Democratic Sentinel, Volume 15, Number 16, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 1 May 1891 — A DAY OF RECKONING AHEAD. [ARTICLE]

A DAY OF RECKONING AHEAD.

[lndianapolis News, Bepublican.] Beports from over the State indicate that the new tax assessment law is not being faithfully obeyed. In some counties it has not received the support of the newspapers. Property owners have been encouraged to believe that it was not to be taken at its full meaning, and, as under the old law, they are to be allowed large latitude in determining values for taxation The sinister influence of politics has been brought to bear against it. A fear for the responsibility of higher taxes and a desire to gain political advantage by making the law odious or unpopular, combined with the natural antipathy to anv measure that reaches into people’s pocket-books, and the unscrupulonsness of a large conscienceless class who always try to evade paying taxes, have operated powerfully against it. All this, ooupled with a premature attempt to put it into force before people could become acquainted with its requirements, has made the law, if not a failure, not a success. As a result the inequalities of the tax burden are probably greatly aggravated rather than diminished. If the provisions of the law are not strictly carred into force and itß Densities inflicted upon violators, those who have honestly complied with its requirements will suffer most unjustly. There is, however, a day of reckoning ahead The law may be evaded and violated with apparent impunity in the month of April, 1891, but it remains to be seen how the corrective power within the law will assert itself in the months following. It must not be forgotten that there is a State tax commission and that it is the high and solemn duty of the tax commission to seek out the evasions and violations of the law, make right where it is wrong, equalize where there are inequalities, and prosecute where punishment is deserved. There is no reason for presuming that these officers will not perform their duty. On the contrary, it is to be expected that they will and that they will do it vigorously and impartially. If they do not they will be called to account.

The Bepublican is one of those papers whioh “desire to gain political advantage by making the law odious or unpopular, by continuous mirepresentation. The fact is that while the state tax will be un-

disputedly higher, connty, township and other taxes will be reduced to an extent that will more than ofiset the increased tax for State purposes; besides, a vast amount of property heretofore hidden from the assessor will be brought to the surface and be required to bear its proportion, and thus the honest tax-payer will find his taxes reduced below that under the old law, while the dishonest taxpayer who has heretofore hidden property from taxation will find his increased. The assessed valuation of property in Jasper county for 1890, under the old method of assessment was $3,838,925. Let ns say the levy on that amount for county, township and other purposes was $2 on the SIOO valuation. If, under the now, the assessed valuation for 1891 shall donble that of 1890, and the same am’t as that of last year be required by the county then the levy will be but one-half —sl on the SIOO valuation. Under the law now in force the.farmer’s work-horse valued at SIOO will not pay the same tax as the fine bred SSOO and SI,OOO as heretofore, but each will pay its just proportion according to value. So with all other property. The efforts of the republican editors to alarm the tax-payers and misrepresent the law will react disastrously upon their party.