Show MAY LOWER THE WHOLE assessment attorney C K gilchrist august filed a document with the salt lake county board of equalization iZat iza tion iol in which he takes a point antagonistic to thac assumed by mr hall which was published in monday einings een ings DESERET NEWS and says that the board in its power too to correct any valuation may reduce entire assessment if it should a correction necessary we e is id mr gilchriste christs Gil christIs argument the me chairman and gentlemen the county board of equalization of salt sall lake coun ty utah ut a h Gen gentlemen tiemen the opinion of the honorable ono rable gentleman given to your norante body which appears in ie public prints of this city this aing stating in round terms that t the county board of equalize jolob h floes does not possess the po awer u u ater the law to lower or scale down abe general assessment roll of salt ake county for the current year seems to demand of me a reply any rate I 1 shall make a reply ace ce I 1 introduced the argument kd d injustice I 1 a a entitled bo thus aee the debate at the outset it is worthy of remark ark that this mooted question has us far been debated in candor it appears to be an appeal to reason abot t prejudice and hence on let it continue in like mood s it may be admitted at this point ahat the statement made by me that ab territorial board of equalize la by reason of its non action is ita ua is true at least the point is abot t and can not be disputed it ap pears also to be ta taken k e n as granted g ran ted that I 1 she tt previous argument ah made de by me I 1 that the county board of equalize IOB under the laws of 1890 possessed 4 J twofold two fold power viz j first to ro determine all complaints faints made in regard to assessed v vue ue of property and second and they shall have power to change and correct any valuation tiou by adding thereto or taking 3 is also true since all quote from the same statute and practically ilyin in the same language hence it stands that the statutory premises are identical in the first farat place from the letter of the law if the letter be plain were is no room left for construe is only when ambiguity occurs construction by courts and ther other legal bodies is permitted to V construe cou a law is to make plain that which is not plain a but the door of construction is closed when the language of the lawgiver law giver is plain he has spoken and courts and legal bodies must follow subject to one consideration viz Is the statute constitutional f where the room or necessity of their bringing into discussion the decisions of the supreme court of the state otate of california and the court of appeals of new york or even judge jC ooley ey on taxation they and i each of them debate the question of I 1 construction const f action not the sharp letter of 1 k the kle l law let us see the two cases referred to in the 40 california alifornia reports arose butof out of a c cn cin n diet between the state board baard of a equalization tion and a similar coun county tys s boari bearl ani and in order to harmonize WD powers of the boards the su ime eeme court had to resort to construction st ruction action and when examined critt really I 1 these cases will be found to be tain last st the principles contended for febi the other side of this argument e ew york case is still worse on tabe e same line it may be remarked generally if the logic of this new york case be carried out literally there cannot be one dollars worth of tax collected in utah this year by the process of law the new york case was where the tax roll had not been properly certified and the collector when he undertook to force the collection of the tax found himself iu in the opinion of the court a naked tres trespasser sweet reflection this when imperfect tax bolln creep into the hands of collectors again cooley on taxation is appealed to page let us see what he be says rhe fhe abatement may be total or it may be partial when the tax is illegal one is not obliged to apply for an abatement but he may contest the tax w when hen attempt is ia made mad e to collect I 1 it t if fraud is charged equity way may in interfere ter fere and the action of an appellate board is held not to be binding when the board itself has dl disobeyed i g the law to the prejudices of parties it also appears that the records of the board must show affirmatively firt firmat ively that the statute has been complied with cooley on taxation page but it way may be c contended that the foregoing does not satisfy the law or the conscience of the board all legally constituted boards are supposed to be guided by a conscientious and free interpretation of the law at least this is so until the contrary affirmatively appears special pleading or sophistry does not satisfy the conscience of the law whether the case occurs in court of lawor equity this principle is what lord mansfield and chief justice marshall both contended for until they both broke the iron bonds of strict construction and breathed the spirit of eternal justice and equity into all A j jurisprudence uris it is contended that this county board has power to increase or lower the individual assessments etc indeed is this so where squared by the letter or reason of the statute of it will be remembered that st paul got old king agrippa on the hip because he tried him according to the law and smote him contrary to it and the only way this rascally old king could get out of the dilemma was to send paul to rome where the emperor made quick work of the poor apostle by beheading dimand then put him in an unknown grave if grave at all it will be xe remembered that agrippa told paul that he agrippa had no jurisdiction otherwise he would let him off so peculiar things happened as long ago as the days of 0 paul agrippa and even ceesar not less peculiar is 18 this new star in the constellation of the tax statutes called individual it must be a meteor in the heavens of the recent statutory the statute says the board of eq equalization ual shall have power to change and correct any valuation either by adding thereto or deducting now does any sane man believe or suppose that any person or lawyer is going to permit the interpolation po lation or insertion of the word individual al after the word any the latter word is generic and applies to the whole it is to be observed that the power of this board reaches to any ny val valuation u aaion 11 1 not 0 on u com complaint plaint but of its own motion on the other hand suppose this board should take up each item in the tax roll and make it individual if the interpolation and argument be good then the pow lowi r of the board is ample to do this and each individual would have adequate relief and there would be no necessity for any one to bow his or her head in grief at burdensome taxation or consult doctors of the law about that magnificent word individual this individual business can be illustrated as follows the scene is southern utah the bisbo bishops ps account got mixed all believed him to be honest but his books could not be made to balance hence a committee was appointed to examine the fatal amounts accounts and books and yet the deficiency still existed much to the annoyance of the good bishop but the books must be balanced hence the committee seized upon this grand balance idea and in order to balance the account they made the following entry credit by balance cash which ignot on hand band and cannot be accounted for on the same theory the word 1 I individual n allI must be struck into the statute ta to make the argument holds hold together and nence bence poor old salt lake county must be made the scap scapegoat goat and be be behead headed ej or crucified head downwards men and ana brethren such things ought not to be |