profits of the national banks of Rochester on the 1st of October, 1870, was $1,558,206; while the aggregate deposits of the savings banks of the same city of the 1st of January, 1871, were considerably in excess of $7,000,000. In 1858 the personal property of the county and city of Albany was assessed at $8,310,141; in 1870 at $7,535,171; showing a decrease in twelve years of $874,970. In 1842 the valuation of the personal estate of Onondaga county was $1,891,954; in 1870, $4,275,275; showing an increase in eighteen years of $2,384,321. The capital, surplus, and undivided profits of the national banks of Syracuse, in this county, on the 18th of October, 1870, were $1,656,548; the capital of the Onondaga Salt Company, $1,200,000, and the resources of the savings banks of Syracuse, January 1st, 1870, $3,650,264; making a total of $6,506,812, or $2,231,537 in excess of the valuation of the personal estate of the whole county. It would seem as if no intelligent person could give the slightest consideration to the facts revealed in the foregoing tables and statements without arriving at the fullest conviction that the valuation of personal property for the purposes of taxation generally, and in the State of New York especially, is a mere semblance, and a libel upon the intelligence and honesty of both those who enact and those who administer the laws. But the evidence thus far presented on this subject is by no means complete. Of the States of the Union which adopt the plan theoretically, of subjecting all real and personal property to a uniform rule of assessment and taxation, Massachusetts and Connecticut may be selected as examples in which the greatest measure of success in respect to the execution of the law has been attained to; and beyond the results in which, as reported, nothing better is to be expected; especially in Massachusetts, where the system, both as regards law and administration, is regarded as practically successful. And yet per in Massachusetts the opinion has been expressed to the commission by the most experienced of assessors, that of the sonal property of the citizens of the State subject to taxation, full one-third annually escapes valuation and assessment; while in Connecticut the amount is estimated, by officials most conversant with the subject, as high as forty per cent. An incident of recent Massachusetts experience may also be referred to as both instructive and suggestive. In the city of Boston the assessors are removed one degree from the people, being elected by the aldermen and Common Council. In the city of Dorchester (that was), on the other hand, the assessors owed their places directly to popular election. In January, 1870, the city of Dorchester, by vote taken in June, 1869, was annexed to and became a part of Boston; the conditions of the election of the assessors in the former city being at the same time prospectively changed in conformity with the Boston rule. Now, it may be, that between these changed conditions in respect to the office of the assessors of Dorchester there was no necessary connection; but it is nevertheless a fact that the officers who, elected by popular vote, valued the property of Dorchester for assessment in 1868 at $15,326,000, valued the same property on the succeeding year (1869), after annexation had been determined upon, at $20,315,000, or at an advance in one year of nearly thirty-three per cent. The conclusion in any event would seem to be inevitable, either that the people of Dorchester greatly increased in worldly goods during the year 1868-'9, or else that the Massachusetts system of taxation, so far as Dorchester was concerned, had been previous to 1869 but most imperfectly administered. In Illinois, another State where the uniform rule of valuation and assessment of all property is adopted, the Chicago Board of Trade report for 1869-'70, states, "that the valuations of property for taxation (throughout the State) are not more than one-quarter the actual cash value of the different kinds of property assessed.” And yet the statute of Illinois requires that all property shall be valued and assessed at its actual and true value.* State Taxation of Illinois.-The uniform low valuation of property for assessment purposes in Illinois admits of an explanation, which in itself, however, constitutes one of those anomalies of taxation in the United States especially worthy of record and preservation. Previous to the adoption of the Constitution of 1848, the State of Illinois had practically repudiated her debt. Payment of interest had stopped, the credit of the State was very low, and a community exempt from taxation for one purpose was unwilling to be taxed for others. Demagogues inpeached the validity of the State debt, and opposed any taxation for its payment. When the convention met in 1847 to revise the Constitution, this debt was a perplexing question to many. Finally, distrusting the honesty of the people, the convention submitted to a separate vote the following article : There shall be annually assessed and collected, in the same manner as other State revenue may be assessed and collected, a tax of two mills upon each dollar's worth of taxable property, in addition to all other taxes, to be applied as follows, to wit: The fund so created shall be kept separate, and shall annually, on the first of January, be apportioned and paid over, pro rata, upon all such State indebtedness, other than the canal and school indebtedness, as may for that purpose be presented by the holders of the same, to be entered as credits upon and to that extent, in extinguishment of the principal of said indebtedness." The people ratified this by a large majority, and the tax was thus made permanent, and placed beyond the control of the Legislature. The first tax was collected in 1849-'50, and the Legislature then provided for the immediate funding of the unpaid interest, and in various ways for the ascertainment and funding of the principal of the State debt. The credit of the State was revived, and in 1852 the State entered upon that prosperity for which it has been ever since distinguished. An incident illustrative of the condition of taxation in another Western State adopting the same system, has also not a little of significance. În conversation with a gentleman occupying high official station under the Federal Government, the opinion was expressed by him that in his State the existing system was about as good as it could be, and, withal, just and equitable; "and yet,' continued the relator, "there was one circumstance connected with myself this year that struck me as a little singular. I returned my property for taxation in accordance with the exact truth, naming