Comparison of actual taxes in cents per acre with estimated taxes per acre under three assumed cases*

3-Summary of Findings - Town of Andes

The average tax levied on woodlands of all classes on the basis of the assessment-roll of 1922 for the town of Andes was 14.09 cents per acre. The State, as in the cases of the other towns examined, paid the lowest average-5.62 cents. 5.62 cents. The large private owners of woodands - including one chemical company which is reported locally to be on a sustained yield basis-paid the highest average taxes on woodlands of 15.86 cents per acre.

Maximum and minimum taxes per acre on woodlands vary rather widely in individual cases from the averages indicated above. The highest taxes per acre occur in the case of eight woodlots in which the land is in one ownership and the timber rights in another. The average assessed values for land and timber on the 453 acres of woodlots involved reached the total of $9.65 per acre, and the average taxes amounted to 36.53 cents per acre. In one case involving 25 acres, the land alone was assessed at $6 per acre, the timber rights at $24 per acre, and the total tax on land and timber reached the total of $1.1347 per acre.

The absence of data on sales involving timber rights precluded the possibility of analyzing the ratio of assessed value to full value on property of this type. It was assumed, therefore, that for the small area of woodland involved - less than 1.39 per cent of the total wooded area the assessors had attempted to approximate full value. It is not improbable that the timber rights covered choice tracts which were purchased with a view to cutting in the

near future, and that the assessed timber values approached rather elosely to the market value of the timber to be removed. The high assessments represented the attempt of the assessors to get one last substantial tax out of property which would soon disappear from the assessment roll.

It so happens that the average taxes per acre in Andes on the 290 farms which include woodlots would not be materially affected by the exemption of standing timber. This is due to the fact that the reduced taxes per acre of woodland would about offset the increased taxes on cleared land resulting from that exemption. If the taxable property in the town were composed entirely of farms with woodlots; and if the ratio for each farm between the assessed values of its cleared farming land and of its woodland were the same as that for every other farm; then, regardless of the size of the individual holdings, the exemption of standing timber from current taxes would be a matter of indifference to the taxpayers. Such a constant ratio does not exist however in the town as a whole, nor even among the actual group of 290 farms with woodlots on which average taxes per acre would remain relatively constant. The farms in that group with approximately three acres of cleared land to two of timber land would remain unaffected by the proposed changes in the method of taxing forests. For all other properties in that group, as well as for all holdings in the town outside that group, exemption or tax postponement for standing timber would bring about a discernible shift in the tax burden. The decrease in burden, on the basis of assessed values as they are carried on the 1922 roll, would become progressively greater as the ratio of woodland to cleared land increased. Similarly, a progressive increase in burden would make itself felt as the ratio of woodlands to other taxable property declined.

Unfortunately, the full effect on other property of the exemption of standing timber from current taxes is somewhat masked in the town of Andres by the relatively small amount of timber land carried on the rolls. Even so, the result of such a plan would be to increase the taxes on the farmer without woodlots by about 8 per cent over his present burden.

E-TOWN OF KINGSTON, ULSTER COUNTY

The limited number of conveyances of real estate in the town of Kingston, together with the extreme variations between the assessed values per acre of parcels of property apparently similar as regards topography, accessibility and type of forest cover, make it impossible to undertake as complete an analysis of the assessment roll as was submitted for the other towns analyzed.

1- Assessed Valuations and Tax Levies

The accompanying table sets forth the average assessed valuations for each class of land appearing on the roll. The State was charged only with waste or denuded lands at an average of $2 per

acre. This figure in both cases was considerably below the average for similar lands in private ownership. The defects inherent in the roll are brought out clearly by the fact that denuded land is assessed at a higher rate per acre on the average than forest land.

It is probable, however, that the unusually high taxes per acre on all classes of land in Kingston are attributable rather to a marked shift in economic status than to the inequalities in assessments. The population decreased from 343 in 1910 to 166 in 1920. Aggregate taxes increased from $2,690.82 in 1915 to $5,068.94 in 1922. In 1915, the town had no indebtedness. In 1922, the indebtedness was $10,000, or about $60 per capita.

1- Assessed Valuation for Selected Classes of Land

Two towns were encountered outside the forest preserve whose rolls yielded a certain amount of information on average taxes per acre on woodlands. In neither case was it possible to make complete analyses along the lines followed in the towns of Webb, Franklin and Andes.

2-Summary and Findings-Towns of Bovina and Duanesburg In the town of Bovina, it will be observed, the average taxes per acre of woodlots assessed separately on the roll are approximately the same as those in the adjoining town of Andes, for which more complete figures are available.

The town of Duanesburg has the highest average taxes per acre on woodlands assessed separately from other property that were encountered in any of the towns examined with the exception of the town of Kingston, where all taxes on rural property are abnormally high.

G-INFLUENCES AFFECTING GENERAL VALIDITY OF AVERAGE TAXES PER ACRE BASED ON SELECTED TOWNS

Your committee was unable to discover any fund of collected material that would have enabled it to formulate a well-grounded conclusion as to whether or not the results developed by the analyses of the tax rolls in the towns selected could be taken as representative of taxes per acre in towns generally. For the towns in the forest preserve counties, there is a great deal of information available in the tax rolls on file in the offices of the State Comptroller and the State Conservation Commission. Those rolls, as has already been pointed out, classify all lands in the respective towns more or less accurately according to the classification hitherto laid down by the Comptroller's office. Unfortunately, the results have never been tabulated, and the limited time at the disposal of the committee prevented its undertaking this work. Under the amendment to section 22 of the Tax Law, which placed the control over local assessments of State-owned wild or forest lands in the hands of the State Tax Commission, there would seem to be ample authority for requiring local assessors to file summarized reports which would make it possible to compile promptly and with reasonable accuracy definite information as to average taxes per acre on each of the classes of timberland involved in every town in the forest preserve.

In the counties outside of the forest preserve, on the other hand, it will require under existing law an analysis of a large number of sample rolls by the State tax authorities in order to arrive at any valid conclusions on this point. Because of the form in which the rolls are kept, such a procedure will not only be difficult in the great majority of cases, but will be absolutely impossible in some. The rolls in many towns are not kept in such a manner as to form a basis for analysis on these points.

Whether or not, therefore, the results obtained by the committee's analyses of sample towns are generally applicable can only be determined by the installation of permanent machinery in the State Tax Commission designed to develop more general material with a bearing on the points in question. As the matter stands at present, the committee presents information simply on six isolated towns, on only three of which it was possible to develop relatively complete information.