ARTICLE BY COUNTY SUPERVISOR CRITICIZED

The Cortland News, Friday, December 31, 1886.

CORTLAND’S TAXES.

Some Facts of Interest to the Taxpayers.

   The following article was clipped from the Syracuse Times of Dec. 26, and it seems to us is right to the point. We publish it for the benefit of our taxpayers.

   An article in the Marathon Independent, which has the appearance of having been written by D. E. Whitmore, Supervisor of that town, and seemingly written for the purpose of misleading the public as to the action by a majority of the Board of Supervisors of the county, at their annual session of 1886, injustice of the taxpayers of the town of Cortlandville needs to be answered, inasmuch as he gives as the basis for writing the article, the bitter things said by Cortland papers and certain Sunday papers.

   Almost the entire article referred to relates to the actions of the Assessors of this town and other towns in the county, and particularly to their acts in relation to the assessment of personal property of this town, and long resolutions introduced by Whitmore at the meeting of the State Assessors, Supervisors and Town Assessors in Cortland June 2, 1886, and in the Board of Supervisors at their last annual meeting here, relating to assessments and the duties of Assessors are printed in said article, attempting to lay down rules for the assessors of the various towns to act upon. The amount paid per capita in the towns of Cortlandville and Marathon are compared. The District-Attorney is appealed to, and indictments of the assessors loudly proclaimed, but not one word is said about the real estate and the action of our last board of supervisors upon that, [that] it makes the basis upon which taxes are to be paid.

   Vindictiveness runs from the beginning to the end of the hypocritical article. Not one "bitter" word has been said in the "Cortland papers and certain Sunday papers" about the duties of "Town Assessors" or "per capita," or even the "African in the fence;" and hence the writer of the article headed "The Assessments" laid no foundation for writing it.

   For the purpose of showing how misleading "The Assessments" are, we will take up some of his theories. He says, "In Marathon, where the assessment is made on the legal basis of full value, the value of personal estate is seventy dollars per capita, and then in Cortlandville it is less than thirty dollars per capita," and refers to the large manufacturing interests here to prove that there is an African in the fence.

   Be it known that hardly one in fifty who work in the large manufacturing business here pay taxes or have any property assessable. Take the town of Marathon, where nearly every man owns property, and make a per capita comparison with Cortlandville, with its hundreds of other employes in Cortland, and hundreds of other employes of McGrawville who do not own a dollar above their clothing and exempt property, is a ridiculous and misleading proposition.  

   Again, "The Assessment" takes the assessment value of some property in Cortland and compares it with its real value, as though the assessed value of real estate formed the basis of taxation. Every person who knows anything about the laws of taxation knows that each town draws the amount of taxes which it has to pay on real estate according to the corrected valuation of the real estate by the Board of Supervisors. In the town of Cortlandville that corrected valuation of real estate is $3,022,276, while the assessed is about $2,177,155, thus making the amount drawing a proportion of State and county tax about one-third more than the assessed valuation. In the town of Marathon the corrected valuation of real estate is $428,006, while the assessed valuation of real estate in that town is about $790,000, making the amount drawing State and county tax nearly one-half less than the assessed valuation. Does anyone think that a per capita statement on the basis of assessed value is a proper comparison between the two towns? The corrected valuation of real estate in the town of Marathon is about $27 per acre, while the corrected valuation of real estate in the town of Cortlandville is about ninety-three dollars per acre, or more than three times higher than Marathon. This is the basis upon which Cortlandville and Marathon is paying taxes and not the assessed value.

   It seems that "The Assessments" from beginning to end endeavored to make people think that the assessed valuation of real estate is the basis of the amount of tax which a town pays and hereby lead them to believe that the last Board of Supervisors acted fairly in making the equalization table. Whether real estate be assessed at full value or at one-half its value in a town makes no difference as to the amount of tax which that town pays; that all depends upon the position such town stands in the equalization of the several towns of the county.

   The people of Cortlandville have a just cause to censure our last Board for loading an unjust amount of valuation of real estate upon this town, in making the equalization table. It is said that a ring was formed for the purpose, and long before the Board met on the 8th day of November that ring, with the Supervisor of Marathon at their head, had their men enrolled and plans laid. This may not be true, but it is so said, and to attempt to excuse their acts by figures and resolutions and statements that do not apply to what they did is a cowardly way out. If the assessors of this or any other town have not made the assessment rolls according to the law, subject to their judgment, that fact is no excuse for vindictiveness on the part of a certain number of Supervisors. To threaten indictments and injunctions has no application to the acts of this same ring of Supervisors setting judicially upon the affairs of Cortland county, wherein every town has a right to be treated fairly and not revengefully.

   We would like to have the learned author of "The Assessments" cite a little law whereby his wealthy taxpayer can procure an "injunction restraining the town collector of Cortlandville from collecting any further tax." Let us know what Judge will grant the injunction, and who his “proper authorities of review" are. The courts hold that "The board of supervisors cannot amend the roll of any town, after they have finally voted on it and issued their warrants to the collector." Upon the proposition put by said author, the State assessors can not interfere, and the courts decline to. Who, then, is the benefactor that is going to relieve that wealthy gentleman from Marathon who has quite likely failed in hiding some of his personal property from the assessors?

   The general feeling of the people in this and other towns is that the board of supervisors at then annual session of 1886, is the most despicable set of men that ever dishonored Cortland county while acting as supervisors, and their acts bear good witness to this conclusion. Any one looking over the proceedings and noticing the hypocritical actions of some of them in putting resolutions, and then voting against the very resolutions which they offered, is sufficient evidence of the statement.