Morning appeal. [volume] (Carson City, Nev.) 1877-1906, 1903-10-02
vaE OTHER s.oe.

vuE OTHER ssoe. e
a cemmissionsr Expssins He eess-
Replying to the 1uerzy Of he State
Board Of Revenue relative to the com
plant of District Attorney Warren, re-
lative to the railroad land assessment
in Humboldt county, B. F. Riley, Chair
man Of the Board Of County Commits
sioners, writes to the Board that the
matter will come up for consideration
ON October 5tA, ct the adjourned meet.
ing of the Board Of Equalization.
Commissioner Haviland gives the
following q his reasons for the present
val~atioa of rail road lands in Hum
boldt:
This complaint or protest laid before
she Board q Equalization, BY the Dis
trict Attorney. With respect to tyal,aa.
tioa placed upon unimproved paten-
ted and contract lands assessed to in
dividual or corporate owners other
than the Central Pacific Railroad COM
pany, and the valuation placed on pat
entsd and unpatented lands Of that
company wherein it is claimed that
great discrimination is made in favor
of the railroad company is not warrane
ed by fact and is not supported by any
evidence of the respective values Of
the said lands. zsfass~ n,-, 3
The value placed on the rail road
counties is given great prominence IL
the complaint, and seemingly put forth
as conclusive evidence of the under.
valuation in Humboldt county But
compare the lands the railroad COM
pany owns in these counties with the
lands they own in Humboldt county
and see if this county is not getting
as fair tax as they. 81
II the barest, dryest desert, with l,o
water available for irrigation, is Ct
the same value as the best watered
1Auf OcSI abs COuuly III Tic oldlc,
if dry, barren hills are of the same
value as those covered with timber
then, and not till then, should the val
uatiOn in theabove mentioned counties
be considered the same as in Humboldt
county.
An exactly true valuation of aay
NJ fhoco 1on dc no, NV
man or set of men OF ordinary intelii
gence What law and justice require
is that lands of substantially the same
value be valued and assessed equally
The officers fixing the value Of the
lands Of the respective owners must
consider all the facts and circumstan
ces that make up the value and FIX
the value accordingly; when this Is
done fairly and impartially the value
of one is in proportion to the va;ue
OF the other.
In the complaint it is submitted tha
the valuation returned on the railroad
lands in the county is from 100 to 4OI
per cent below the valuation of SINH
lar lands when assessed to individual
or corporate owners in this county
Why not, when the public has cullet
the land and the railroad company a
this time only owns such lands as tht
public has not thought worth purchas
ing?
Last year the company IN this coun
ty held 162, O52 acres of patented lanl
which was assessed at 70 cents PEI
acre and the unpatented at cent!
per acre, amounting In round number;
to about 100000 acres. This year, on
of this 8OO,O 900 acres, the company ha
patented about $4,000 acres, which
added to the 10000 acres. makes II
round figures 542, 489 acres of patentet
land, which is assessed at so cents pc
acre. In this change Humboldt count.
has not in any sense suffered. TIL
truth is that the total valuation of tn
railroad company's lands in HumbOl
is about $15O,OOV higher than ever ~
fore, and the county will receive thi
year in taxes from three to four tho,
sand dollars more from the railroa
company than last year. If this is show
ing this company any special favor.
fail to see where it comes in.
The balance of the Board, as We
as myself, desire to meet out the sam
justice to the railroad company as I
any other taxpayer in this county :
no more; no less, and l am satisfie
being familiar with the general cha
acter of the company's lands at thi
time, that the valuation placed O
them by the Assessor is just and re:
sonable and believe there is no ma
in Humboldt county who would TAX