The Great Tax Assessment Debacle of 1887
King County taxpayers find themselves in an uproar as a bungled property assessment, based on a worthless abstract, threatens the city’s financial stability.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
Saturday was the last day on which the County Commissioners could sit as a board of equalization. Those who have grievances as to their property will therefore have to submit to the valuation fixed by the board, as there is no other course left for them than to proceed to the collection of an exorbitant and unjust tax. While a few property holders have been heard by the Commissioners and have secured a reduction, the vast majority have been unable to secure a hearing. Especially is this true of the farmers who have been unable to come to the city to appear before the Commissioners. The only sensible thing to do is to begin again and do the work all over. Let the Commissioners throw away the worthless abstract which they purchased of Jonas Rochester for six hundred dollars, let them throw away the assessment roll which is based upon it, and let them begin anew to prepare an abstract from which a correct assessment roll can be prepared. The expense of doing this, considerable as it will be, will be far less than the county will be compelled to bear if an effort is made to collect the taxes under the present assessment.
“A silk purse cannot be made out of a sow’s ear, nor does it seem that an Assessor or an Abstractor of Titles can be made out of the present dominant party.”
A century and a half later, the friction between municipal tax assessment, the quality of data, and the frustration of the taxpayer remains a core theme of Seattle civic life. The 'tax revolt' rhetoric here echoes modern anxieties about property tax levies and the reliability of bureaucratic oversight in a rapidly growing city.
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