------+-------------+-----------+-----------+-------------+----------- | Findings for| Illegal | Unclaimed | Total | Year | Recovery | Payments | Moneys | Illegal | Returns ------+-------------+-----------+-----------+-------------+----------- 1903 | $50,268.93| $18,808.91| $807.92| $69,884.76| $10,741.93 1904 | 57,805.54| 2,504.41| 10,339.95| 70,649.90| 2,222.31 1905 | 246,280.58| 7,421.87| 25,389.52| 279,091.97| 24,847.83 | | | | | 1906 | 295,082.80| 14,227.52| 5,218.21| 314,528.53| 232,156.78 1907 | 646,397.50| 115,906.91| 18,049.13| 780,353.54| 322,911.08 1908 | 103,764.26| 43,333.31| 9,829.15| 156,928.92| 41,171.53 | | | | | 1909 | 410,282.51| 320,137.17| 23,219.42| 753,639.10| 66,219.91 1910 | 146,024.04| 106,410.00| 22,241.18| 274,675.22| 24,438.36 1911 | 233,547.24| 129,007.02| 7,921.90| 370,476.16| 37,735.34 | | | | | 1912 | 112,926.80| No report | 118.26| 113,045.06| 96,015.16 ------+-------------+-----------+-----------+-------------+----------- Ttls |$2,302,379.30|$757,759.32|$123,134.54|$3,183,273.16|$858,460.23 ------+-------------+-----------+-----------+-------------+----------- TAX ADMINISTRATION A branch of local fiscal administration which is in far less satisfactory shape is that of taxation. In no department is “nullification,” as has been already shown, more constant and serious. The situation is complicated. In seventeen of the states, including every one north of the Ohio and Potomac rivers, and east of the Mississippi, except Illinois, Indiana and Maryland, the county as a whole has very little to do with assessments for the general property tax, the unit for assessment in that section being the town or township. That in nearly all these states the general property tax may be said to have broken down, would seem to be indicated by the establishment of a permanent state tax commission or commissioner in all of them except Pennsylvania. In thirty-one states in the South and West, the county is the unit of assessment, and in its favor it may be said that in this rôle it has proven a far more satisfactory performer than the town. The county is small enough to serve as a convenient unit for assessment operations and assessment records and furnishes the basis of a system of fewer units than if the town were the basis. Under the county plan, moreover, there are fewer opportunities for communities to compete against each other in their effort to escape their just share of the general burden of government. It is significant that most of the western states have seen the advantages of the county as the local unit of administration.