Coshocton County, Ohio - Chapter 15: A Look at Local Taxes - Heavy Toll Taken from the Land Owners While Others Pay Less by Grace of Legislation - Conditions, 1909

From The Land Owners While Others Pay That Invite A Public Upheaval

A LOOK AT LOCAL TAXES - HEAVY TOLL TAKEN FROM THE LAND OWNERS WHILE OTHERS PAY LESS BY GRACE OF LEGISLATION - CONDITIONS THAT INVITE A PUBLIC UPHEAVAL.

While much progress has been made along many lines in Coshocton County there is one thing which, under the laws of Ohio, hangs as a millstone to the necks of the people, and that is our antiquated tax system. Courthouse officials have declared that if the people knew the truth there would be an upheaval. Certain it is that the conditions are not any too well known.

In a general way the average taxpayer feels that he is unjustly burdened. Beyond that few have looked into the trouble deep enough to detect the elements that manage to shift most of the heavy burden to the shoulders of the land owner.

A man's all may be his home in town or it may be a farm, and the law empowers the county to tax him for everything in sight, at a rate of two to three per cent and more. But an express company or telegraph company, gas, electric light or other corporation, earning vastly more from the business done in the county, pays one per cent of its earnings to the State, and one-tenth of one per cent of its capital stock, while the county must stop at a tax on the property of the corporation without being allowed to touch the business earnings. The farmer is taxed on his crop earnings, however, and altogether the heavy toll is taken from the land owner while others are called on for less by grace of the voters and the kind of men they send to the Legislature of Ohio.

The man that has money to earn interest for him by investing it in bonds is not taxed under the'law. Were this injustice corrected and moneyed interests compelled to assume their fair share of the county expense, the load on land owners would be lightened, and the community at last would have a fair deal in the matter of taxes.

Under the present system where is the justice in taxing everything the farmer has and his crop earnings, while the county levies only on a gas corporation's pipe line and leaves untouched the enormous earnings from the product passing through that pipe? And the same is true of the electric light and various other corporations. They arranged it very profitably by having the State collect one per cent of their earnings instead of letting the county levy on their business for three per cent.

An investigation into Coshocton County's taxing machinery reveals the mass of multifarious detail and horse-blanket sheets of figures in the work of the county auditor. From access to the records by courtesy of Auditor Randles, and from the experience and knowledge of Newton Speckman in his service as auditor, the workings of our tax system are outlined herewith.

As already indicated the land is the particular object of taxation under the existing arrangement, and to insure getting every dollar that can be taxed out of real estate, equitably of course, farm values are looked over twice, and city property three times. First, there are the land appraisers who report every tenth year on land values in their townships. Then the county commissioners, auditor and surveyor, as a board of equalization, review the figures; and for city valuations their work in turn is examined by the board of review appointed by the State auditor. Reductions or additions which the State board may make on city valuations are reported to the county auditor, and the figures go on the auditor's tax duplicate, to stand for the next ten years. If buildings are erected after the property has been appraised, the personal property assessors place a value upon the same, and the personal equation is a mighty factor in this proceeding, as men have discovered who find themselves paying more tax than a neighbor with a costlier building. The belief is prevalent that buildings should be valued on the tax duplicate at sixty per cent of the cost, but Mr. Speckman points out that buildings should be listed at what they add to the value of the property. He continues:

"Tf a person is on the tax duplicate at a too high valuation, application can be made to the board of equalization at the annual meeting, and if the valuation is found to be too high it may be reduced, but the amount of the reduction must be added to other property that is

The assessors report personal property in the various townships, including buildings and other property except land. The county auditor and commissioners go over these returns, and may reduce or increase the valuations.

Referring to the appraisement of railroads by the county auditor Mr. Speckman attests that the method is not altogether satisfactory. The railroad company, he states, submits its figures to the county 'auditor, and the auditor has no means of knowing much about the valuation submitted. In Indiana it is cited that they do things differently, where a State board makes a thorough investigation into railroad property, putting the P.,.C., C. & St. L. on the tax duplicate for about twice as much a mile as in Ohio. In some States the appraisement is based upon the gross earnings of railroads.

Merchants and manufacturers are required to report their average monthly business. In the case of banks three items are reported to the county auditor on which tax valuations are fixed: The amount of capital stock paid in, undivided profits, and surplus. The tax valuation in Coshocton County has been fixed at 66 2-3 per cent of these amounts. It has been increased at times, but the State Board of Appraisers has reduced it in each case.

Telegraph, express and telephone companies make their returns direct to the State Board of Appraisers. The State Board fixes the valuation for taxation and returns the amounts so fixed to the county auditor.

Building and Loan Association stockholders are required to report individually their stock to the assessor for taxation, instead of the Association being called upon to report as in the case of a bank. A few years ago a bill was introduced in the Legislature requiring the Association to pay the taxes. The bill was defeated. An inquiry was made at that time regarding the amount reported for taxation in Coshocton County. It was found that about five per cent of the amount of stock found its way upon the tax duplicate.

In the county's present taxation of coal lands the purpose of the appraisers is the separation of surface value and mineral value. The coal operator pays tax on one-third of the valuation of the land. The

What Coshocton County taxpayers paid in 1883 and what they paid in 1908 is an interesting comparison showing the changes in the last quarter century.

