Page:The Wisconsin idea (IA cu31924032449252).pdf/105

 As has been pointed out before, the fact that the ad valorem system of taxation was applied to railroads precipitated the railroad rate fight in 1903. If railroads were taxed without being regulated as to rates, it was felt that the burden would be shifted to the public.

The commission has great powers, through which a centralized and uniform state-wide system of taxation has been built up. Local assessors are checked by county supervisors of assessment, who in turn are carefully instructed by the commission. The money collected is retained by the state or apportioned to the localities on a percentage basis. The whole work is based upon actual valuation, and a large corps of engineers and experts is employed for this purpose. The law and its methods have been copied by many states.

Railroad Taxation

The tax commission makes an annual assessment of all property of railroad companies within the state on the basis of cost of reproduction (new) minus depreciation. The definition of property includes all franchises, rights of way, road bed, tracks, terminals, rolling stock, equipment and all other real and personal property of a company used in conducting the business, but excludes real estate not adjoining the tracks, stations or terminals; grain elevators and coal docks, ore docks, and merchandise docks, and real estate not necessarily used in operat-