72

THE  A  B  C  OF  TAXATION

certainly  show  that  the  property  was  greatly  underassessed. ­

Boston’s  Ground  Rent  $55,000,000
In  the  estimate,  offered  in  Chapter  I,  page  18,  is
clearly  shown  the  all-sufficiency  of  ground  rent  to
bear  the  whole  burden  of  present  taxation.  Criticism ­
  of  these  figures,  with  fair  consideration  of  the
process  and  steps  of  the  calculation,  will  be  welcome.
The  155,000,000  ground  rent  of  Boston  is  the
natural  tax  which  the  people  of  Boston  pay  for  the
occupancy  and  use  of  their  land.  This,  it  is  submitted, ­
  is  tax  enough  for  them  to  pay.  But,  since
only  110,382,628  of  this  natural  tax  is  taken  for  public
purposes,  while  144,617,372  is  permitted  to  be  absorbed
into  private  incomes,  by  the  “private  appropriation
of  ground  rent,”  the  people  of  Boston  have  to  pay
an  additional  tax  of  113,038,91400  buildings,  personal
property,  and  polls,  with  the  result  that  the  occupancy
of  their  land,  with  its  benefits  of  good  government  and
public  service,  costs  the  people  of  Boston  to-day  in
round  numbers:*
The  natural  tax  of  .....  $55,000,000
An  unnatural  tax  (on  buildings,  personal  property,
and  polls)  of  13,038,914
Total  burden  of  taxation  ....  $68,038,914
Of  its  ground  rent,  estimated  as  above  at  .  .  $55,000,00o
Boston  now  takes  in  taxation  less  than  two-tenths,
or  .  .  .  .  _  .  .  .  .  $10,382,628
While  Boston’s  whole  tax  is  much  less  than  fivetenths,
  or  $23,421,542

*  Credit  for  this  simple  formula  of  great  convenience  in  dealing  ■with  taxation
in  any  locality  is  due  to  Mr.  James  R.  Garret,  a  Boston  lawyer  and  conveyancer.