people always have and always will differ more or less in their judgment. What we do claim as to the work of the Tax Commission is that it is being performed all over the state by a corps of organized, disciplined, experienced examiners, imbued with a feeling of pride in their position, serving the State creditably in delicate matters, secure in their positions regardless of their political affiliations, uninfluenced by local, political or personal considerations, bringing to the discharge of their duties both a local and state-wide understanding of values and of conditions affecting values and availing themselves of all possible local information and assistance. It is the disappointing feature of the work that no matter how accurate and uniform it may be, as a whole, if in a hundred assessments two or three may properly be criticised, a little is heard in praise of those that are correct and uniform, but public attention is called to those that are doubtful. Examination of the legislation defining the duties of the Board of State Tax Commissioners and the State Board of Assessors, a correct understanding of the character and extent of the work of these two bodies, assessing public utility corporations, determining the average rate, levying taxes upon public utility corporations, preparing the report to the State Board of Equalization, superintending and advising assessing officers, reviewing assessments at cash value, should remove from the public mind any thought that these Boards are unnecessary bodies, needlessly and arbitrarily interfering with assessment conditions throughout the state. Only by changing the present method of assessing public service corporations, and in that way doing away with the necessity of assessing all other properties on the same basis as public utility corporations, namely,—at cash value, and by further amending the laws so as to separate State and local taxation and thus do away with the necessity of equalizing between the various counties of the State, can the labors of the State Tax Commission, or any other body for the same purpose, be dispensed with. PRESENT SITUATION FROM THE STANDPOINT OF CASH VALUE ASSESSMENTS. The Board of State Tax Commissioners is frequently asked "when will the re-assessment program be completed and the entire state placed on a 'cash value' assessment basis." A short review of present conditions will not only answer satisfactorily all such inquiries, but will re-assure assessing officers of districts we have re-assessed, that the Tax Commission has kept faith with them as to its promise to complete the revaluation of the State at the earliest possible date. The amendments to the general tax law making the Board of State Tax Commissioners a true supervising body, and charging it with the responsibility of restoring "cash value" assessments, became operative in the summer of 1911 and during that year one county, Charlevoix, a few scattered cities and townships in other counties, and the iron mining properties of the Upper Peninsula were reviewed at "cash value." In 1912 an active campaign was inaugurated and the counties of Dickinson, Genesee, Gogebic, Ingham, Iron and Kalamazoo were completely reassessed. In 1913 the campaign was pressed still more vigorously and the reassessment of Baraga, Bay, Berrien, Calhoun, Jackson, Marquette, Oakland and Saginaw counties was completed. In the early Spring of 1914 the problem of how to establish cash value assessments throughout the entire State most expeditiously and economically was carefully considered by the Board of State Tax Commissioners. The work thus far was entirely that of the field men of the Commission and it was apparent that, no matter how vigorously pressed, if undertaken only by them, the re-assessment would not only require years for its completion but would, unless continuously supported and maintained by public sentiment be again inequitable by the time the entire State could be reviewed. It was determined, therefore, to make an attempt to interest both taxpayers and assessing officers in cash value assessments and to supplement the work of the field men by a system of State-wide co-operation between the Board of State Tax Commissioners and the assessing officers. A pamphlet, discussing cash value assessments and the benefit of having the same made by local assessors, was published and distributed. A manual, for the use of assessors, was compiled, for the purpose of bringing into practice uniform methods of valuing property. Meetings of boards of supervisors and various other organizations were attended by Commissioners, and cash value assessments discussed. Finally a scheme of co-operation between the Tax Commission and assessing officers, based upon the amendment to the tax law requiring the Tax Commission to exercise supervision over and to confer with and advise assessing officers, and the law giving a supervisor who believed his district discriminated against in county equalization an appeal to the State Tax Commission for a new equalization, was adopted, and communicated to every board of supervisors throughout the State. Briefly outlined the scheme was: "To give supervisors and assessing officers in districts not then re-assessed an opportunity to themselves bring assessments up to cash value and to have them reviewed on the same basis by the local board of review before sending field men of the Commission to make re-assessments; "To make the work of exercising supervision over and conferring with assessing officers, now required of the Tax Commission, part of a system of co-operation between the Tax Commission and local assessing officers for bringing about cash value assessments; "To recognize the work of assessing officers making cash value assessments by not holding reviews in such districts unless there was a departure from cash value, thus leaving the local officials free to annually equalize assessments unhampered by the law which provides that assessments fixed by the Tax Commission shall not be lowered without consent of the Commission for three years; "To protect supervisors voluntarily making assessments at cash value by re-assessing districts in the same county where assessing officers refuse or fail to assess at cash value; "To further protect supervisors voluntarily placing assessments at cash value by promptly responding to any appeal alleging