Graham guardian., 1906-11-23

| 0NiOu Uu du SquoilNy VIII lNub v
other property, raised the valua
tion Of patented mines in the terri
tory from s2,50O,O 900, as returned
| by the local officers Of the variou,
counties, to Sll 100000.
| 1t should be borne in mind tha
the valuation of improvements OF
these mines was not attempted Il
be affected. The raise was upor
the value of the mines only anC
not upon any other property o
the mine owners.
| The officers OF some OF the coun
ties, charged by law with the duty
of making these raises effective
refused 10 do so. To determine
the legal questions raised by the
action of the territorial board,
will state them as they were stated
in the opinion of the district at
torney Of the counties (it being the
duty of the district attorney to ad
wise the county officials upon legal
mAtters,) who, in writing, advised
the local board TO ignore the ac
tion of the territorial board. He
advised his board AS follows;
/, The territorial board OF
equalization may, for the purpose of
adjusting aud equalIzing, increase
the aggregate value of ose county
and decrease that Of another, but
II has no power to increase the ag
gregste valuation of property
above the valuation returned by
the boards of supervisors of the
several counties
2. The territorial board of
equalization, IN equalizing and ad
juHting property Valuations be.
tween the several counties, has no
power to increase or decrease the
valuations Of certain kinds, class
es, or grades of property within
any county. The territorial board
must deal with the respective val,
uations as returned by the counties
as entities, by making such
changes in each county, as a whole
as will relatively equallzs the en-.
tire property values in the differ
ent counties.
Practically applied, these two
propositions meant, first, that, no
matter how low property in one
county might be assessed, the
property in that county could Rot
be raised unless property in other
counties, even though properly as
,sssed, was lowered, so that aggre
gate valuation of all property in
the territory should remain as or.
iginalIy returned; and, second, even
if it be found in a given county
that 4 mine worth unquestlonably
81, 900, 900 Wss valued by the focal
board at Sl0,000-that is to say,
st 2 per cent of It's value-and a
mans house and lot in the same
county, worth $4,000 wSs assessed
at $4,000 that is to say at 80 per
cent of its value, that the tsrritor-
ial board had no power to place
the mine to somewhere near its
value without raising the value of
the house and lot in the same ratio.
That is, if the mine was raised to
so per cent of its value. which re-
quirsd that its returned value
must be multiplied by so, the vnlu-
alton of the house and lot nust be
multiplied by SO, the valution of
the $4,000 house and lot for tho
purposes Of taxation 100000.
The sbsurdity of this interpreta
tioa needs no discussion. If our
statute really meant that and was
capable of no other construction
it ought to have been held void 80
being repugnant TO all notions of
justice. Fit were capable Of any
other construction, it should be
given it.
The statute created the territor,
ial board of equalization and
charged it with the duty of equal
izing the valuations, and for the
purpose required the property to
be classified in groups and 80 re-
turned; and the fact appears that
during the eighteen years that this
law has been in force every class
of property other than "pateuted
mines" has been raised or lowered,
and no one ever before questioned
the powers Of the board to so deal
with classes of property. Follow
ing the attempt to raise the valua.
ton of that kind of property in
cluded IN the classification "patent
ed Mines" the power of the terri
torial board to do so was asssiIed,
and, strangely enough, the dis
trict attorneys of several counties
elected by the people and made
legal advisers for the benefit of the |
people were the first and most per-
sistent assailants Of this effort of
the territorial board to equaIine
taxes by raising the values Of the
grossly undervslued mining prop
erty, and to that extent relieving |
the property Of thesmaIl but num-
erous taxpayers whose property |
was, relatively to the mines and
grossly overvaIuCd.
The local board OF supervisors
which received the advice of the