which shall be approved by the comptroller or clerk in cities having no comptroller; provided, however, that the rate of interest shall not be less than five per cent per annum, nor more than seven per cent per

annum.

3. No such extension of time shall be operative in favor of any taxpayer unless he shall have paid to the city treasurer, before the expiration of the time limited therefor, the full amount of all taxes required to be by him paid for all purposes, exclusive of city purposes.

4. If any taxes, the payment of which shall have been thus postponed, shall not be paid on or before the expiration of the said six months, the city treasurer shall declare the same to be delinquent, and such taxes shall be collected, including accrued interest, together with an additional charge thereon at the rate of twelve per cent per annum from the expiration of the said six months. If any such taxes shall have been levied upon personal property, the same shall be collected forthwith in the manner provided for the collection of delinquent taxes on personal property. If any of such taxes shall have been assessed upon real estate, all tracts or parcels of land upon which the same shall have been assessed, shall be sold in the manner provided for the sale of land for the nonpayment of taxes. The sale of such lands shall be had at the time and place at which lands shall be sold in the year next succeeding, for the nonpayment of taxes.

This section relates to extension of the time for paying taxes levied for city purposes only. Taxes levied for state and county purposes must be paid within the time prescribed by the general law. The City of Milwaukee by ordinance extends the time for payment of city taxes until the 31st day of July, but only a limited number of taxpayers avail themselves of the privilege. The total amount of taxes levied in the City of Milwaukee for the year 1917 was about $15,000,000, including income taxes and special assessments, and of this amount only $625,000 or less than five per cent, was extended. Deferred payments are subject to six per cent interest from the first of February until paid and the city collected $22,000 interest on the $625,000 of 1917 taxes extended.

CHAPTER III

ASSESSMENTS; WHAT PROPERTY TAXABLE

Secs. 1030-1037, inclusive

Valuation of property; assessors in cities and villages; boards of. SECTION 1030. The valuation of property for taxation and the assessment and collection of taxes in all the towns, cities and villages of this state shall be made according to the provisions of this title, unless otherwise specially provided, by the proper officers elected or appointed therein pursuant to law. If no provision be otherwise made therefor there shall be elected at the annual charter election one assessor for each ward of a city or village authorized to assess and collect taxes independently of the town. When there shall be in any town, ward, village or city, constituting a single assessment district more than one assessor, the assessors therein shall, in the discharge of their official duties, act together as an assessment board, and the concurrence of a majority of such board shall be necessary to determine any matter upon which they are required to act. The term assessor as used in this chapter is intended to embrace such board of assessors.

The fundamental requisites of a good assessment are, first, a complete list of all taxable property in the district, and second, a correct valuation of each item. The one is as important as the other, and both are indispensable to the validity of the tax and equal distribution of the burden. A correct valuation of the property listed will not cure inequalities resulting from omissions; neither will a complete list of property cure inequalities in assessment. In either case an increased burden is cast upon those whose property is assessed. It is therefore all important that a complete list of all the taxable property in the district be secured, and that the same be correctly valued.

Assessment. To assess is to fix the value of property for the purpose of taxation. It is the final step in the process of taxation which fixes a definite and enforcible liability upon persons and property for the amount of the tax. 37 Cyc. 987; Richardson v. Sheldon, 1 Pinney, 624. Assessment goes to the whole method of imposing taxes. Prentice v. Ashland Co., 56 Wis. 345. But does not cover proceeding to collect a tax after the roll is completed. Urquhart v. Wescott, 65 Wis. 135.

The assessment of taxes is a governmental rather than municipal function. Wallace v. Menasha, 48 Wis. 79. And must be made in substantial compliance with the statute. State v. Supervisors, 3 Wis. 816. Assessors do not act judicially in the sense that their assessments can

not be questioned in a court of equity. Lefferts v. Supervisors, 21 Wis. 688. But their duties are quasi judicial so as to relieve them from personal liability for errors in the performance of their duties.

Assessment districts in Milwaukee; removal of assessors. SECTION 1030a. 1. In all cities of the first class, whether organized under general or special charter, the tax commissioner or other head of the taxation department of such city by whatever name he may be known, shall divide such city into sixteen districts for assessment purposes and fix the boundary lines thereof without regard to ward lines, to be approved by the common council, provided, however, that the purpose of determining situs of personal property for assessment and taxation, the boundaries of such districts may be disregarded. Whenever any of such districts shall be enlarged by reason of the annexation of territory to the city, the tax commissioner may, with the approval of the common council, re-district the city or so much thereof as he deems necessary in order to equalize the work of the several assessors, or he may, with the approval of the common council create additional assessment districts. The said tax commissioner shall appoint one assessor for each district who shall be a resident of the district for which he is appointed and hold office in accordance with the civil service laws applicable to such city, except insofar as the same is modified by subsection 2. They shall devote their entire time and attention to the duties of their office and shall not actively engage in any other occupation, pursuit, business or profession. They shall receive an annual salary to be fixed by the common council, payable as salaries of other officers of such city are paid. The term of office of any assessor or assessors in any city to which this law shall be or become applicable shall terminate on the first day of January following the date on which it becomes applicable to such city. If there be a deputy tax commissioner in any such city, he shall receive an annual salary to be fixed by the common council.

Removal of assessors. 2. Every such assessor so appointed as provided in subsection 1 shall be subject to removal from said office only for the causes mentioned in section 1059a and in addition thereto, neglect of duties and incompetency from any cause, drunkenness and intentional insubordination, and then only in the manner provided by subsection 3.

