HISTORICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA OF ILLINOIS.
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include in his return, as real-estate, all lands and the buildings or other improvements erected thereon; and, under the head of personal property, all tangible effects, besides moneys, credits, bonds or stocks, shares of stock of companies or corporations, investments, annuities, franchises, royalties, etc. Property used for school, church or cemetery purposes,-as well as public buildings and other property belonging to the State and General Government, municipalities, public charities, public libraries, agricultural and scientific societies, are declared exempt. Nominally, all property subject to taxation is required to be assessed at its cash valuation; but, in reality, the valuation, of late years, has been on a basis of twenty-five to thirty-three per cent of its estimated cash value. In the larger cities, however, the valuation is often much lower than this, while very large amounts escape assessment altogether. The Revenue Act, passed at the special session of the Fortieth General Assembly (1898), requires the Assessor to make a return of all property subject to taxation in his district, at its cash valuation, upon which a Board of Review fixes a tax on the basis of twenty per cent of such cash valuation. An abstract of the property assessment of each county goes before the State Board of Equalization, at its annual meeting in August, for the purpose of comparison and equalizing valuations between counties, but the Board has no power to modify the assessments of individual tax-payers. (See State Board of Equalization.) This Board has exclusive power to fix the valuation for purposes of taxation of the capital stock or franchises of companies (except certain specified manufacturing corporations), incorporated under the State laws, together with the "railroad track" and "rolling stock" of railroads, and the capital stock of railroads and telegraph lines, and to lix the distribution of the latter between counties in which they he.-The Constitution of 1848 empowered the Legislature to impose a capitation tax, of not less than fifty cents nor more than one dollar, upon each free white male citizen entitled to the right of suffrage, between the ages of 21 and 60 years, but the Constitution of 1870 gran
Dundee Area History
