Jasper County Democrat, Volume 7, Number 24, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 17 September 1904 — JUGGLING [ARTICLE]

JUGGLING

Hfew a Republican Tax Board Reduces Assessments on Railroads and Increases Them on Lands. Mr. Fairbanks, as chairman of the Fort Wayne convention in 1892, declared the new tax law odious, and the Republican platform of that year denounced the law as putting unnecessary burdens upon the farmers. But it was notorious then and has been often repeated since, that all the large railroad corporations gathered statistics along their right-of-way to show that the assessments on farm lands were much lower than on the railroads, and it was on this ground—unequal discrimination —that the corporations made their fight against the law in the state and federal courts. The Democrats refused to lower the assessments except in cases where It was demonstrated that inequalities existed and when the Republicans came into power in 1895 they did not dare to carry out their policy of antagonism to the law, much less redeem the promise to repeal it. But they wanted to find a way to make the law “odious,” as Mr. Fairbanks characterized it, and to make it a burden to the farmers, as it had been pictured in the Republican platform. In pursuance of this policy the Republican board of tax commissioners has become an autocrat that defies local Judgments and arbitrarily increases local assessments on lands and improvements on lands, till protests are coming up from all parts of the state. The new law provided for a county assessor, who reviews the work of the several township assessors, and established boards of review to finally pass upon the county assessments and eliminate discriminations. The Democratic principle that the people, through their local officers, should be supreme, was adhered to in the enactment of the law and in its administration, but the Republicans have reversed this rule and in theif zeal to favor corporations and yet meet the ever-increasing expenses of the state government, they are engaged in a seductive policy of reducing from time to time the corporation assessments and increasing those upon lands and improvements. That these statements are not based upon hearsay and that it is easy to coihe down from generalities to particulars, can be demonstrated from the records of the board of tax commissioners itself. The records for 1904 have not yet bean made up, but those for 1902 and 1903 show conclusively the trend of the Republican board. For instance, the reduction of assessments of railroad property in Bartholomew county in 1903 aggregated $33,290, but the assessments on improvements on lands in the same county were increased 50 per cent, thus reducing the county revenue from corporations and increasing it from the people. In Jackson county the railroad assessments were reduced $28,890, but the assessments on land 8 were increased 20 per cent. Some of the most flagrant cases of this kind are submitted in the following table: if $ 2 Per cent of Increase: 1 o County. On improve- a 3 On lands, men ton lands. * 5 : 5 s : w Bartholomew. 50 $33,290 Jackson 20 28,890 Miami 10 60,105 Montgomery.. 10 10,700 Starke 15 50 6,755 Wabash 10 73,525