13 Ky. Op. 233 | Ky. Ct. App. | 1885
Opinion by
The legislature at its last session passed an act entitled an act to equalize assessments for revenue purposes and to provide for a State Board of Equalization. The board having been appointed as provided by the act assembled at the capital of the state in June last and proceeded to equalize the assessments, and made their final report to the Auditor that the latter might report to the various tax collectors (the sheriffs) the result of the board’s action. In equalizing the value of the personal property between the several counties the board added six per cent, to the aggregate value of the personal property in the County of Jefferson, thereby increasing the amount of the tax to be paid to that extent on the personal property in that county, which necessarily lessened it in other counties. In other words there was a deduction as to values in some counties and an increase in others. The appellee, Goodloe, in listing his property with the assessor gave in under the equalization law his cash, notes and the amount of his money deposited in bank. The notes were given in at what they called for, and the number of dollars deposited in bank correctly reported. This included all the money and notes he had or owned and amounted to $-. The Sheriff of Jefferson county having been notified by the Auditor of the increase made by the board proceeded to collect from the appellee the tax on the increased value of his personal estate, embracing his notes and money that had been included by the board in the class designated as personal property. The appellee resisted payment on this fund to the extent that his notes and money had been increased in value by the board, insisting that such was not the legislative intent, and if so that the act in this regard was unconstitutional.
The chancellor below restrained its collection and from that judgment the appeal is taken. The sole and only purpose of the act
The seventh section provides that “said board in equalizing the valuation of property as listed and assessed in different counties shall consider the following clauses of property separately, viz: personal property, lands, and town and city lots, and upon such consideration determine such rates of addition to or deduction from the listed or assessed value of each of said classes of property in such county, or to or from the aggregate assessed value of each of said classes in the state as may be deemed by the board to be equitable and just.”
The eighth section provides that “In equalizing the value of personal property between the several counties said board shall obtain from the aggregate footings of the number and value of each, and the value of the several kinds of enumerated property in each county shall be obtained at those values, and the values of enumerated property thus obtained as compared with the assessed value of such property in each county, shall be taken by said board to obtain a rate per cent, to be added to or deducted from the total assessed value of personal property in each county, etc.” The enumerated articles of personal property valued by the assessor consists of
There are thirty-three counties in the state where the value of the personal property of the tax-payer, whether farmer, banker or mechanic, has been increased by the present board, and if required to pay, not only on the increased value of that kind of property which is the subject of valuation, but on that which is listed under the equalization law and which can not be valued by the board, it aggravates instead of lessening the evil complained of. The residuum is generally made up of income and cash or cash notes, and the value of the property under the equalization law is already equalized, and to tax it more in the one county than the other by increasing its value without any knowledge or means of ascertaining its value is purely arbitrary and not authorized by the act in question. There is no evidence authorizing the board to say that the tax-payers in one county have failed to list their property under the equalization law at its full value, and the tax-payers in an adjoining county have listed theirs for more than its value. Devlin on Taxation says: “The statute empowers Boards of Equalization to add to or deduct from the valuation of personal property, but this addition or deduction should be made upon satisfactory evidence or knowledge of the facts and not arbitrarily without any evidence or knowledge of the facts to support the same.” The board is chosen to equalize the value of property, real and personal, and it was never intended that money, cash, notes or anything
Exact equality in taxation can never be accomplished, but every citizen should be required to contribute as near as is practicable his share of the public burden, and the Board of Equalization, chosen from different parts of the state, when coming together, can form their own knowledge of the value of property required to be valued by the assessor, arrive at such conclusions as will approximate equality in values, and in that way make a just distribution of the burden. If the horses in one county are given in on an average value of $60, and in an adjoining county at an average of $30, the inquiry will suggest itself as to the cause of their difference, and so of mules and cattle, and the knowledge the members of the board may have of the value of such property in the particular counties or such as they may obtain from inquiry will enable them to correct this gross inequality, and so of lands and all property required to be valued by the assessor.
The board has no power to increase the tax imposed by law, nor has it the power to compel the citizen to pay tax on property he does not own or possess.
All statutes should be construed with a view of carrying into effect the legislative intent. The law-making power has already provided the means of equalizing the taxes to be paid on what is termed the surplus or value under the Equalization Law. The value of such property is estimated by the tax-payer and he is required to disclose on oath the value of his estate other than that listed and valued by the assessor, derived from all other sources, and while he might be examined by the assessor as to what constitutes the surplus', the aggregate value of this surplus throughout the state could never be revised by the board or changed in value without having each individual tax-payer before them, and this being entirely impracticable could not have been contemplated by the legislature. While the tax-payer in many instances may fail to place as high an estimate on his property as he should under this equalization law, it is manifest that in this particular the tax
The judgment is affirmed.