Prescott Journal

ADVERTISEMENT OF TAX LISTS.

The new tax bill reported by H. L. Palmer, passed the Assembly by a large majority and went into the Senate, where its fate is fatal.
We know but little of the bill, except that one of its provisions does away with all advertising of lands sold by the Treasurer, or deeded by the Clerk. It does not lessen the taxes, but diverts it into a new channel, and by doing away with the advertising of a description of the lands to be sold, it takes away great convenience and right from the people, and gives a death blow to the greater part of the local press.
The present system does no injustice to any one. The interest of the whole, demands that taxes be promptly paid, and he who pays his taxes at the proper time, has no advertising costs to pay. It is erroneous to suppose that the county pays the printer for this. It is all a charge against the lands advertised.
We cannot better explain this matter than by copying the following from the Milwaukee Daily News: —
There is one provision in this bill however, which seems not to have been called for, and which will be likely to please no great portion of the people. Heretofore brief descriptions of lands sold for non-payment of taxes and also descriptions of lands sold for which deeds were about to be given, have been published for the benefit of both owners and purchasers. The arrangement was beneficial to tax-payers, because owners of land were thereby informed without troublesome investigation whether or not their property was about to be sold for taxes, by mistake or otherwise. It was also beneficial to counties, because it made public the descriptions of lands to be sold, and was a convenience to purchasers. To non-residents especially, and others owning property the payment of taxes which is entrusted to agents, lessees, etc., the publication of delinquent lists is especially desirable.
The pending bill does away with all this, permits lands to be sold and deeds given without any publication whatever, beyond a notice of the day of sale. Should this pass in its present shape, all parties interested in the sale of lands for delinquent taxes hereafter must rush to the county seat, hunt the proper county officer, and examine a list posted on the office wall. This is the manner in which it is proposed to dispose of property in many single instances worth many thousands of dollars. This is the manner in which it is proposed to inform people whether or not their home steads are about to be bid off at the corner of some court house, by the Co. Treasurer, or be deeded away by some other county officer. This is the manner in which taxpayers are to ascertain what property they own at the annual sales.
Thereby as to newspapers. They derive all support from the publication of these lists. With fair minded and enlightened men, there is certainly no objection to the publication of these lists. The State pays an immense sum of money annually for common school education. It contributes to the support of a state historical society, and to agricultural associations. It squanders thousands of dollars annually, stolen from the swamp land fund, ostensibly for the support of normal schools. The press of the state does more to the object of popular instruction than all these institutions together. It is not only the source of daily and weekly news but the medium of political squabbles. For all its faults, its general tendency is to educate, instruct and elevate the mass of the people. It is the guide which leads popular opinion, the sentinel which guards the treasures of the people from plunder; the censor whose criticism no dishonest politician can escape; the guardian of public liberty wherever it is threatened. Newspapers may be improved—but it is not the true policy of the State to discourage their publication by unwholesome legislation. And the legislator who thinks it to be any part of his business, has quite mistaken the nature of his duties.
We do not intend to intimate that any portion of the present Legislature are unfriendly to the press of the State, or that the provisions of the tax bill we have discussed were dictated by any unfriendly motives. But we trust the assembled wisdom of the State will perceive that while the provisions of the tax bill which we have alluded to will result in direct injury to the newspaper interest, they are uncalled for by any portion of community, and are likely to prove fruitful of general inconvenience if not of actual and serious damage.
When a private individual or a Sheriff advertises lands for sale—we mean to be positively sold as treasurers are required to sell—a description of each tract or parcel is uniformly given, and we would like to have some one explain why in the case of a sale for taxes it should be dispensed with. If a sale of lands is to take place, the public should be notified not only of the fact of the sale but of the tracts to be sold.