Levi Ankeny’s Tax Fight Reaches the Supreme Court
The prominent banker battles a tax assessment on his First National Bank stock, sparking a legal struggle over school funding and corporate accountability.
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The supreme court of the state of Oregon has affirmed the decision of the circuit court at Pendleton holding that Levi Ankeny's bank stock is assessable at $160 a share, instead of $73 as he contended in an injunction suit brought to prevent the collection of the tax levied by the assessor of Umatilla county on all the stock of the First National Bank at Pendleton. The decision of the Oregon supreme court is important in view of the fact that a similar suit is pending in Judge Hanford's court regarding the assessment of Mr. Ankeny's bank stock in Walla Walla. As a part of the protest against the collection of the tax, Mr. Ankeny contends that the five-mill school tax levied by the directors of School District No. 1 last year was illegal. Part of the money raised by this tax went to buy the high school site from Mr. Ankeny, who objects to contributing anything to the support of the public schools. The Oregon decision is a vindication of the position taken by former County Assessor Cadman, who contended that bank stock should be assessed like other property at its cash value, less 40 per cent.
“Mr. Ankeny objects to contributing anything to the support of the public schools.”
This 1903 conflict over tax assessment and the wealthy's contribution to public schools mirrors modern-day debates regarding tax equity and the role of corporate property owners in funding public infrastructure. Ankeny’s objection to paying taxes that would ultimately buy his own land for a school site captures a long-standing tension in Walla Walla’s civic life.
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