Dishonest returns by one taxpayer defraud the citizen who is honest, because they place a heavier burden of taxation upon the latter. Moreover, the dishonest taxpayer and good cheats himself along with others, for the lower the business valuation of property, the higher the rate of taxation, or the poorer the service received from the government. "It is good sense and good business for a state to show up with large tax values and low tax rates. It shows a brisk and lively prosperity that is attractive to outside capital and enterprise." [Footnote: E. C. Branson, A Township Tax-List Study]
INTELLIGENCE AND PUBLICITY NEEDED
To secure fairer taxation and better returns from taxation there is need of improvement in the organization for tax assessment and tax equalization. It is especially important to make it more difficult for the "tax dodger" to evade his responsibility. It would seem, however, that there would be fewer "tax dodgers" if the people once got "the right idea" of what taxation really means in a democracy. Great improvement would doubtless result, even under present conditions, if honest citizens would take more interest in the results of assessments as shown in the tax lists. The writer quoted in the paragraphs above asserts that, next to the Bible, "the most important book in any county is the Tax List, and it is the one book that the people in general know least about."
Everybody knows in a vague, general way that something is wrong with our tax system … but what everybody does not know is what the facts are in concrete, accurate detail. There is no cure like publicity for wrongs in a democracy. Give the folks the facts, whatever they are, and the folks will do the rest. … But at present nobody knows the facts. That is to say, nobody but the tax listers, the registers, and the sheriffs. And they are dumb because their official lives depend on silence. [Footnote:. C. Branson, A Township Tax-List Study.]
Investigate and report on the following:
Do people of your acquaintance like to pay taxes? What reasons do they give?
The cost of your town government, your county government, and your state government per year.
The purposes for which most money is spent by your town government, your county government, and your state government.
The assessed valuation of property in your town, county, state.
Does the law in your state require that property shall be assessed at its full market value? If not, at what part of its market value?