Durango semi-weekly herald., 1902-08-21

VI tht bu'hill diHeHufDtUl unutT 0lS-
cussion. which is. that rights f-way,
franchises in public ways and land ex-
elusive of the improvements thereon
may be taxed at their full cash value.
We have shown in former articles
that the exemption of the improve
ments on railroad includes the grade.
ues, rails, depots. etc. Another
provision of the Bucklin amendment
which provides that all personal prop.
erty may be exempted would take In
the rolling stock and all personal prop.
erty of the railroad. so that all that
could be taxed would be the land the
rights-of- way the franchises in pub
lie ways. which means simply that the
land owned. or used by railroad com
pany could be taxed-that, and moth
ing more.
Railroads either own or have the
right-of-way over a strip of land 200
feet wide. A strip of land 200 feet
wide and mile long contains 24L
acres. Upon the land owned by rail-
road, therefore. 24h acres to the mile
could be assessed at the same valua-
tion as contiguous land Rights-of
way involves land crossed by railroad
company by permission of the owner
without charge. so long as it is so
used. Should the track be moved
therefrom or the operation of the
road be discontinued. the land would
revert to the owner.
For purposes of taxation the rights
of-way of a railroad are exactly on the
same footing as the land owned by
| 1t; therefore. the land over which a
railroad has a right-of-way can be
assessed as the land contiguous to it.
So the whole line of railroad, ex-
cept its franchises in public ways,
could be assessed at the same valua-
ton as the land contiguous to it.
In going through cities and towns
railroads obtain permission to go
through public streets. which is
called franchises in public ways. The
railroad that does not have the ex-
elusive use of such Streets and, there
fore such franchises would probably
not equal in value the land contiguous
thereto That is. If a railroad used a
mile of public street, 1t would prob
ably not be assessed on 24A acres.
In no event could it be assessed for
more than that, and assuming In the
absence of exact information upon
that point, that the assessment would
be upon that amount of land at the
value of contiguous land, we have
basis for doing some figuring.
Now. taking Fremont county as an
example, and going over the whole
line of the different railroads in the
county with our county assessor. who
is familiar with the valuation of land
contiguous to the railroads, and max
ing very liberal allowance in cases
of doubt, we figured out that the as
sessment in this county could not ex-
coed $500, 900. There are 1921 miles
of railroad in Fremont county: Main
line of d. &c X. G., SIS miles; West
cliffe branch. 90 miles; Coal Creek
branch, 2.6 miles; Santa Fe main line,
20.4 miles; Rockvale branch, 1862
Florence & Cripple Creek, 2G.s2 miles;
Canon City & Cripple Creek, 7.3 miles
Total 1929 miles. Side tracks are not
included in the foregoing, and do not
cut any figure in this proposition, as
what we want to determine is, how
many miles of railroad property there
is containing 24h miles of land to the
mile. 1t makes no difference how
many tracks there would be for they
would be exempt
In our calculations we figured in
the depot ground in addition to the
strip 200 feet wide. According to our
figures the average assessment per
mile would be S2.425. There are 4.51S
miles of railroad in the state, which
multiplied by $2,425 gives total of
Sl0.956, $50 as total valuation of the
railroads of Colorado under the Buck
lin provision, according to our calcu-
lation. OF course this is not given as
exact. In some counties the railroads
run over land more valuable than in
other counties. but we take it that
Fremont county presents a fair aver
age, and therefore concluded that the
total is approximately correct.
Attorney Twitchell of Denver in
his address before the Bar association
upon the Bucklin amendment stated
that the railroad assessment in Colo
rado for 1901 was sl26,OO0.000, and
that under the provisions of said
amendment it could not exceed ten per
cent of the amount which would be
s12, 100000 which is pretty close to
our figures. We don't know upon
what basis he arrived at this result.
but that we should so nearly agree is
evidence of the correctness of the posi-
tion. Senator Bucklin has acknowl-
edged that the assessment on rail
roads under his amendment would be
less than under the present method
of assessment.
We overheard a very enthusiastic
advocate of the Bucklin amendment
telling what good times we would
have when 1t was adopted. The per.
son he was addressing, remarked,
You will have to put very heavy
tax on land" NO" replied the en-
thusiast. the tax on land will be
lighter" Where then will you get
the revenue?" returned the gentleman.
oh" replied the enthusiast I'VE will
get it from the corporations.
While the aim OF the single takers
is to destroy all land values and get ii
out OF individual ownership, they try
in every way to obscure that Durpose