Suggestions To The General Assembly

NO. X.

THE REVENUE SYSTEM CONSIDERED.

If there be a gentleman in the General Assembly who has ever had anything to do with the assessment of property, he will be able to appreciate the remarks we are about to make on that subject.  It is almost impossible to have a uniform and fair valuation of personal property under the existing revenue law, for the reason that no two assessors value alike.  In the case of real property, the difference which may exist between Assessors in their estimates of value is partially, but not only partially, corrected by the equalization which is prescribed by law to take place; but there can be no such equalization of the value of horses, cows, hogs, &c., and consequently while the people of one township may be assessed for the full value of their stock, those of other townships may be let off with an assessment which is not half the value of the assessed property.  We have been thinking of some means to remedy this defect both of the existing system and of the abuses to which it leads, and we have come to the conclusion that the best way to assess stock is to rate horses, cattle, hogs, sheep and other stock over a prescribed age at a fixed uniform value all over the State.  This would take away from the Assessors both the power and the opportunity to under estimate this species of personal property in value.  It would make the assessment on stock uniform all over the State, while it would not be so otherwise, and it would be nearer to fairness all round than the present system is, or than any other system which we have been able to think of will be.

Besides this, it will have the effect to improve the breeds of stock, and to get rid of that which is comparatively valueless, for no one will like to pay taxes on a horse valued at say a hundred dollars if he be not worth half that sum.  Every one will try to have the best horse, the best cow and the best hog or sheep that he can find if the tax upon a good animal be no more that it will be on a poor one.

We therefore suggest that in amending the Revenue Law, the General assembly will either prescribe at what rate per head each horse, mule, cow, bull, steer, hog, sheep, &c., shall be assessed, or prescribe that it be done by the Census Board from year to year, leaving the Assessors only the duty of enumerating the taxable number of stock of all kinds in their respective jurisdictions.

Objections will, of course, be made to this proposition, and it is, we admit, liable to the objection that stock would not be assessed according to its real value.  But to this we reply, neither is it so assessed now.  For the one owner of stock who gives in a fair valuation, there is probably a hundred that puts the value as low as they can possibly get the Assessor to take it at; and even were it left to the Assessors themselves to estimate the value of stock, they would not be able to do better, for the reason that scarcely any two men, and Assessors are men, agree upon the value of one single animal.  Hence, under the existing system, the assessment of this species of personal property is not equal or fair, while in the system we suggest, it would be uniform and comparatively fair.

A TAX ON DOGS.

It is the almost universal opinion of the farmers of this State that sheep cannot be raised successfully till the dogs which infest almost everr farm be destroyed.  To effect this purpose, they should be taxed, and to ensure the effectiveness of the tax it would not be a bad plan to devote a portion of the proceeds to the Agricultural Societies of the respective counties in which the dog-tax may be collected.  A very considerable revenue might be raised from this source, without hurting any one but the dogs.  It is a matter of experience that where a local tax is levied upon dogs, but few comparatively are assessed.  This is owing to the great carelessness of the Assessors, and to the human sympathy which almost every one feels for the canine race.  To over come this, it will be almost necessary to make it an object with some local beneficiary, as Agricultural societies, to be interested in the proceeds of the dog-tax.  By resorting to this means, such a tax will be assessed and collected, but scarcely otherwise.

– Published in The Dubuque Herald, Dubuque, Iowa, Friday Morning, February 7, 1862, p. 2