The river press. [volume] (Fort Benton, Mont.) 1880-current, 1906-08-01
The River Press.
Published erery Wednesday, Morning
By the Rirer Press Publish
ing Company.
THE RAILROAD ASSESSMENT.

The action of the state board OF
equalization in placing upon railroad
property a higher valuation than has
prevailed heretofore, viii! meet with
the approval of Montana citizens gen.
orally. The increase, according to
newspaper reports. is about 12s per
cent. compared with the assessment
values of last year.
Even at this new valuation, the
members of the state board cannot
pretend that they have complied with
the statutory requirement that rail.
roads, as we'll as other taxable prop
erty, be assessed at their full cash
value. The railroad assessment. at
the new valuation, amounts to about
$40, DOC, 600, while railroad property
in Montana, according to statisticiaus
of the federal census bureau, is
worth about 1896, 900, 900. No other
class of taxable property in Montana,
so far as known, is assessed at about
one.ffth of what the laws require.
The county authorities in various
parts of Montana were recently called
to account by the state examiner for
their alleged dereliction of duty in
failing to properly assess certain
classes Of property within their iur-
isdiction. The state board of equali.
z~ation, which has always failed to
comply with the law in assessing rail.
road property, appears to be q pro-
per subject for discipline at the hands
of our state ex Examiner.
The owner Of a large amount OF tax.
able property, whether the taxpayer
be a priv ate citizen or q corporation,
should not enjoy immunity from any
of the obligations imposed by the law.
The wealthy taxpayer and the citizen
who owns only q few dollars worth
OF taxable property are placed upon
the same footing by the law, which
says their possessions must be as.
sessed at the full cash value of the
property. To what extent this statu-
tory requirement is ignored BY state
officials appears in the railroad as.
sessment for this and former years.
This under-valuatiOn Of railroad
property for assessment purposes has
neen practiced under the various ad.
neutrality-suspicious., democratic
and populist. From 1890 to 1897, the
Northern Pacific and Great Northern
were assessed at 1885 to 81, 400 per
mile. During the uext four years the
valu atiOns were increased to s., 800
per mile. From 1901 to last year,
the assessment Of the main lines of the
larger systems was raised to about
sl4, 400 per mile.
Will any Intelligent person contend
that the greater the amount OF taxable
property a citizen or corporation
owns, the less it should be assessed by
the public authorities: Should the
small property owner be assessed 100
cents on the dollar, while the more
wealthy taxpayer is assessed at 20
cents IN the dollar:
The ownership of u large amount of
assessable property calls for the pay
ment OF q large amount in taxes. The
demand for such payment, however
large it may be, works no injustice
whatever to any taxpayer who has the
wealth to which the tax %levies apply.
In the ease of the railroads, there is
ample evidence that their property is
worth considerably more than the
valuation placed upon it by the state
board.