How Taxes Creep Up

The followfclg artille, lienrteil "Our Taxes." s t;ikfii from the last teaue Of tlic Ypsilanti rjentinel. Don't -.kip it, Imt road t : It is needless to remmd our citizens in a general way that our taxis are high, and stoad lly lncreasing. And further, tliat as the rate oftaxation increases the valne of uil property except certain sGTts, such as stores and buildings sosituated thal iheyare indispensable to business, vislbly falls off. The latter also suffer, but étrcumstancea inay not allow the loss to so evident. The vnlue of 30111c particular pieces of property may eem to rise: imt even then the rlse la lesa tlum it would have been had the rise been general. Inother words.lmd the city been prosperous. To Uluatrate tliis. and prove the effect of our high and Increasing mxiition. we takt a pieee of property, whioh for the last ten yearanaa undergone nochange initself; luit lias been asseesed bj Bupervtfora, and eqnalized by suocewive boards, with tlio following resalta: 1SS2- Asseased value, tXQ; lux. ST.l". For some reasoM the tax tliat yearwas especially high. Ezactly the same property in 1X92 was rated and tazed as followa: ISM- aseeesed value, J4fiO; tax.810.lli. Thus it is seen thnt the ■JOTHIioli vulne feil, not quite ut the same percentage that the tax rose. Thlfl property la 110 ezceptlon to the general rule. It is uot outlying property. it is as favoral.ly situated as any easl side property, exeept that adjoininit the depot. We admit that the cast side BUffera more from high taxes than the west. hut the greater part of the west side is no better off. It only a smnll portion of the west side that has any reason to tliiiik it is beneflted by large expenditares, bonds, and high taxes for city frills.and dispensDble object. The following wlll show the gradual but rapid increasiDg taxation for the tour last consecutive years.on exaetly the same property, and our readers who have preserved tneir receipts will flud themselves in the same hoat: 1889 HO UW 8 is 18! IR I MM W29 With such a showiug need oue wonder that the census falls off ; thHt factories caunot proa peT with a few exceptions. Can laboring men live in Ypsilanti at this rate? Teu dollar and forty-uine cents is ncarlv hree per cent on $4S0,"and that is our rate of taxation. Is tbere oot in this review of the situatkm ;it Ypsilanti a warning for Ann Arbor ï Ypsilanti owns her own electric liirht plant, her own water WOrka system, and ftvery year puii-h"s 10 the world liow chcap per liirht she gets street Ugbto, and how cheap the water rates are to consumere, but sho never brágs to tho poMJc abont the rate of taxation imi)osel upon her pi-oierty owncis to make up for sudi cbeajMnen. The consumere get the lyenefit of cheapness white tho tax-payors cariry the burdon.