Tombstone epitaph., 1890-02-22
4 WORD WITH THE TAXPAYERS.

candidates for members Of the Board of Supervisors The Board then in office were charged with gross miman- aoement of the affairs of the county, and from the many expressions and insinuations to be heard a stranger would have been led to believe that the proper place for them was a iel- on's cell. The campaign was con ducied on the cry of Reform and re- duc,ion of taxalion," and on this understanding two of the members of the present Board were elected, one of the old Board holding over. Times for years had been getting duller and duller in Cochise county, money wherewith to pay taxes harder to get, and it was with a sigh of relief that the taxpayers saw the new Board in stalled in office, believing that they would redeem their pledges and so conduct county affairs as to cause a material reduction in the tax levy.
 Matters moved along smoothly and without jar for a while, in the belief that d majority of the Board were capable and would conduct the af;tirs of the county with economy and busi- ness sagacity. But in this presump- ton they have been sadly mistaken. The first shock came when the Board deliberately ignored the hospital law passed by the last legislature. AL though one provision of the law is contrary to all ideas of humanity, and there is some doubt as to the right of the legislature to pass laws annulling existing contracts, still it is the law, and it was the duty of the Board to obey 1t and leave the responsibility of deciding its legality to the court. Among a few this created a feeling of uneasiness, but the general public did not pay much attention to it.
 But the taxpayers received a rude and very efectual awakening in Aug aust last, when the Board fixed the tax levy at something over $4 on the $10O, and complaints were loud and vigor- ous. and explanations were demanded as to the reason for increasing the rate of taxation thiriytIree per cent, on an increased tax roll of $40O 900, when it had been supposed that county affairs under the new regime had been conducted on a line of retrenchment that would result in a reduction of taxes instead of this extraordinary in- crease. Plausible explanations were not wanting, throwing the entire blame on the old Board and law passed by the legislature some years since. It was said that by reason of the neglect of the old Board to make provision for the redemption of out standing bonds it was necessary to re- deem $20,000 at one time, and that was the reason of the increased levy on largely increased tax roll. To some people who still had faith in the majority of the Board this was satis- factory, but to others it was not. This latter class were so persistent in their demands for further explanations that a statement of the finances of the county was published, purporting to be correct, in which it was shown that the old Board expended $28,O00 in ex- cess of the revenues of the county. Now it comes out that this report, by order of the firing" in the Board, was "fxed," as in it there was no mention made of $30,000 that had been paid into the school fund, which would have shown that the old Board had kept their expenditures $2,000 inside of the revenues, instead of exceeding them by $2S 00O This was not very reassuring to taxpayers of the honesty and capacity Of the Board to econom- ically administer the county affairs. This did not diminish the complaints, and these, combined with the sting of the report of the late grand jury, and the fact that the county funds were running short, that the general fund Is already overdrawn, notwithstanding the extraordinary tax levy, determined them to do something, and at the last session they made great show of re- trenchment by making various petty reductions in county expenses and re- fusing to allow just demands against the county. Still this was not satisfy ing, and taxpayers still want to know where their money has gone.
 For some weeks the EPITAPH has been quietly making investigations and gathering facts, and as result charges the Board with a wasteful and exLravagant administration of county affairs, which denotes either incapac- ity or something else; and the EPI- TAPH also charges that in its dealings