The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1899-07-26
ANACONDA NEWS.
CUTS DOWN ASSESSMENT
This County Loses Six Thousand
Acres of Railroad Land.
IN THE CEDED STRIP
Inasmuch as the Attorney General Has
Ruled 1t Is Taxable in Lewis and
Clarke County Deer Lodge
Can't Collect.

Deer Lodge county will collect taxes
under this years assessment on 5000
acres less than the officials at first
thought.
Included in the strip which the last
legislature took from Deer Lodge coun-
ty and gave to Lewis and Clarke coun-
ty, by an act which became effective
June ! last, there were 5000 acres of
land belonging to the Northern Pacific
Railway company. Assessor Miller of
Deer Lodge county and Assessor HUFF
faker of Lewis and Clarke county each
enumerated these lands in his assess
ment.
The Lewis and Clarke commissioners
while sitting as board of equalization
last week ran across the error, the le-
gal department of the railroad pointing
it out to them. Thereupon the attor-
ney general was applied to. He gave
an opinion saying the land should be
assessed only in Lewis and Clarke
county. Accordingly the Northern Pa
enc has filed with Secretary Martin
of the Deer Lodge board of equaliza-
ton the following petition:
NOW comes the Northern Pacific
Railway company, corporation, and
presents to your honorable body it's
written application for a reduction in
the valuation of property assessed
against 1t in the said county of Deer
Lodge and shows herewith the follow
ing facts upon which it is claimed said
reduction should be made:
mat there was prior to June 1. 1899,
assessed against your petitioner in said
county of Deer Lodge by the county
assessor thereof as a part of your petit
toners real property, the following, to-
wit:
'All Of sections So, SO. 81, 20, 81, 81
and 10, township Is, range T. and the
southeast quarter of section %, town
snip Is, range q all of section 81 the
west half of the northwest quarter of
section 20, the south half of section q,
the south half of section Z, the north
half of the northwest quarter of sec
ton IL, and the southeast quarter and
the east half of the southwest quarter,
and the southwest quarter of the south
west quarter of section Is, all in town
snip IA, range 8; also the south half Of
section IL and the east half of section
q, township H. range 8; also all of
section and the north half and the
northwest quarter of the southeast
quarter and the north half of the south
of the southwest quarter of section Z,
all in township IA, range T.
That all of said lands lie in a GER
tain strip that by act of the sixth leg
islative assembly of the state of Mon
tana, approved Feb 20, 1899 but not
to take effect until June 1, 1899, was
detached from said county of Deer
Lodge and by such change after June
l, 1899, became and now is a part of
the county of Lewis and Clarke in the
state of Montana
That no levy of taxes was made by
the board of commissioners of either of
said counties prior to June l. 1899.
That since June l, 1899, the said lands
and all thereof were assessed against
your petitioner in the county of Lewis
and Clarke, Montana, as a part of its
property; and the attorney general of
the state of Montana in an opinion
rendered July 2, 1899, constituting Sec
ton 4156 of the political code in connec-
ton with section 1926 of the same code
has advised that taxes on said lands
are properly collectable by the county
of Lewis and Clarke and not by the
county of Deer Lodge.
Your petitioner asks to have said
lands withdrawn from its Lewis and
Clarke county assessment list, but the
board of county commissioners of said
last named county, acting under advice
of the attorney general, refused to do
SO.
"Whereupon your petitioner requests
that the valuation of property assessed
against 1t may be reduced by striking
from said assessment list the lands
aforesaid and the valuation assessed
against the same.
Northern Pacific Railway Company.
BY William Wallace, jr., its division
counsel and agent duly authorized"
The opinion of the attorney general