The Bemidji daily pioneer. [volume] (Bemidji, Minn.) 1904-1971, 1908-05-01

to the Commission that the assess
ments are not made by men who
understand the business. The Com
mission can verify these estimates;
they were made by a reliab bic esti-
mator, and we brought them along
for the purpose of showing the
Commission that the assessme nts
ale grossly inadequate and that
the estimators are incompetent.
And all we want, and all we are
looking for, and all we ask of this
Commission is to have a proper
valuation made of the real estate
throughout the country.
McVey-How long would it take
to make an appraisal of territory
as large as Beltrami county?
MI. Getchell is pretty
hard to say.
Mr.. McVey-With the inform a.
ton that is already in existance.
Mr.. Getchel-Well it would take
year.
Mr.. McVey-How many men,
and the cost?
Mr.. Getchel-Well it would prob!
ably take five crews and three or
tour men in crew, shout fifteen
men at $500 day.
Mr.. McVey-It would be pretty
big proposition then. It would take
about $4,000 a month; cost about
$4,000 according to that statement.
to make an appraisal.
Mr.. Eddy think that the state
ment of the number of crews and
the time it would take is as near as
anyone could estimate it. Perhaps
the wages are little high; you can
get pretty good cruiser for $500 a
day and helpers for two and three
dollars, and expenses in addition to
that of course.
Mr.. McVey-It would cost prob
ably $4,000 or $4,000 to make
it.
Mr.. Lord-We cannot assume
that men who have been elected to
do a duty up there, are going ahead
this year and fail to do it, unless
there is some tangible proof.
Mr.. Neal-Perhaps eighty per
cent of the people there are entirely
disinterested. That has been the
condition in the new counties; and
they generally elect one of those.
and the real taxpayers have never
had much to say about it. Fully
eighty per cent of the legal voters in
new county are entirely disinter-
ested, and they elect the officers and
leave the business to them.
Mr.. McDonald-In four of the
towns, OF my own personal knowledge,
the town board of review last May
or June considered the question of
value that they should fix upon those
lands. so that is not matter that
has been overlooked by the town
boards of review. And these towns
are some that they designated as
timber towns-Hagali, Taylor, Alas
ka, Maple Ridge, etc, the town
boards of review had hearing and
parties appeared, and some of them
wanted the taxes reduced instead of
having them raised.
Mr.. Neal should like to see
this commission come in and re-
assess that county.
Mr.. McVey-There is no legal
warrant for doing that. The law
provides regular machinery for
an assessment. AS to the
proposition that we make an as
sessment now direct, we do not
think that we would be warranted
IN doing that. and i hardly think
we would be warranted in pre-
supposing that the assessors who
are elected this year will not make
q proper assessment until their re-
turns are actually made to us.
The commission sojourned until
2 o'clock in the afternoon, when
the session was resumed for the
purpose of listening to another dele.
cation, from the southern part of the
state.
It was evident that the commits
sion will exert every effort to bring
about a more equitable adjustment
Of assessments for taxation pur-
poses.