In accounting for the falling off in land valuation, that of 1883 was from the decennial appraisement of 1880 when land prices here had been going up steadily. The 1908 valuation was from the appraisement of 1900 when the country had not fully recovered from the decline in prices attending the general business depression.

The increase of more than a million dollars in the valuation of personal property came largely with the Wheeling & Lake Erie, the Toledo, Walhonding Valley & Ohio, and the Cleveland, Akron & Columbus railroads, built since 1883. There was a considerable increase in manufacturing establishments.

Fewer moneys and credits were returned in 1908 than twenty-five years ago. A large amount of Coshocton County money has been invested in non-taxable securities within the last ten years, including county, township, municipal and school bonds.

In 1883 there was a total State levy of 29 cents on every $100, taking $38,924.19 from the county. In 1908 the State levy was a fraction more than 13 cents a hundred dollars, less than half the rate of 1883, and the county paid the State $20,036.22. Several years ago the Legislature passed the bills imposing excise taxes on corporations, whereby the State levy was reduced. There are those who have advocated collecting all State taxes from corporations, but the real benefit to the county would be to levy its own tax on the local business of corporations, which would increase the receipts enough to easily pay the State and lighten the burden of other taxpayers in the county.

The fund raised for county purposes, including election expenses, salaries, supplies, etc., was much less in 1883 even though it also embraced the building and judicial funds which are now separate expense accounts on the auditor's books.

The increase in the Poor fund has accompanied the sending of our children to the Tuscarawas County Home, and caring for the blind, which was not done twenty-five years ago.

Since the enactment of the law for the collection in money of the road tax, instead of citizens working it out on the road, there has been much dissatisfaction in Coshocton County. Under the law the road tax paid by the townships is returned by the county to the township trustees and road superintendents to expend in improving the roads. But there are districts where road improvement is not seen, at least no one notices it, and the taxpayers of that district bump along while their money is making good roads in other parts of the township. The demand has risen for a restoration of the district road-making system, and with effective methods to insure the building of good highways we may yet see all over the county such fine roads as have been built by Commissioners McConnell, Marshall, Abbott and others.

In connection with the home-rule sentiment favoring road-building by each district is the demand to restore the management of schools to district directors. The township school board method is opposed because the people of a district consider they understand their local conditions better than a township board, and are therefore qualified to select their own teacher. Furthermore, on this subject of teachers, a reform for which there is imperative need is to abolish the appointment by the probate judge of the county board of teachers' examiners. For years these appointments have been a political asset of the probate office. There have been probate judges who held out the examiner plum to whoever delivered the most votes. The office has been corrupted by probate judges arranging with examiners to issue teachers' certificates as political favors to applicants not qualified to pass an honest examination.

There is a noticeably large increase in the school tax over that of twenty-five years ago. While in 1883 there were the Bedford Special; the West Carlisle Special, Roscoe Union, West Lafayette Special, New Castle Special and Coshocton Union school districts, today the county includes the Coshocton City school districts, West Lafayette Village, Warsaw Village, Plainfield Village, Nellie Village, Roscoe Village, Walhonding Special, New Castle Special, West Bedford Special, West Carlisle Special, Tiverton Special, Conesville Special. In 1 1883 young Coshocton went to school in the Sycamore and the Walnut Street buildings; now, besides these two, there are the High School, the Bancroft and the South Lawn schools.

The dog tax has paid claims for killed sheep and left a balance to transfer to the school fund. The law that made the dog tax a lien upon the real estate has been declared unconstitutional, and it is anticipated here that there will be less dog tax collected in the future unless legislative provision be made along that line.

Whole Rates Of Taxation Per One Hundred

Entirely separate from the county tax was the liquor tax of $1,000 collected from each saloon. When the county voted in 1908 to close the saloons, $26,000 in tax receipts were cut off. During the collection of the liquor tax the auditor got three per cent of the first $20,000, and one and a half per cent of the balance, while the treasurer got a half per cent. There remained about $25,000, of which the half went to the city, two-tenths to the county infirmary, and three-tenths to the State.

About $150 a year is collected from the $15 cigarette tax. The auditor and treasurer get the same percentage of fees as in the liquor tax, and the fund is then apportioned as follows: City, one-fourth; County infirmary, one-fourth; State, one-half.

There is an auctioneer's license; and peddlers are taxed $28 a year for a two-horse wagon, $18 for one-horse wagon, $12 horseback or on foot. A circus is taxed $40 a day. The treasurer's fee is six per cent.

In 1907 the county defeated at the polls the proposition to build the Main Street bridge from Coshocton to Roscoe, and the Twelfth Street bridge. In every flood of the Coshocton rivers much of the county has been cut off from the city. When the bridges lost in the 1907 election Representative Lybarger fathered a bill in the Legislature in 1908 providing for a special election on the petition of a hundred voters. The same month the election was held and both bridges carried. In June, 1908, the first tax for these bridges was levied - ten cents on a hundred dollars. At this writing a remonstrance has been started on the ground that the cost of the bridges was understated when the election was held, and that the figures will

The question of building the bridges to carry electric cars is involved in the discussion, some contending that the proposed trolley line should bear a proportion of the cost. For years the county has waited for an electric railroad. The latest projected route parallels the Pennsylvania Lines from Newcomerstown to Coshocton and strikes southwesterly across the county through Virginia Township coal fields.