The following appeared in the Rock County News on Jan. 7, 1892:CHEERFUL TAXPAYERSAre Very Nice but Very Hard to Find in Luverne just at Present.The Court House Besieged with People who are Sure there is Some Mistake.The Figures are all Right Though the System of Assessment is all wrong. The county auditor’s office has been visited this week by a large number of people who are positive there was some mistake about the levy of their personal property tax. So marked has been the complaint that the News has been at some pains to look over the books with a view to ascertaining where the trouble, if there is any, lies and has become convinced that it is to be charged to the system of assessment and equalization of taxes and not to the levy. The accuracy with which County Auditor Bruce has made the levy is really remarkable. The total valuation of the personal property of the village of Luverne, assessed in 1891, as equalized by the various boards is $414,172. The taxes levied are as follows:State 2.6State School 1.0General school 1.0County revenue 2.9County poor .4County interest 2.3Library 1.0Village revenue 7.4Railroad interest 1.3Special school 14.4 Total 34.3The total tax at this rate on $414,173 would be 14,206.13, to which must be added the delinquent road tax as returned, $528.14 making a total of $14,734.27.There were about 1000 assessments and yet so accurately has the work of figuring been done that the total levied was $14,735.14, or only 87 cents too much. So much for the levy. As to the assessment, both in its method and its execution — well that’s a different story. Donations to the Rock County Historical Endowment Fund can be sent to the Rock County Historical Society, P.O. Box 741, Luverne, MN 56156.Mann welcomes correspondence sent to mannmade@iw.net.
