- July 29, 1930 – JSA to William Hill (Bolton Landing)
- Dear Mr. Hill:
I learned from Mr. Christie that his assessment has been made more reasonable, but the valuation of my property has been greatly increased.
It is hard to know what to do, and I am so busy that I fear I will not have an opportunity of seeing the assessors before it is too late, and if you have the opportunity I would very much appreciate your talking it over with them. Naturally I do not want to enter my complaint or grievance unless I can go further with my complaint and if necessary bring about some court action. There is no doubt that the assessors have a hard job and I do not want to make their job more difficult by bringing any such action.
Nevertheless, I cannot afford to pay more than my share of taxes, and the Lakeview property has been overvalued as far as I can determine by comparison with other properties, for several years. The south strip was valued last year more nearly right, but even at that the valuation was 1,000 more than I paid for the property.
If you have occasion to look at the books, I would like to see the valuation on several pieces of property including the Sagamore. As you probably know, they have recently spent about a half million dollars, I addition to the purchase price of over three hundred thousand dollars, roughly considered by those who have purchased the property as being worth three quarters of a million. There can hardly be any question about this valuation, as this amount has recently been spent on the property. I understand there are a number of such places as that which are not being given true valuation.
I am sure you will appreciate that Ii do not want to make the difficult task of raising taxes more troublesome than is necessary, and therefore would rather not add to the difficulty if I can avoid it by talking the matter over with the assessors or get you to talk it over with them for me. Whatever you can do I will appreciate very much.
Cordially yours,
JSApperson