The Placer herald., 1870-12-31
THEN AND Now. FOR TAX.
So. PAYERS. -.

cure ftom this county $3.50, 900 in eight per
cent, gold-bcaring bonds, amounting in the
aggregate, principal and interest, to $780,
900, it's officers and agents talked sweet to
our people and made all kinds Of fair prom
ises. But how have they fulfilled these
promises We have before us an address
issued to the people of the county in May,
1863, and signed officially, Central Paci-
fic Railroad Company, which is, indeed, a
remarkable document in the light Of to-day E
history. The address proceeds to state that
there would be about one hundred miles of
the road in this county. to be built at an ex-
pense of nine millions Of dollars-the ;,,.'hole
of which vast sum would Immediately en-
tor into all the transactions Of business
conducted within the county, and be subject
to taxation as all other property. The ad-
dress then proceeds !:
"You are asked to assist us to the extent of
$3.50, ,0O0-let us make up an account of the cost
of such assistance. You give S250,000 in bonds,
at eight per cent. interest for twenty years. You
will then have to provide $50, 900 yearly to meet
interest and to meet principal Mt the end of that
time. Your rate of taxation for county purposes
for this year is unusually small, thirty cents on
the one hundred dollars. Suppose the Railroad
alone, without adding any increased value of
other property, or adding any property accumu-
lated from the expenditures of building the road
were taxed at that rate $50, 00O0 600 at 80 cents
$780, this will yield income of $3l, 500 or
Sl1 500 per year more than the interest you will
30 ~l,,a % &c
twenty years being nearly sufficient to pay the
original bonds. Your whole taxable property
for the last current year was only the sum of
$3, 600, 900; with the road completed it will be
$l2, 100000.
This extract furnishes much food for re-
Election, and now, while the subject of equal
taxation is agitating the whole press and
people Of the State, we propose to bring this
pledge of the Company and its subsequent
actions and the suborned or ignorant officials
of the county face to face with the taxpay-
ers of Placer 1t is easy to promise, and
for this Company, would be easy to perform,
but it has utterly failed and refused to com
ply with its every important proclaimed
promise to the people and taxpayers of this
county. Mark you, taxpayers! When the
people Of this county voted this subsidy un-
der those promises, the rate of county taxa
ton was but 35 cents on the 500, and the
county was out of debt and had in its Treas
ury, according to the April statement of the
Treasurer, $40, 139 95 in gold coin; and
now our county taxes are $1.73i on the
800 Or abou. five times greater than they
were then An0 this, too, after We have
paid out about $3.50 600 on account of that
subsidy voted, and vet we owe some $780,
900 or $50, 900 on account thereof, and our
Railroad Stock is all gone-sold for about
ten per cent. of its true value. Take the
SAC, 900 we had in 1868, add the $3.50, 600
since paid and the bonds yet outstanding,
and you will soc that the people of this
county have raj and are to pay, fully $780,
900 in gold coin for locomotive "whs.le"
which We would have had just as soon and
just where it is without = cent. But Crock
er, Stanford, & Co., promised, in this ad
dress to pay taxes in our county, on SO ,OO0,-
900 for the Railroad, and we were to have
S12 900, 900 worth of taxable property in
the county as soon as the road was complet-
ed. Have they done it :? That would be
at the rate of 100000 per mile valuation
for the road and about what it is worth in
the market. This company now refuse to
pay taxes on even the sixteenth part of this
nine million of dollars on the road-be and
soy if you don't take taxes on about $685.
900 for the road we will not pay anything
and they succeed. How do they do it =? Do
they elect our Assessors and Supervisors, or
do they purchase them afterwards, or do the
people Of the county elect such as are utter
ly ignorant of their duties, the value of prop
erty or the requirements of the law? The
true reason for this corporation escaping from
payment Of just taxation is found in one of
the above three causes, or i'll all combined
What else can we say to those officials =?
Here we were told in this address of the
Railroad Company to the people of the coun-
ty. that their property would be worth, and
be taxed at "nine millions of dollars" or
$1OO, 900 per mile, and now we know that
it is worth that sum-it is go proclaimed by
the Company's agents to day-and yet we
have officials that accept valuation and taxes
for the pittance Of $4,000 per mile. At
50 600, 900, the road would, at the present
rate of taxation, have paid into the County
Treasury, as taxes this year, 1924, 900. If
the Railroad Company was made to pay
taxes on just valuation of its property we
would have, as the address states, $12,-
0O0, 900 worth Of taxable property in the
county, and then our county taxation for
county purposes would be but 4S cents on