REPORT. State of Michigan, Office of Board of State Tax Commissioners, Lansing, December 15, 1902. To His Excellency, A. T. Bliss, Governor of Michigan: In compliance with the law, we herewith submit to you the second report of the Board of State Tax Commissioners, covering their work for the years 1901 and 1902. The board has also adopted as a part of its report a paper prepared and delivered by Commissioner Freeman before the Michigan State Grange, which met at Lansing December 9, 1902, and it is thought that the operation of tax laws and the work of this Commission was treated therein from a summarized. practical standnoint NOTE. Section 151 of the General Tax Law provides that this board shall make a report to the Governor on or before the 15th day of December. But the legislature of 1901 made the Tax Commission a State Board of Assessors and placed upon them the additional duty of assessing the property of the railroads, express companies and certain car companies. Under this law the work of assessing these companies cannot be completed until after the 15th of January. This assessment is a work of great magnitude, requiring the entire time of the members of the board for many weeks and the result was awaited with interest, not only by State officers, but by the people of the whole State. For these reasons it was not deemed advisable to issue a report until the assessment had been completed, otherwise it would have been necessary to make a supplemental report. F. O. GULLIFER, Secretary. REPORT. State of Michigan, Office of Board of State Tax Commissioners, Lansing, December 15, 1902. To His Excellency, A. T. Bliss, Governor of Michigan: In compliance with the law, we herewith submit to you the second report of the Board of State Tax Commissioners, covering their work for the years 1901 and 1902. The board has also adopted as a part of its report a paper prepared and delivered by Commissioner Freeman before the Michigan State Grange, which met at Lansing December 9, 1902, and it is thought that the operation of tax laws and the work of this Commission was treated therein from a summarized, practical standpoint. F. O. GULLIFER, Secretary of the Board of State Tax Commissioners. The last report by this commission, published in 1901, contains a discussion of the tax laws of this and other states, and so full an account of the workings of the Commission that it is not deemed necessary or advisable to go over the ground again, except in a brief way, confining ourselves principally to the operations of the Commission in its efforts to carry out the law during the years 1901 and 1902. CONSTITUTIONAL PROVISIONS. Finance and Taxation. Article XIV, Section 1. All specific State taxes, except those received from the mining companies of the Upper Peninsula, shall be applied in paying the interest upon the primary school, university and other educational funds, and the interest and principal of the State debt, in the order herein recited, until the extinguishment of the State debt, other than the amounts due to educational funds, when such specific taxes shall be added to, and constitute a part of the primary school interest fund. The legislature shall provide for an annual tax, |