The Rathdrum tribune. (Rathdrum, Idaho) 1903-1963, 1905-09-22
TAX MATTER EXPLAINED,
Constitutional Limit docs not
Apply to Special Levics.
ATTY. GENERALS OPINION.
Special Mil Tax to COL
lect County Indebtedness.

I~FSSOA 0AA AdA " NVA'
lect County Indebtedness.
The following extracts from ar
article in the Idaho Daily States
man purports to explain quite fully
the controversy which has arisen
between the state and the five
northern counties concerning the
tax limitation which the counties
claim the state has exceeded:
The action of the northern coun-
ties of Idaho in the matter of re-
fusing to pay their share of state
taxes, because the amounts appor-
toned to them exceed the consti-
tutional limit of S mills on an as
sessed value of $50, 900, 900, is ex-
planned by Attorney General Gu
heen and State Auditor Bragaw as
an effort to evadc the payment of
about S25, 900 of old Indebtedness
due the state on account Of delin-
quent taxes.
Kootenai, Nez Perce, Shoshone,
Idaho and Latah counties have
combined in a refusal to abide by
the figures sent out to them by the
state board of equalization, basing
their refusal upon the provisions
Of section 8, article 7 OF the state
constitution, which provides that
the rate of taxation for state pur-
poses shall not exceed five mills on
the dollar when the assessed valu-
alton of.the state is between $50, :
900, 900 and $1oo, 900, 900. The
assessed valuation of Idaho this
year is approximately $75, 900, 900.
The county attorneys Of the five
northern counties have advised
the various county auditors not to
extend the state levy on the rolls,
which will probably result in fore
ing the state 10 bring mandamus
proceedings to compel them to do
so.
The state administration is in
clined to believe that the real ami
mus is a desire on the part of the
counties named to evade the pay
ment to the state of the sums of
money apportioned to them as due
and payable this. year on account
of old debts, arising. from unpaid
state taxes in past years caused by
tax delinquencies in the counties,
All the counties in the state
since Idaho was admitted into the
Union, have taken the position
that the state should bear its pro-
| portion of the burden of losses in
the way of delinquent taxes.
Prior to the legislative session oi
1895, the state policy of levying a
specified mill levy against the
counties of the state was pursued.
AS a result many delinquencies
occurred in the various counties
and the state frequently found it.
self short of funds. The 1895 ses
sion of the Legislature remedied
this evil by the enactment Of Law
appropriating a fixed sum for gen.
,eral necessary and current state
expenses, to be raised by ia,
levied against the various counties
Thus each county was ordered te
pay into the state Golfers fixee
sum, not to be changed or de
creased even SO much as one cen
by delinquent tax payers.
| However, old debts due from
the counties remained, and it wa.
to collect these that the las
legislature enacted a law, levyinf
a tax of not to exceed one mill
against each county in the state
and the money derived from th'
collection Of this tax was to be de
voted to the liquidation of that cls
Indebtedness. Under the provi
sion of this act the state board 0
equalization called upon all tn