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Show fe - "- THE VEXATIOCS TAX QTJESTIO.N. The most common topic of con- Tersatlon in this city is the tax question. High taxes are seldom popular. No matter how many im- i&- provements are .made or needed, paying for theni does not commend v itself to the ordinary mind, which is naturally selflfh. In the present cam the irritation is aggravated, by the feeling that neither actual nor projected public Improvements teem ' m to call for the excessive amount ; which will lie raited through the enormous Increase in assessments. The advance In taxes of from two to four times tliu former amounts is a fact. The responsibility responsi-bility for it is a debatable question. Bome people place it upon the officers, of-ficers, others upon the new revenue law. The matter should be correctly correct-ly understood, an J tlio public will do well to examine it carefully be-' be-' - fore casting reflections uron anyone or anything. We will begin with the law, because be-cause the action of the officers i-oased i-oased upon the Jaw. At the last session of the legislature, several important changes were made in the statute relating to revenue. Among them were these: The maximum amount of taxes to be levied upon property was reduced from twelve mills to seven mills ou the dollar, that i, two mils fur territorial purposes instead of three 1 mill, threemills for school purposes as before, and not to exceed two mills for county purposes Instead of six mills. In addition to this the county courts may assess a tax for school purposes not to exceed two mills on the dollar. This, however, Is for the purpose ofetabIIhiug free schools and will not take effect this year. So tuattiie revenue law, instead cf increasing the taxes, reduced re-duced the maximum rate five mills on the dollar, or nearly one half. The former revenue law required property to be ttr-ses-ecl at "a fair cash valuation." The new law dropped the word "lair" and required re-quired property to be asM-ssed at it "cash value." There were good reasons for this. Assessors in some counties had placed pro-ierty far below its actual market value. The discretion u hlch Vhey construed the law to bestow upon them was taken advantage of, and loud complaints were heard of tlio discrepancy in values in ditlereut counties to the disadvantage of Salt Lake, Weber, and one or twootherpnpulaus counties, coun-ties, w hicli thus paid a great deal of revenue for the benetit of those counties where lheae-ssnieuts were placed too Ion. baIs for their assessments. The old law provides and the provision Is still In force that. "Real estate taxable, under this act shall I listed and assessed as valued on the first day of January in each year; all other property taxable under thisaotshsllbells'ed and assessed as valued on tho oar of assessment." Unfortunately on the 1st or January, Janu-ary, 1S9J, there was a terrible Inflation Infla-tion of values on real estate. Since then there has been a considerable decline. It teems that the asses.-menU asses.-menU In the city have been made ou the market value at that date. No one can deny that property has appreciated in cash value. Whether It has actually gone up from one hundred to four hundred per cent Is nn open question. It is not surprising that there i much compbii.t over the increased taxes, because in so many instances they are enormously in excess of former amou nt. Hut we desire our raiders to understand that circumstances circum-stances rather than the law or the officers are largely responsible for this Increase. "Booms" are not good for the communityat large. They are excessively ex-cessively Injurious to the poor prop. ertyowner the possessor of a small home which he docs not wish to sell. The revenue 1j.w Is reasonable enojgh to an reasonable mind. The assessment has, no doubt, been made with the intention of conform-Ingtothelaw. conform-Ingtothelaw. The balloon figures which have been put upon property the cause of the trouble, and actual sales of real estate n be cited as evidence of the cash value of contiguous proiierty. The question which may be reasonably rea-sonably ai,ked of lienor who objec' to their assessments is, if you owed a debt and your property was to bo taken in laymeut, would you let It go at less than the amount at hicli It is valued on the assessment roll: Or rather, would the property hrlng the amont at which it 1, Hsed In payment of a !ut debt-ThaUs debt-ThaUs the basis of assessment as re'-H-lredbyUw. If that i, ,U "tl ' "Rvalue, th.n the taxes as ! . must be paid anj toe , fleers but with the -boom" and' thosewhoh.vecauseJficuu,! aBBHaJBBBBHBBBBBHaBBBl |