The Bismarck Tribune Newspaper, August 24, 1931, Page 8

THE BISMARCK TRIBUNE, JONDAY, AUGUST 24, 1981 > ee ACKER DISCUSSES TAXATION PROBLEMS IN NORTH DAKOTA Says Levies Cannot Be Cut on jand budget requirements remain the ‘ |same, the rate of taxation must be Short Notice as They [increased in the same ratio as the Are in Business percentage of reduction in taxable vaulation. It is, of course, true that j when property is assessed at full "3 NOTE. |value in some taxing districts and at Bator an i geeect te ‘This ts the | lower percentage in others, the dis- of articles by state officials on jtricts where low assessments prevail topics of timely interest. Today Iver Acker, state tax commission- er, discusses the taxation problem which he terms one of distri- bution. i state and county taxes. ‘sess property at its full value but it jis apparent to me that everywhere, jexcept in the case of farm lands, this statutory requirement is being evaded. |I realize that the work of the asses- |sor is not easy. Values are largely a imatter of opinion and to fairly ap-| * # * BY IVER ACKER State Tax Commissioner During the last two years the peo- do not contribute their fair share of! Assessors are by law required to as-; ple of North Dakota have become painfully tax conscious. Taxpayers) associations have been formed in sev-) eral counties for the purpose of} bringing pressure to bear on levying bodies to reduce appropria-; tions for various purposes. Officials} are confronted with the condition that budget requirements were in- curred at a time when the income of the average taxpayer was much] larger than it is today, and when his taxes, while high, were more nearly in proportion to his taxpaying ability In our private affairs when our in- come is reduced we reduce our ex- penses, But public expenditures can not be adjusted in that manner. Reduc- tion must necessarily be gradual be- cause many budgetary requirements are of the nature of fixed charges. "The principal and interest on bonded indebtedness must be met if solvency is to be maintained. School stan- dards can not be raised or lowered depending upon good crops or poor crops, good prices or poor prices. A drastic reduction in the salaries of public employes whose compensation is not fixed by law and in the salar-) jes of teachers is possible but gen- erally arouses resentment and may result in decreased efficiency. Doubts Reduction Right At one of the taxpayers meetings) which I attended a demand was made; upon the elective county officers to! voluntarily consent to a 10 per cent! in their salaries and I have learned that similar demands by tax- H payers’ groups have been made in; other counties. That an elective of-} ficial can consent to a reduction inj his salary I seriously question. The corrupt practices act of North Dakota specifically prohibits a candidate for an office from promising or agreeing} to conduct the office to which he as-| pires for less compensation than the law provides. If this were not so ‘a public office would be virtually placed under the auction block and/ voters would be urged to vote for the lowest bidder. And it appears to me that an elective official who is eligible for reelection is indirectly| violating the corrupt practices act if he voluntarily consents to operate his office for less than the law provides. In times like these new undertak-| ing can, and should, be avoided un- til economic conditions improve. 4s poor economy, however, not to ade- quately provide for the efficient maintenance of public buildings, streets and roads. If public business were conducted} on the same prudent basis as many) private corporations are operated it would undoubtedly be possible in Prosperous times to set aside reserves | which could be used to reduce the tax| burden in times of depression,! Grought or crop failure. Bank re-! serves frequently serve to tide over| emergency requirements. Experienca| ,, has shown, however, that the ac- cumulation of cash reserves by tax-/ ing districts has been conducive to extravagance. The legislature, recog-| nizing this condition, has limited the! power of taxing districts to accumu- late treasury reserves. The 1931 leg-| islature passed a law requiring the) issuance of bonds maturing serially in order to safeguard the public! against loss of sinking funds. The} reserve authorized by chapter 235 of| the laws of 1929 serves the purpose | of tiding municipality over from} one taxpaying period into the next.| Is Economic Problem | The tax problem is an economic) problem. Taxes are burdensome be-; cause they are not in proportion to! taxpaying ability. Substantial tax! relief can be obtained only when} agricultural prosperity has been re- stored. In my opinion the problem of tax-| ation is one of distribution. To equitably apportion and distribute the! burden of taxation so that each class/ of property shall bear its fair share) vand no more is the problem that confronts us. An equitable distriou- tion of the tax burden is impossible | unless assessment methods are adopted | which will produce greater uniform- tty in the assessment of all classes| interest in, or lien or encumbrance ‘of property. Under our present sy: tem of local assessors, uniformity, e m afraid, will continue to remain! You, and each of you, are hereby |summoned to answer the Complaint This year there has been a very | in the above