Aberdeen herald. [volume] (Aberdeen, Chehalis County, W.T.) 1886-1917, 1891-05-07

osition made by the commissioners to
each tax payer. The tax payers natural
query is: What do get if increase my
taxation one-slxth? This is what he
gets:
Principal, payable in 20 years ....... 1924 800
Interest at per cent for 20 years.. 400
Total. Observation-Disclosures. S493, 800
And not good road in the county to
show for it.
What will the tax payer tell the CAPT.
talist who comes here to invest money
"Wehave saddled debt of half million
dollars on the county. True, we have
nothing to show for it in the way OF bene-
fits. But you can easily see that L have
had to raise the price of my land. If you
want the land you must assume the bur-
den." What will be the effect? Every
man must answer for himself, according
to his own lights. Sentiment has moth
to do with the case; but what does the
tax payer think of this as a business
proposition:
The county commissioners ask the tax
payers to vote 1924 800 worth of bonds,
principal payable t7nenty years after daAs Of
their issue. The law, under which they
made this call, requires them to assess q
tax to create sinking fund in order to
redeem them at their maturity. There is
l;ffla likelihood hot tbare WOULD 10 ,,,<,~c
than one purchaser of the bonds. He
would hold them for the twenty years, as
his only object would be for long time
investment. In the meantime, the tax
payer of Chehalis county is putting
enough money in the bank to pay off the
bonds at their maturity. And also in
the meantime, fact that every tax payer
should impress upon his memory, the
bank where he is putting in this money,
is lending the same money back to him
at from ten to twelve per cent. How is
that for business proposition?
If the tax payer got any roads, he
might bear the burden; but the most
rabid advocate for bonding doesn't go so
far as to believe the money raised will
build any roads in the western. part of
Chehalis county. If good roads are ever
built here, the county will have to be
heavily taxed, and it is criminal waste
ness to scatter sixteen thousand dollars
through the woods between here and Ak
lords prairie; to bury as much more out
sight in the .swamps between Quinaiult
lake and Stevens prairie; to SOW broad
cast, for few months, twenty thousand
dollars among handful of laborers for a
road from Grays Harbor city to Boone
creek, fin order to temporarily. bolster up a
wild cat townsite scheme and let the tax
payers reap the whirlwind in increased
taxation and no roads.
If the time has come when the people
of Chehalis county are willing to bear
taxation necessary in order to give them
good roads, the way is open to the COM
missioners to proceed in business man.
ner, and build all the roads necessary.
The law empowers them to levy a five
mill road tax and two mill bridge tax.
On the basis Of an assessment of $S,OO0,-
900, this would give them $4,000 next
year; the year after this the amount
would be about $4,000, and would in
crease each year as property values nat
urally increase. Commencing at any
given point, and building from it as many
miles of good road as the money enables
them to do, would ensure a complete sys-
tenn of good roads. Good roads are what
We all want; no roads are what We will
get under the call. Every route over which
money is trailed will he road Cup Bit
ter creek" and nothing more.