

 farming have changed. 



Pure Extravagance 



"Just as certainly then method<> oi 

 transacting governmenal b us i nc s s 

 should change, and the machinery of 

 government should be alieied accord- 

 ingly. Specifically I wish to be under- 

 stood as saying wc liave many small, 

 poor, insignificant units of local gov- 

 ernment — towns, villages, and especial- 

 ly school districts and some counties — 

 which wc can ill afford to maintain and 

 which it is pure extravagance to con- 

 tinue. It is not too earl)' to give heed' 

 to this condition. It is the duty of 

 the state to equalize taxes to meet th.c 

 necessary cost of government. No ob- 

 ligation rests upon the state fo pay any 

 part of the cost of an unnecessary 

 agency or unit of government. ' 



Mr. Graves, discussed in detail the 

 measures taken by the New "^'ork state 

 legislature to make possible the equali- 

 zation of rural and urban taxes, A 

 review of a period of 12 \ears in se- 

 lected typical counties revealed, he said, 

 that the increase in the tax load has 

 been two and one-half times as great, 

 in the purely rural communities as in 

 wealthy populous counties. ^ 



Highways alid Schools 



"We found that mosi ot the increase 

 was due to highway, and school ex- 

 penses," he continued], "Having local- 

 ized the cause we then proceeded to 

 devise methods of securing a l.etler 

 equalization of the cost of highways 

 and schools. This program embraced 

 several pieces of legislation." 



A bill was rccentlf introduced in the Massa- 

 dmsetti Icj^islature providing for an automobile 

 iniurance companf managed and controlle 



ihe state ia cpmpetftion with private compan 



Uncle Ab says that persons who 

 dT*^ differ with us may be just as good 

 anics. as WC are, at thatj 





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