Excerpt from The State Tax Commission: A Study of the Development and Results of State Control Over the Assessment of Property for Taxation This book is a study of the development and results of state control over the assessment of property for taxation. Historically this development has been in the direction of a steadily enlarging sphere of state activity. Beginning with state equalization of the local assessments, the expansion of state control has brought within its scope central assessment of the property of certain classes of corporations and the exercise of a varying degree of supervisory authority over the original assessment of property remaining in the jurisdiction of the local assessor. The first chapter outlines the administrative evolution which produced, in turn, the state equalization, the state assessment of corporations, and the state supervision of local assessment. Both the state board of equalization and the state board of corporate assessment of the older type failed, however, because the nature of the administrative problem was so generally misunderstood. The situation in a few' states under the older state boards of equalization and assessment is described in the second and third chapters. Under the state tax commission there has been the beginning of effective coordination of all parts of the administrative organization, and the beginning, therefore, of a solution of the problem of equitable distribution of the tax burden. The discussion of the achievements of the state tax commissions, and of the limitations under which these bodies have done their work, occupies the remainder of the book. This study was begun several years ago, while the writer was a graduate student at Harvard University. It was submitted as a doctoral dissertation at Harvard in 1914, and is now published, after a thorough revision. The foundation of the whole was a visit, in 1911, to all of the important tax commissions then in existence. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.