3. Whenever the tax commissioner ascertains or has good reason to believe that any assessor is guilty of any of the causes for removal mentioned in subsection 2, he may immediately suspend such assessor and the tax commissioner shall thereupon within ten days make complaint to the presiding judge of the circuit court for the removal of such assessor and the matters shall be brought on for immediate hearing. The city attorney shall attend and prosecute such proceeding for removal. Unless such complaint is filed by the said tax commissioner within said time, said assessor so suspended shall ipso facto be reinstated without further proceeding. Nothing herein con

tained, however, shall affect the removal of assessors in the manner and for the causes as provided in section 1059c. Amended by chap. 123, 1919.

Court decisions. Uniformity in the rule of taxation required by the constitution is not violated by diversity in the methods of electing or appointing assessors in the several cities or in the formation of the several boards of review. State vs. Anderson, 90 Wis. 550.

The provisions for removal of assessors contained in the last two subdivisions of this section were considered and upheld in the cases of State ex rel. Hayden vs. Arnold, 151 Wis. 19, and State ex rel. Bannen vs. Arnold, 151 Wis. 38.

Where the tax commissioner of the City of Milwaukee in good faith removed a ward assessor on the ground that he had been co victed and fined by the district court for being drunk and disorderly, the removal was sustained. even though the sentence of conviction of the assessor was afterwards set aside on appeal. State ex rel. Langen vs. Bodden, 165 Wis. 243.

Functions of board of assessors in Milwaukee. SECTION 1030m. 1. In all cities of the first class whether organized under general or special charter, the several assessors shall deliver their respective assessment rolls to, and file the same with the tax commissioner, or other head of the assessment department of such city, on the last Monday of June in each and every year.

2. Upon receipt of the rolls of the several assessors, together with their valuations and assessments of real and personal property, the said tax commissioner shall thereupon give notice by publication in the official papers of said city, for ten days, that on a certain day therein named for each assessment district, the assessment roll for said assessment district will be open for the examination of the taxable inhabitants thereof, and at the same time the tax commissioner shall call together all of the assessors, and said tax commissioner together with such assessors shall constitute an assessment board.

3. To the end that all valuations throughout the city shall be made on a uniform basis, and before the assessment roll is completed, such board of assessors, under the direction and supervision of the tax commissioner shall compare the valuations so secured, making all necessary corrections and all other just and necessary changes to arrive at the true value of property within the city.

Majority to act. 4. The concurrence of a majority of such board of assessors shall be necessary to determine any matter upon which they are required to act, and it shall not be necessary for said board of assessors to take testimony before making such corrections and changes as mentioned in subsection 3 of this section, and no notice need be given to the owners of the property assessed of any such corrections or changes in the assessment roll which are made prior to the day fixed in the notice mentioned in subsection 2 of this section as the day on which said assessment roll is to be open for examination, but any changes made thereafter and before the assessment roll shall have been delivered to the board of review can only be

made upon notice, as required in subsection 3 of section 1061 of the statutes.

5. The tax commissioner may provide for such committees of the board of assessors, as he may think best, to make investigations and perform such other duties as may be prescribed by the said tax commissioner. The tax commissioner, or other head of the assessment department, shall be chairman of the board of assessors, and he shall appoint the members of the various committees. He shall be ex officio chairman of each of said committees, but may designate any assessor or other officer or employe in his department to act as chairman in his stead, provided, however, that this provision shall not be construed as giving to such officer or employe any vote as a member of the board of assessors.

6. After the assessors shall have once turned over to the tax commissioner their assessment rolls, they shall have no authority, except by act of a majority of the board of assessors, to make any changes whatsoever in their assessment roll.

7. After all corrections and changes shall have been made, the tax commissioner shall submit the corrected assessment rolls to the board of review.

The board of review in the City of Milwaukee consists of the mayor, city clerk, tax commissioner, and all the assessors.

Assessment district. SECTION 1031. The term "assessment district" is used to designate any subdivision of territory, whether the whole or any part of any municipality, in which by law a separate assessment of taxable property is made by an assessor or assessors elected or appointed therefor.

A taxing district is a district throughout which a particular tax or assessment is ratably apportioned and levied upon the inhabitants. Black Law Dictionary, Second Edition. The lines of such district are usually, but not necessarily, coincident with those of the minor municipal units of the state. Keeley vs. Sanders, 99 U. S. 441.

Jurisdiction. Land must be situated in a regularly organized town or municipality or in territory which has been regularly attached thereto. If not, the taxing officers of the district have no jurisdiction to levy taxes, and the statute of limitations cannot cure the defect. Smith v. Sherry, 54 Wis.. 114. Where lands have been treated as part of a town for nearly twenty years, and the public has acquiesced in the action of the county board attaching them thereto, it is too late to question the jurisdiction of the town over such lands, although there exist irregularities which would have been fatal to such action if proceedings had been taken promptly to avoid it. Sherry v. Gilmore, 58 Wis. 324. Bardon v. Land & River Improvement Co., 157 U. S. 327.

Blanks for officers. SECTION 1032. The tax commission shall prescribe and furnish to the several county clerks, forms for the assessment rolls, tax rolls, blanks and returns required for the due execution of the provisions of this chapter. Every county clerk shall, at the expense of the county, annually procure to be prepared according to such