Jasper County Democrat, Volume 23, Number 41, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 18 August 1920 — CLUBBED INTO SUBMISSION [ARTICLE]

CLUBBED INTO SUBMISSION

Board of Review Forced to Accept State Tax Board's Dictum.

The autocratic state board of tax commissioners, dominated by Chairman Sims, has clubbed practically every county board of review into submission and forced the latter to rescind their former order —where the boards had rebeled and sent In again their 1919 certification of valuations —and adopt the horizontal increases made by the state board and which were declared illegal by the supreme court recently. Jasper county’s board is one of the number that refused to admit it Was guilty of perjury when it certified the assessments to the state board in 1919, and re-certlfied its 1919 findings under the new •‘curative tax law.” The state board then —as in all other cases where the local boards rebeled at doing their bidding—• raised the county as a whole, both real and personal, and fixed on a percent of raise that would be the .hardest imaginable for the local officers to figure out in correcting the tax books, besides the real estate raise, which was greater as a whole than the former horizontal raises by local units, would stand for three years. 'Auditor Robinson went to Indianapolis Friday night to see if he could not get the board to modify its assessment raise here, but was dismissed haughtily with the crisp statement that the “board had made its order and would not change it.” ’ Mr. Robinson came home Saturday evening as mad as a wet hen, and if he was a man given to the use of profanity his vocabulary in this line would have soon become exhausted. However, the matter was talked over by the local board, and while it went against the grain mighty hard with several of the members, it was decided Monday that the cheapeet and best way out of the matter, both for the qpunty and .the taxpayers .thereof, was to eat humble pie and submit to Sims, the autocrat, and his rubber stamp cohorts, which was done.

Following are the two orders made by the local board: “Comes now the Board of Review of Jasper County, in the State of Indiana and being convened in special session pursuant to the provisions of the Tuthill-Kiper Act and after having considered and reviewed the order heretofore made by this Board on the 9th day of August, 1920, reading as follows: State of Indiana, County of Jasper, ss: Proceedings had by the Board of Review of Jasper County in the State of Indiana. August 9, 1920. In coihpliance with an Act of General Assembly of the Commissioners of the State of Indiana having certified to the Auditor of Jasper County in the State of Indiana its conclusions relating to the equalization of assessments for the said county of Jasper as promulgated under its orders of August 23, 1919, which conclusions were arrived at in special session held on July 31, 1920, accordig to the provisions of Section One (1) of the act hereinabove Referred to, the Board of Review for the County of Jasper in the State of Indiana in compliance with Section’Two (2) of the above Act of the General Assembly met in special session and proceeded to review and equalize the assessments of property in the several townships and taxing units for taxing purposes in Jasper County in the State of Indiana for the yeah 1919, and after due deliberation said Board of Review in session as aforesaid on this 9tl_ day of August, 1920, finds that the assessments of property in said several taxing units in said county as aforesaid should be and remain as the same were originally certified to the State Board of Tax Commissioners.

It is therefore ordered and adjudged that the assessments for the year 1919 on all property in the several townships and taxing units for taxing purposes within the county of Jasper in the State of Indiana shall be the same as were originally fixed by this Board at its regular session in the year 1919, and as were certified to said State Board of Tax Commissioners in abstract form by the Auditor of Jasper County, ndiana, and the Auditor of Jasper County is hereby ordered to prepare and forward with this order to the said State Board of Tax Commissioners for the State of Indiana a certified copy of the assessed valuations on all property in Skid taxing units which shall be a true, full and complete exemplification of the original abstract heretofore certified, which certification shall be under his official hand and seal. Given under our hands at Rensselaer, Indiana, this 9th day of August A. D.» 1920. G. L. THORNTON, ELLIS JONES C. R. PEREGRINE, p CHAS. V. MAY, Deputy. J SCHUYLER C. ROBINSON,

Board of Review of Jasper County in the State of Indiana. Which order, reaffirmed the report of the County Board of Review of 1919, and since the order of the State Board of Tax Commistsioners of August 11, 1920, increases the assessments in most individ? ual cases and puts the county to the expense of re-adjusting the taxes of 1919, and if carried out by this Board will cause great confusion in the payment of the Fall installment of taxes for 1919, and in re-adjust-ing Township revenue, and believing that it is to the best interests of the tax payers of Jasper county. Therefore, this Board now rescinds its order of August 9, 1920, and adopts the increases made by

the State Board in its order of August 23, 1919. Witness our hands this 16th day of August, 1920. G. L. THORNTON, ELLIS JONES, C. R. PEREGRINE, CHAS. V. MAY, Deputy, S. C. ROBINSON, Auditor, Board of Review, Jasper Co.