Albuquerque daily citizen. [volume] (Albuquerque, N.M.) 1895-1903, 1901-09-02
socoaao COUNTY ASSESSMENT.
Why the A~ssessabIe Value Of the
County Has Been Reduced.

County Has Been Reduced.
Editors Citizen:
Recently there has again appeared
In the papers Of the territory an ar.
ticle In relation to the falling on Of
the assessment In Socorro county, and
stating that the assessor and county
commissioners are to be blamed for
this, and that they should be removed
OF an investigation be made. Now
let us be fair. Did these gentlemen
make the law under which assess
ments are made or taxes collected,
(hardly.) We do not claim that the
Socorro assessment is what 1t should
be or neal n half, but that is not the
fault OF the assessor or commission
crs. The present law simply gives
every property holder who returns
any property the opportunity to per.
lure himself, which IL is evident most
ali do. Before trying to explain where
the difficulty lies, I wish to state that
Socorro county eve had a better
beard of county commissioners than
the present one. They are all bust
ness men of high standing, and no
body has ever questioned their homes.
ty or integrity. Socorro's board OF
commissioners perhaps has not It's
equal In the territory. The assessor
IN a very competent gentleman, who
does his duty as far as the present
law will allow him. There il not a
better assessor In the territory.
Now let us see what Is the trouble.
After the passage of the Bateman act
the board OF county commissioners IN
1897. not the present board, found
themselves short. They then padded.
by the advice of an attorney, the as.
sessment rolls. which such matters az
these: The Winters Land a. Cattle
company. $3.50 5000. existing only o.
paper: the La Joya grant. existing
only in the minds of the oldest inhab-
itants, S750,000; the Socorro grant,
only on paper. 100000. Who has to
pay taxes on this? Why, not anyone.
That board of commissioners issued
$4,000 in bonds, sold them to the at
torney. by whose advice the rolls were |
padded, and squared themselves.
The board OF commissioners who re.
tired January I. 1901, wiped of all this
superfuous assessment. Thus two
million one hundred thousand dollars
were taken from the rolls. And a
great cry vent up at that time about
the falling OF of Socorro assessment.
The present board found still some
paper assessments and wiped them OFF
thus further reducing the assessment
CT the county. Certainly there Is no
use In assessing a thing that Is not
tangible.
Now. | want to tell you where there
IL a real falling off In the Socorro as.
easements; $4,000 to 10000 head of
cattle have left Socorro county, thus
reducing her taxable property one mil
lion to n and a half million dollars.
Why. because they were driven IA by
the herds OF sheep belonging to men
who live In other parts Of the terri
tory. and who pay no taxes on their
sheep In the county, and very little
anywhere else. II we take the census
returns and the assessment rolls of
the territory as a criterion, the cen.
sus returns showing some eve and
n half million sheep in the territory,
and the assessment rolls showing one
and one-half million returns for the
purpose of taxation.
At the last meeting OF the legisla-
ture your humble servant introduced |
and tried to pass a bill to tax sheep
in the counties where they Craze, but
he was Immediately and thoroughly
9q~uelched by the push This bill
would have enabled Socorro county |
10 have taxed $50, 900 sheep, which are
now eating up her resources without
paying anything in return. Now II
has been suggested that a commission
be appointed to draft a good. clean
tax and assessment law and push il
through The next Legislature. That Is
good. But II ! may be allowed to sug-
w CT tho nsngAYN ta~ laI-a,, ,t4.Il
not be appointed on the commission.
And again why should Socorro county
be held up and Haunted before the
people as the county at fault. II Is
simply because n board OF county
commissioners and an assessor have
got down to a business basis. Has
not Socorro county always paid her
interest On her bonded Indebtedness?
Has she not always had her portion OF
the tax? Was Socorro county not the
first county to refund her bonds at
n lower rate of interest under the new
%refunding law? And has she not re-
duced In the last year. under the new
board of commissioners. her bonded
, debt?
While ] am for statehood, yet II
does seem to me II we would attend
to setting of our W house to order a
little more and get a good tax or
assessment law so that all the prop
erty could be assessed and reduction
of our rate of taxation. We will be
much surer of success in our work for
statehood and there are a number
of different ways that the territory.
oan be benefited. We must have n
law under which the assessor can as.
sess and the collector collect, and
that all the property will pay its just
proportion of the taxes; and until we
get such a law the county commits
s,oners and assessors and collectors
will have the same trouble they have
now, and the territory's wealth will