TAXATION AND REVENUE SYSTEMS—OREGON. 
191 
ARTICLE IV. 
Sec. 23. The legislative assembly shall not pass special or local 
laws * * * f or the assessment and collection of taxes for state, 
county, township, or road purposes. 
ARTICLE IX. 
Sec. 1. The legislative assembly shall provide by law for a uni 
form and equal rate of assessment and taxation, and shall prescribe 
such regulations as shall secure a just valuation of all property, both 
real and personal, excepting such only for municipal, educational, 
literary, scientific, religious, or charitable purposes, as may be spe 
cially exempted by law. 
Sec. la. No poll or head tax shall be levied or collected in Oregon. 
The legislative assembly shall not declare an emergency in any act 
regulating taxation or exemption. 
Sec. 2. The legislative assembly shall provide for raising revenue 
sufficient to defray the expenses of the state for each fiscal year, and 
also to pay the interest on the state debt. 
Sec. 3. No tax shall be levied except in pursuance of law, and 
every law imposing a tax shall state distinctly the object of the same, 
to which only it shall be applied. 
Sec. 6. Whenever the expenses of any fiscal year shall exceed the 
income, the legislative assembly shall provide for levying a tax for 
the ensuing fiscal year, sufficient with other sources of income, to 
pay the deficiency, as well as the estimated expense of the ensuing 
fiscal year. 
OFFICERS. 
The officers most directly concerned with taxation 
are: 
(1) County assessor, elected for a term of four years. 
(2) Sheriff of the county, elected for two years, who is the tax 
collector. 
(3) The county board of equalization, consisting of the county 
judge, county clerk, and assessor of each county. 
(4) The “county court,” which refers to the board of county com 
missioners in counties which have a separate board for county busi 
ness, and the county judge and commissioners in other counties. 
There are two county commissioners in each county, elected for four 
years. 
(5) Board of state tax commissioners composed of the governor, 
secretary of state, state treasurer, and two others, expert in matters 
of taxation, to be appointed by a majority of the three former. 
State Revenues, 
a. general property taxes. 
1. Base— 
a. The property included and exempt.—All real and 
personal property situated or owned within the state, 
except such as may be specifically exempted by law, 
is subject to assessment and taxation in equal and 
ratable proportion. 
(1) Real property includes the land itself, all structures attached 
thereto and other improvements thereon, and all rights and privi 
leges thereto belonging; all franchises and privileges granted by the 
laws of the state or by municipal ordinance, other than the right to 
be a corporation; and all mines, minerals, quarries, fossils, and trees 
in, under, or upon the land. 
(2) Personal estate and property shall be construed to include 
all things in action, household furniture, goods, chattels 
moneys, and gold dust, on hand or on deposit, all boats and 
vessels, whether at home or abroad, and all capital invested therein; 
all debts due or to become due from solvent debtors, whether on 
account, contract, note, mortgage, or otherwise, either within or 
without the state; all public stocks; all bonds, warrants, and 
moneys due or to become due from this state, or any county or other 
municipal subdivision thereof, and stocks and shares in incorpo 
rated companies, and such proportion of the capital of incorporated 
companies liable to taxation on their capital as shall not be invested 
in real estate; and all improvements made by persons on land 
claimed by them under the laws of the United States, the fee of 
which land is still vested in the United States. 
The following property is exempt from taxation: 
(1) All property, real and personal, of the United States and this 
state except land belonging to this state held under a contract for 
the purchase thereof. 
(2) All public or corpoiate property of the several counties, cities, 
Villages, towns, and school districts in this state used or intended for 
corporate purposes, except lands belonging to such public corpo 
rations held under a contract for the purchase thereof. 
(3) The personal property of all literary, benevolent, charitable, 
and scientific institutions incorporated within this state, and such 
real estate belonging to such institutions as shall be actively occu 
pied for the purposes for which they were incorporated. 
(4) All houses of public worship and lots on which situated and 
the furniture therein, and all burial grounds, tombs, and rights of 
burial; the lands and buildings thereon, not exceeding 30 acres, 
held and used by a crematory association incorporated under the 
laws of this state. 
(5) All public libraries including the real and personal property. 
(6) The property of Indians on reservations who have not severed 
their tribal relations or taken lands in severalty, except lands held 
by them by purchase or inheritance and situate on an Indian 
reservation. 
(7) The personal property of all persons who by reason of infir 
mity, age, or poverty may in the opinion of the assessor be unable 
to contribute toward the public charges. 
(8) All household furniture, domestic fixtures, household goods, 
and effects actually in use as such in homes and dwellings; also 
all wearing apparel, watches, jewelry, and similar personal effects 
actually in use. 
(9) All lands within the boundary of any county road, and all 
dedicated streets and alleys in any incorporated or unincorporated 
city or town, or town plat, within the state while used for such 
purposes. 
b. Assessment.—In general, there is but one com 
plete assessment roll for state, county, and municipal 
taxes. The county is the unit, and the initial assess 
ment is made by the county assessor. Ml property is 
to be assessed annually with reference to the first Mon 
day in March at its true cash value—that is, the amount 
for which such property would sell at a voluntary 
sale made in the ordinary course of business. No de 
ductions from assessments are allowed on account of 
indebtedness. It is the duty of the assessor to re 
quire each taxpayer, under a penalty of $50, to fur 
nish a sworn list of his property, but such list is not 
binding upon the assessor, but is merely to aid him in 
arriving at the items and true value of the property to 
be assessed. 
Tax maps are provided and in use by all assessors. 
The form of assessment roll is not fixed by statute, but is made by 
the board of state tax commissioners. 
Shares of stock in national banks located in the state are assessed 
to the individual shareholders at the place where the bank is 
located. The shares of capital stock of national banks not located 
in this state, held in this state are not assessed or taxed.