Louis Brandeis

“ While chapter 38, § 28g, provides for reduction by the state board in the valuation of a railroad only where it applies therefor, reductions in the value of all real estate within the county were, under section 28a, to be made provisionally, if the county board determined that the 1920 valuation was, as a whole, in excess of a fair value, and that in such event the percentage of the average excess would be applied to each parcel in the county, unless and until the assessment of individual real estate owners should be revised by the state tax commission. ”

“ The claim that plaintiffs have been denied equal protection of the laws appears to rest more largely on the charge that discrimination has been practiced against them in administering the tax laws. It is urged that county boards, proceeding under section 28a, of the act of 1921, reduced real estate valuations quite generally, but that the state board, acting under section 28g, refused to reduce the valuation of any railroad except that of the Norfolk & Southern. ”

“ Before 1920 the contribution of railroads toward the expenses of the state government was made partly by a small privilege tax, dependent on gross earnings per mile, partly from a percentage of the ad valorem property tax paid by them, and in valuing railroad property there was included among the intangibles what is frequently called the franchise or the corporate excess. ”

“ In each a railroad company engaged in interstate commerce seeks to enjoin the taxing officials from collecting the ad valorem property taxes for the year 1921, imposed for local purposes, and the franchise tax imposed for state purposes. ”

“ The state board, when applied to in 1921, had power to reduce the statutory assessment; but in acting on the applications it was not, as we read the statutes, required to make a new valuation, or to apply any particular method of valuation. [4]
The railroad franchise tax, equal to one-tenth of 1 per cent. of the value of the company's property within the state, is imposed wholly for the support of the state government. Such taxes are expressly quthorized by the state Constitution. ”

“ By the Constitution of North Carolina taxation of real and personal property must be uniform and ad valorem 'according to its true value in money.' In the assessments made prior to 1920 nearly all classes of property had been grossly undervalued ”

“ Some of the corporations plaintiff are foreign; some, domestic. One has its lines wholly within the state; four have lines also in other states. But these differences are without legal significance in this connection. ”