Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1903-06-20

it down to what will be legal or proper
rates, say $4,000; then there VII be
substractions., Take out first what it
costs to run the plant, the operating
expenses. They will take out next the
| taxes, and | believe they will take out
not what this company is being i'm
| properly taxed at but the taxes that
they ought to pay by law. for this
question under the principles of this
case is to be made up not on what the
company is doing, not on what has
been done i'll the past, but on what is
legal and right. Agents of this COM
pany go about these streets telling us
that the plant IS worth $650,000. Are
they paying taxes on that amount? In
assessing taxes the same rule applies
as with your house and mine. it is the
amount it will sell for in the open mar
ket. If their claim on the streets of
Augusta is true that they ought 10 re-
ceive $650,000 for this property, they
should pay taxes on that amount. TO
you know what they pay on? The
treasurer of this company went before
the Board of Assessors this very spring
and took the ground that because tne;r
pipes were underground, and sixteen
years old, that they should not have a
higher valuation than $4,000. Howdo
you reconcile the two statements?
$4,000 for taxation and $3.50 900 for us
to pay when we buy. When this case
gets before these three referees, YOU
will find some interesting testimony.
There is another deduction. There
has got to be deducted out of what
they annually receive a certain amount
for annual depreciation or run down
of the plant. The Supreme Court gives
the law, which is perhaps as good law
as that now IN circulation in the city.
l have been in practice twenty seven
years and | always prefer to take my
law from that given by the Supreme
Court. l sometimes go out of the court
room, after running up against the Su-
preme Court, feeling like the little boy
who had the difficulty with the mule.
If we should stop right there we
should have theoretically perfect wa
ter company. 1t is the very path the
city of Augusta will go through when
it has its hearing before the appraisers.
1t contemplates n company in good
shape and condition, one whose plant
was well built and has been kept up
ever since, whose water supply is an
right. Now take the rules that l have
given you and assume that the plant is
all right in it's mechanical condition
and assume that it's water supply
is all right and pure and you take
the result of these figures and put
them upon what is called a per cent
basis, that is, multiply them by 20 and
you will get the value of the plant
Well, the trouble about this proposition,
gentlemen, is that this is neither theor-
etically nor practically n perfect water
plant with perfect water supply and
the court has covered those very points
If n plant has run down or was badly
built in the first place, n proper sum is
to be estimated by the referees after
hearing proof Of the amount needed to
put that plant in proper shape, and that
is stricken out of the purchase money
Some of you have lived here sixteen
years, you watched the building of the
water works. You know,-you me-
chanics all know-that it was a badly
constructed system when it was put in
You know what sort of reservoir it was,
and you know how they had to build it
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