The Taxing of the Gypsies
A local attorney critiques the county assessor's aggressive collection of taxes from an encampment of travelers.
Editor, Courier-Reporter: I write regarding the action of County Assessor Wheaton in collecting $44.60 in taxes from a band of gypsies recently encamped near the city. I advised these men of their legal rights, specifically that as heads of families they were entitled to exemptions under the 1915 law, and that their property should have been assessed by individual ownership rather than in 'en masse' to a John Doe. The assessor became wroth and questioned my professional duty as city attorney. I maintain that the assessor misapplied the law regarding migratory stock, especially given that the property—wagons and harnesses—hardly qualifies as grazing stock. I suspect the assessor was merely eager to collect the dough, regardless of the legality.
“Does he mean to say that the wagons and harness were migratory stock? Possibly he does, on the ground that the wagons while enroute grazed a fence post.”
This letter highlights the criminalization of transient populations by local governments, a struggle that persists in debates over how cities manage and tax encampments today. The attorney’s defense of the 'gypsies' (a term used then but now considered an ethnic slur against Romani people) reveals the era's prejudices while challenging administrative overreach.
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