TABLE 17. COMPARISON OF INDIVIDUAL BANK DEPOSITS WITH ASSESSED VALUES OF MONEYS, NOT INCLUDING BANKERS' MONEYS, 1889-1912 ENTIRE STATE Deposits of State and 1889............$124,374,251 1890............ 142,040,086 Assessed Value 1,061,264 997,682 COOK COUNTY $ 80,551,333 $ 1,221,899 107,119,654 This table speaks for itself. In not a single year does the assessment approach the amount of the bank deposits. In 1889 the best showing is made, but even here the assessors reached only one dollar in thirteen. This assessment is somewhat better than it seems to be at first, for real estate and property in general were undervalued at this time. In 1898 when only about eight million was taxed, two hundred and forty-two million was on deposit. Cook county, as usual, can show a record even worse than that of the whole state. Each year shows a lower percentage than was taxed in the state at large. But the climax is reached in 1908 when less than five millions was assessed in the county ($963,907 representing a twenty per cent valuation), while over four hundred and forty million stood to the credit of individuals in the banks. The assessment for 1912 is almost as bad as that of 1908. Comment on these figures is superfluous. Evidently from the standpoint of the exchequer, money is not taxed in Illinois. To examine further the various items of the personal property schedule could have no other effect than to confirm what has already been shown clearly enough for the purpose in hand. It is quite evident that the general property tax has most woefully failed to reach personal property for taxation. CHAPTER IX THE ASSESSMENT OF REAL ESTATE Definition of Real Estate. The second great class of property is real estate. By the definition given in the revenue code this term includes not only the land itself, whether laid out in town or city lots, or otherwise, with all things contained therein, but also all buildings, structures and improvements, and other permanent fixtures, of whatsoever kind, thereon, and all rights and privileges belonging or in anywise pertaining thereto, except where the same may be otherwise denominated by this act.1 The few exceptions to this general description are noted in the discussion of personal property.2 The general real estate assessment is made quadrennially but corrections and additions are made annually.3 Annual assessments of all real estate were made before 1899. An act passed in 1879 provided that an assessment should be made in 1880 and every four years thereafter but before the time came for the 1881 assessments, the law was repealed and annual assessments once more estab lished. Manner of Listing. The assessment books are prepared by the county clerk every fourth year and contain descriptions of all tax 1L. 1871-72, p. 68. 2See supra p. 138. Interstate bridges are specifically designated as real estate by an act of 1873. Rev. Stat. 1874, p. 908. A leasehold interest in exempted lands was similarly classified by a clause in the original act. L. 1871-72, p. 18. Government and school lands are taxable as soon as entered or sold, Illinois and Michigan Canal lands when paid for in full, Illinois Central lands when the last payment becomes due and swamp lands when the county conveys the title. L. 1871-72, p. 18. 3L. 1898, p. 36. 4L. 1871-72, p. 17; L. 1879, p. 241; L. 1881, p. 133. able real estate together with the names of the owners.5 To enable the county clerk to prepare these books properly, it is required that when a tract of land has been divided into parcels in such a way that description is difficult, the owner shall have it plotted into lots which can be simply described. Moreover the county clerks are informed by the state auditor of lands in their counties which become taxable, the auditor being instructed to secure this information from the proper officials of the United States, of the Illinois and Michigan Canal, of the Illinois Central Railroad and of the counties containing swamp lands. In counties under township organization the books are made up by townships; in those under the county form of organization, by congressional townships. Special books may be prepared for assessments in cities. In those years when a general assesment of real estate is not made, the county clerk prepares a supplementary list of lands which have become taxable in the preceding year." 8 Assessment books must be ready by the first day of the assessment period when the assessors are directed to call for them and to proceed to view and determine the value of each parcel of real estate.10 If the assessor discovers property which has been omitted, improvements which have been made, or depreciation which has come about in the real estate, he revises the assessment lists so as to make them as complete and correct as possible.11 Undervaluation. All through the period under discussion undervaluation of real estate is patent upon the face of the returns. 5L. 1871-72, p. 19; L. 1873-74, p. 51; L. 1879, p. 241; L. 1881, p. 133; L. 1885, p. 23. 6L. 1871-72, p. 18; L. 1879, p. 255. "L. 1871-72, p. 64. 8Ibid., p. 19. 9L. 1898, p. 36; L. 1903, p. 297; L. 1905, p. 360. 10L. 1871-72, pp. 19, 20, 21;L. 1879, p. 243; L. 1881, pp. 133, 134; L. 1898, p. 36. 11L. 1871-72, p. 20; L. 1885, p. 234; L. 1895, p. 36; L. 1905, p. 360. Thus, according to the assessment figures the value of the real estate in the state actually decreased in the twenty years following 1873-from $897,615,195 to $613,093,407.12 Yet during this period over four hundred million dollars worth of buildings had been erected in Chicago alone,1 and actual land values had increased enormously. 13 The assessment figures for 1873, however, are unusually high, this being the year when the. new revenue law went into effect. But there is evidence which seems to indicate serious undervaluation even in the 1873 figures. The evidence comes from Cook County. Before 1875 Chicago had two annual assessments of property-the township assessors making one estimate for county and state purposes and the city assessors making a distinct assessment for city purposes. When these two assessments for 1873 are compared it appears that the city assessors found the real property in the North, South, and West Divisions of the city to be worth one hundred millions more than the value placed upon it by the township assessors for state purposes.14 In 1896 Mayor Swift's commission found the value of the taxable real estate in the district investigated in Chicago to be $438,447,180, while the assessed value of the property was only $40,668,720.15 In his report to the tax commission of 1910 Professor J. A. Fairlie points out that in 1890 the real estate assessments were less than one-fifth of the census estimates of the full value of taxable real estate.16 It will be recalled that in 1898 the legal rate of underassessment was placed at this figure, twenty per cent, but the statistics of 1900 and of 1904 indicate that the assessment had fallen still lower and stood then at but oneseventh of the true value.17 Complaints received by the 12 Fairlie, Report on Taxation and Revenue System of Illinois, p. 203. 13 Rept. Bu. Lab. Stat., 1894, p. 68. 14$262,969,820 as compared with $162,739,712. Ibid., p. 67. 15 Ibid., 1896, p. 124. 10 Fairlie, op. cit. p. 26. 17 Ibid. |