entitled action, which is @ visionary ideal. eppreciable reduction in the assessed ‘per cent to one per cent of the 1929|4%¥8 after the Service of this Sum- or various purposes if property is uni- formly assessed on the same basis. the assessed valuation of [nt { ation of property to get around the jtion to $1,522,637,234. In 1918 the ,| quieting title to the followin: praise the value of property requires} training and experience too often! lacking in the average assessor. The time within which the assessor is re- quired to complete his assessment is} short and his compensation small,| and in addition to his main task he! is required to gather farm statistics and to list land for hail insurance. Every county auditor knows that} the underassessment of property re-| sults in discrimination and favorit-| ism. In fact the inequalities in as-| sessments and lack of uniformity in) assessment methods constitute the| most glaring evil in our system of} local assessments. Until the county is made the unit of local assessment and until property is assessed under the direction of a county assessor this lack of uniformity will ccritinue to! exist. Under a system of undervaluation, | tax rates have no real significance. The publication of the undervalue ratio often creates a false impression as to the effective rate of taxation in a given community. As an illu- stration of this fact I had occasion recently to investigate the tax rates and expenditures for various purposes in two of the larger cities in this state. In one I found the aggregate mill levy in 1930 for all purposes, state, county, and local to be 76 mills and in the other city 49.61 mills. Difference Is Deceiving The great difference in the rate of taxation between these two cities does not necessarily mean that the tax burden is much greater in one than in the other, for if property in 1930 was assessed at a higher proportion of true value in the city having the lower tax rate the burden of taxation. there may be almost as heavy as in the city having the higher rate. It is apparent that the great dif- ference in tax rates between taxing districts is often due to the fact that property is not assessed upon the! same percentage of true value. It is, also quite apparent that whether property is assessed approximately at full value or 50 or 60 per cent of full value often depends upon the finan- cial requirements of taxing districts. By keeping the assessed valuation high it is possible to avoid an elec- tion to increase the levy under the ax limitation law. In fact it is pos- ible by increasing the assessed valu- limitation law. In 1918 the total assessed valua- tion of property in North Dakota was: | $388,647,856. In 1919 the state board of equalization increased the valua- total state general property tax was $1,645,581.62 and in 1919 as a result of legislative appropriations the state tax increased to $3,130,477. In like manner many taxing dis- tricts have kept valuations high in order to obtain sufficient funds for ious purposes and still remain within the limits prescribed by the tax limitations law, for it must be remembered that the limitation law limits the rate in mills that can be levied, but has no application to the assessed valuation of property. TO CONSIDER APPLICATIONS Three applications of the Otter Tail Power company, Fergus Falls, Minn., for permission to furnish elec- trie service at Tokio, Nortonville, and Hastings, N. D., will be considered here by the state railroad commis- sion Aug. 31. For the use .of lecturers, a projec- tor has been invented that shows pictures on a mirror back of the speaker as he operates it so that he never has to turn his back to his audience. SUMMONS STATE OF NORTH DAKOTA, County of Burleigh — ss. DisTRICT COURT. Fourth Judicial District. C. A. Snyder, Plaintiff, vs. John A. McLean, Charles E. Hughes, Irving A. Dunsmoor, and the unknown if any, of John A. McLean, Charles E. Hughes and Irving A Dunsmoor, and all other persons unknown ‘claiming any estate, or upon the property described in the Complaint, Defendani The State of North Dakota to the Above Named Defendants: now on file in the office of the Clerk i rt of Burleigh County, and to serve a copy of your Answer to said Complaint on signed at their offices in y of Fargo, Cass County, Dakota, within thirty (30) |mons upon you, exclusive of the day of such service, and in case of your jfailure to appear or answer, judg- ment will be taken against you by de- ult for the relief demanded in the Complaint. Dated at Fargo, North Dakota, this 14th day of July, 1931, BERGESEN & HAAKENSTAD, Attorneys for Plaintiff. Office and Postoffice Address, O'Neil Block, Fargo, N. Dak. Notice |srare OF NORTH DAKOTA, County S—S8, of Ci 88. To Whom It May Concern: Please take notice that the action is brought for the purpo: ik de- seribed property located in Burleigh County,’ North Dakota, to-wit: -one (51) of the origin: Townsite of the City of Bismarc! that this action {s not brought for the purpose of securing personal or money judgment against any of the defendants. BERGESEN & HAAKENSTAD, for the Plaintift. __ Stiekler Solution | — : ee 2 A cAtArAct. i honest arts ding the complete fine leters ido make the sentence THE GUMPS—IAVE A CARE, BIM, HAVE A CARE at | a YES - OR LIFE ; THIS IS “Bowne BEA BIG CHUMP- NIX MR . 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