discrimination in county equalization; "To establish at the Tax Commission's office in Lansing a bureau of appeals and complaints for examining and reporting upon all complaints against the work of either the Tax Commission's examiners or local assessing officers, and to endeavor to adjust such complaints without a review." At the same time the re-assessment program of the Tax Commission was vigorously pressed and it was made certain to assessors that if they did not reach full cash value in their assessments, the Tax Commission 'would review their work. The unqualified success of this campaign of education, co-operation and protection is shown by the assessment returns each year since its adoption. Total assessment of the State January 1, 1912.... The increase by years is shown in the following table: Increase for year ending December 31, 1912.... Increase for year ending December 31, 1913. Increase for year ending December 31, 1914... Increase for year ending December 31, 1915. $1,898,057,358 2,078,694,409 2,345,695,709 2,765,439,636 2,968,236,813 3,625,788,249 $180,637,051 267,001,300 419,743,927 202,797,177 657,551,436 Increase for year ending December 31, 1916. Aggregate increase for five years ending Dec. 31, 1916.. $1,727,730,891 For the purpose of showing the effect of "cash value" assessments upthe rate of taxation, we think it proper to introduce several tables from which a comparison may be made between counties that have been reassessed and counties where the Tax Commission has not worked. In this comparison we must use the 1915 assessment, as at this date the returns of assessment and taxation for 1916 are not complete. In studying the following tables, bear in mind that the average tax rate for the entire State for 1915 was $20.415 per thousand of assessed valuation; that the rate for the 59 counties which the Tax Commission considered assessed at cash value was $17.00 per thousand; the rate for the 24 counties not assessed at cash value in 1915 was $27.40 per thousand, or more than 63 per cent. higher than in the counties re-assessed. The ten counties having the highest tax rate in 1915 were as follows: Ontonagon Chippewa Benzie ... Crawford Wexford Ogemaw ..Rate $58.84 per thousand of assessed valuation The Tax Commission had held no reviews of assessments at that time, in any of the above counties. Compare the above tax rates with those in the ten counties having the lowest tax rates in 1915. All of the above have been re-assessed and reviewed, either directly by the field men of the Tax Commission, or by them in co-operation with local assessors. The following table shows what the tax rates in the counties included in the last list would have been, had the supervisors' assessments not been reviewed by the Tax Commission and the same amount of money been voted by taxpayers: $22.05 instead of $10.95 per thousand of assessed valuation 30.47 instead of 12.25 per thousand of assessed valuation 17.54 instead of 12.54 per thousand of assessed valuation 21.22 instead of 12.69 per thousand of assessed valuation Allegan ...... 22.58 instead of 13.86 per thousand of assessed valuation 13.98 per thousand of assessed valuation 14.09 per thousand of assessed valuation 14.16 per thousand of assessed valuation 14.35 per thousand of assessed valuation 14.72 per thousand of assessed valuation Consider, also, for a moment, assessing districts instead of counties. The thirty townships with the highest tax rate in 1915, begin with Detour township, Chippewa county, with a rate of $79.13 per thousand and gradually drop to Bois Blanc township, Mackinac county, with a rate of $46.12 per thousand. Not one of the thirty had at that time been visited by a representative of the Tax Commission except in connection with State Equalization. On the other hand, the 130 districts with the lowest tax rate, begin with Westphalia, Clinton county, with a rate of $6.61 per thousand of assessed valuation, closely followed by Sturgis, St. Joseph county, with a rate of $7.27 per thousand, Frenchtown, in Monroe county, with a rate of $7.29 per thousand, and end with Milton township, Cass county, with a rate of $10.99 per thousand. In all but seven of the 130 districts the assessment has been reviewed by the State Tax Commission. With the close of the 1916 assessment year, but fifteen counties and that part of Wayne county outside the city of Detroit remain to be entirely re-assessed or reviewed. There are scattering districts in other counties where the supervisor's assessment is not entirely satisfactory to the Tax Commission and where re-assessments will be made in case assessing officers do not in their 1917 assessments make the increase the Tax Commission will suggest. There are, on the other hand, some districts in the counties to be re-assessed, that are now so nearly up to cash value that it is reasonable to expect their assessing officers will meet the requirements of the Tax Commission. In the townships of Wayne county, in Lapeer, Leelanau, Schoolcraft, Mackinac and Chippewa counties, field books are being prepared and much preliminary work has been completed. In Wayne county the re-assessment of Wyandotte, Highland Park and Hamtramck will be undertaken and completed before Spring, and work will begin in the townships themselves as soon as the weather will permit. The completion of the work in Wayne county will release a large force of examiners for work in the counties and districts that will remain to be re-assessed and reviewed. It will also be made certain to supervisors of districts not assessed at cash value, that assessments to be made this Spring, must, before the spreading of the tax in December, be placed at full cash value either by representatives of the Tax Commission or by assessing officers themselves, and that it will be the last opportunity given any district to have its assessment placed at cash value by its own assessing officer. This situation, we believe, will so appeal to the voters of many districts that they will require the supervisor-elect to assess at cash value and forestall a review by the Tax Commission. It is the firm belief of the Board of State Tax Commissioners that by December first, 1917, all properties in the State subject to the General Property Tax Law will be upon the assessment rolls at full cash value. The establishment of cash value assessments of all property subject |