a sum much under $100,000, and some days subsequently I was waited upon by one of the assessors and requested to take back the return and amend it, the reason given for the request being, that I had returned a larger amount of personal property than any other one individual in my county, where I was never before regarded by any one as entitled to be classed among the number of our wealthy citizens." As before stated, the personal property of the entire State of New York was returned, for taxation for the year 1869-'70, at $434,270,278, which, with a population of 4,370,346, would give $99.13 per capita. On the other hand, Massachusetts, with a population of only 1,457,385, returns for 1869-'70 a valuation of personal property of $503,085,988, or at the rate of $345.19 per capita; while Ohio, with a population of 2,852,302, returns for the same year a valuation of personal property of $459,762,252, or at the rate of $189.67 per capita. The mode of assessment, however, which had prevailed previously was continued, which was for each county to make its own valuation and assessment for taxation; and, as might have been expected, was productive of the grossest inequalities. To remedy these, the Legislature felt compelled, in 1867, to provide for an annual meeting of a board of equalisation," which, in a degree, accomplishes the work designed for it. 66 The Legislature makes the annual appropriations, and there is a permanent law providing for a tax for school purposes and for interest; but the Legislature never fixes the rate of tax. The auditor ascertains the amount he will need to cover the appropriations made by the Legislature, and taking the equalised valuation by the board, he fixes the rate so as to produce that sum for general revenue, including the cost of collection. But the two-mill tax for the State debt, presented by the Constitution, is absolute, and has to be collected whether it is needed or not. The State is furthermore in the receipt of a large annual revenue from the Illinois Central Railroad, and this revenue, by contract, is also applicable to the same purposes as is the two-mill tax. The result is that the State is in the receipt of a much larger revenue that it can apply to the extinguishment of its debt; and to avoid the collection of an unnecessary revenue under the constitutional twomill tax, it has been found necessary to keep the assessed valuation of property as low as possible. It is difficult to form any estimate of what the actual value of the State property is; but the State Auditor, in 1869, estimated the State valuation at not in excess of twenty-five per cent. This is reported to the commissioner as approximating the truth, except that it varies in some counties, especially in Cook county-the county in which Chicago is situated-where bank property (shares) have been at times taxed to their full value. As a further contribution of information relative to the estimated valuation of the personal property of the State, attention is also asked to the following schedule of property having a situs within the State of New York, which, for the most part, would be classified as personal in any scheme of valuation for assessment and taxation. Capital of banks doing business under the laws of the State Assets over all liabilities, except capital and scrip (December 31, 1869) $61,958,998 00 NEW YORK LIFE INSURANCE COMPANIES. Assets over all liabilities, except capital and scrip (December 31, 1869) 20,471,297 00 Fire insurance risks in force in the State (December 31, 1869) 2,300,306,952 41 MISCELLANEOUS. * Gas companies, estimated capital........ Express companies and associations, and navigation and Ferry and bridge companies, estimated Capital employed in manufactures, less real estate, estimated Other personal property, i.e., stocks of goods; money at $20,000,000 00 40,000,000 00 6,000,000 00 1,500,000 00 150,000,000 00 140,000,000 00 500,000,000 00 *The estimates here given under the head of miscellaneous are not presented as reliable, but simply as approximations which are not in excess of the true value. The data for forming reliable estimates are not at present obtainable by the commission. MISCELLANEOUS (continued). Estimated value of farm tools and implements, based on census returns of 1865...... State.. $25,000,000 00 Estimated value of the annual agricultural product of the 150,000,000 00 Estimated value of the annual product of manufacturing industry...... 400,000,000 00 RECAPITULATION. The sum of the above items, exclusive of the estimated annual value of the products of agriculture and manufacturing industry, amounts to $1,665,013,262. The following deductions from the statistics of the income tax levied by the national government will also assist in the formation of an opinion as to the amount of personal property at present existing in the State of New York. For the year ending June 30th, 1866, the national government, under the internal revenue system, is reported to have collected income taxes from 96,000 persons in the State. In that year an income of $600 was exempted to each person, the exemption being upon the earnings or income of the individual, and not upon any property with which the earnings or income may have been associated. This exemption represented $59,600,000, while the revenue derived from the income tax of five per cent, amounting to $5,993,123, represented an income of nearly $120,000,000. During the same year an additional revenue of twelve millions ($12,289,127) was also collected from citizens of New York, under an income tax of ten per cent on the excess of all incomes over $5,000, which in turn represented a further income of $120,000,000, the whole showing an aggregate income of the people of the State of New York, for the years 1865-'66, to have been at least $300,000,000, and which if capitalised at six per cent would represent five thousand millions of productive property. Now the valuation of all the property of New York, for the purpose of assessment and taxation for the year 1870, is only $2,052,479,570. Again, in a debate in the constitutional convention, 1867-'68, Hon. James A. Bell, who was chairman of the joint committee of the Legislature in 1862-'63, for the revision of the laws relating to taxation, made the following statement: "The committee held a session in New York and examined into the manner and mode of the assessment of property in that city. We ascertained that only about $50,000,000 of personal property was placed upon the assessment in the entire city. The committee inquired of those who came before them-and they were gentlemen of great intelligence and business capacity, one of them of the firm of Brown, Brothers & Co.-if they |