274 
THIRTEENTH REPORT. 
lions in the collection of taxes from the great public utilities corpora- 
tions such as railroad, telegraph and telephone and express companies. 
The explanation of this situation is to be found of course in the pecu- 
liar nature of the taxes to which these properties have been subjected 
—specific taxes — and the alleged objectionableness of the plan lias very 
often aroused severe public criticism. The condemnation of this scheme 
of taxing public utility companies as units has come usually from flu 1 
cities where the offices and warehouses and other terminal facilities of 
such companies are situated and where water, sewage and police facil- 
ities and fire protection must be furnished with no reciprocal payments 
in the form of taxes from the properties benefited in return. The 
criticism of this Michigan plan of disregarding situs consideration in 
the taxing of public utilities companies is most fully set forth in the 
constitutional convention of 1850.* In recent years the plan of dis- 
tributing the revenues from these properties to the public school fund 
and upon a scheme of apportionment which allocates to the cities a 
large proportion of the entire fund has apparently furnished some recom- 
pense to these municipalities for their otherwise unrequited expenses. 
The laws for taxing general property in this State have invariably as 
signed to realty a taxation situs within the township or other place 
of situation upon the theory doubtless that these jurisdictions are in need 
of the revenues which may be developed from realty and they are also 
the sources from which the chief benefits will come for which this tax- 
able should make recompense. The fiscal responsibilities of personalty 
on the other hand have with, equal uniformity been allotted to the jur- 
isdiction within which the owner lived although the influence of the ben- 
efit theory of taxation has been powerful in creating many exceptions 
to this rule. Personalty such as goods or cattle, for example, which 
is used or maintained in connection with property which is situated in 
some township other than that wherein the owner resides, must pay taxes 
at the place of location upon the theory doubtless that it is here that the 
chief benefits of government are received. Buildings erected upon public 
lands of any sort and owned by private owners and also the personal 
property of non-residents of the State are for similar reasons liable to 
the jurisdictions in which they are found. On the other hand shares in 
bank stock follow neither of the rules for localizing personalty which 
have been given but are assigned to taxing jurisdictions almost arbi- 
trarily and in a way dictated by experience. 
The tax obligations of corporations amenable to the assessment roll 
are with respect to realty identical with those of human tax payers al- 
though in the case of personalty their place of business is ihe determi- 
nant of their jurisdictional responsibility instead of place of residence 
as in the case of human beings. 
The use of property as a measure of faculty it may be said in conclu- 
sion has become strongly intrenched in the beliefs and practices of the 
State not only as exemplified by the general tax which has been de- 
scribed but also by the modified property tax which is applied to gen- 
eral public utility companies and also by the use of still a third prop- 
erty tax — the one which is applied to inheritances. 
East Lansing, Mich., April, 191 1 1 . 
* Can. Con. Debates, 1850, p. 750. 
