The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1895-01-16
LIVINGSTON NEWS.
Widows Ask For n Reduction of Their
Tax-s This Year.

Tax-s This Year.
| Special Correspondence OF the standard.
LIVINGSTON, Jan. l3.-At the last regular
session of tho board of county commits
sioners several widows in this city asked
| that their taxes for 1894 be RENTED, as
the payment thereof would work a
very great hardship. A petition was
also received from Melville praying the
board to remit the taxes of the three
ranchers OF that place who were entirely
burned OH. by prairie fires. AS there
seemed to be some question as to the
authority of the commissioners to comply
with these requests, County Attorney
Poorman was asked to write to Attorney
General Haskell for an opinion on the
subject. The opinion was received Satur-
day by County Clerk Angus and holds that
In no case have county commissioner the
right to remit taxes.
As the subject is one of Importance to
every county in the state the opinion is
quoted freely. The attorney general
says:
boards of county commissioners,
being creatures OF the statute, can per-
form only such duties as are or may be
prescribed by law. Nowhere in the law
are they delegated with the right or au-
thority to remit any tax, however small
upon property which has been assessed,
equalized and the taxes levied thereon in
the mode and manner provided by law.
THE right of a board of county COM
missioners to control the assessment of
property Is lost to them when they ad-
Journ as board of equalization on the
second Monday in August of each year.
The legislature never intended and does
not by any act, either in the spirit or the
letter thereof, delegate to the board of
county commissioners the right to remit
any tax that has once been levied against
a taxpayer of the county, and no tax can
be abated except by n proceeding in
stituted in the court.
I'm nearly all of the counties the treas
urers report to the commissioners that
some of the poor and INDECENT are delin-
quent, and that the only property they
have upon which a tax can be collected is
possibly a horse, a COW, q wagon or a few
poor farming implements. Thereupon
the commissioners advise the county
treasurer not to enforce the collection of
such taxes, but to carry them upon his
books, if in his judgment the payment of
the taxes would cause great distress and
in effect make them a charge against the
county. THIS may be done from one
quarter TO another However, this pro-
ceedlng is never had when the person as
sessed is the owner of real property.
"a board of county commissioners finds
il eXpedient at times to advise the treas
urer not 10 levy upon household goods, or
a span of horses or n COW, which is all the
property the delinquent possesses, which
course may be admitted to be one which
would not be tolerated by law, but which
is rule consistent with equity and JUS
tice, and such law is generally borne by
the state and as well by the taxpayers of
the county without a murmur. But we
cannot recall a single instance wherein
this rule is followed in case the delinquent
is the ow ner of real estate, because II cam
not be assumed that any person who is the
owner of real estate cannot obtain money
to pay his taxes without causing any great
distress.
I'VE therefore advise you that taxes in
no case should be RENTED, but in case
where a person is assessed for n small
amount of personal property and is in in
digent circumstances, the board can con-
sistently, under the law, advise the treas
urer to carry such persons on the delin-
quent assessment list until such time as
the taxes can be collected"