Bisbee daily review., 1909-01-13
TERRITORIAL BOARD OF EQUALIZATION.

It has been suggested by Mir. Bowen of the Cochise county board of super visors. that the territorial board Of equalization should he the subject oT legislation by the coming legislature. The suggestion Is not a new one. but we regard it as an excellent one. It is proposed by Mir. fowen that here after tho ;essiteria, board of equali- zation should be composed of the chairmen'of the various boards of SUI pervisors of the territory. This rec ommendation has teen made sever al times in the past and it is hoped that the legislature will during the coming session iaile tho matter up and act faSorably Un it.
 If the territorial board of equali- zaiion was composed of one man from each county the board would be composed of men thoroughly informed as to the property values in every section of the territory. The chair men of -the board. of supervisors of the several counties are chosen by the people and they would be respon- sible to their constituents for their zcts on the equalization board. The
 resent board is composed of ap- pointees of government which make it subseryient to the dictation of the governor in fixing the value on the various classes of property in the territory.
 Cochise county has especial reason to be dissatisfied with the present system of equalizins assessed values in the territory. The mine owners of this county have been raised ir their assessment mary times withou regard to the value oi their propert, .n is not right that any one aa should have the r;gbi to arbitraril fix the value of property for taz. ton and in this we do not say tha anyone has acted dlshonestly wit Cochise county's assessment, but w, do say that several of the raises on the mining property have been unjus, and unjustifed.
 It is of record thar at one session of the territorial beard of oqualiza- ton the governor removed one of the members and appointed another who would agree to raise the. assessment of the mining property of the terri tory. One of the results of this change in the board was to increase the as sessment on mining property in this county 150O per cent. Afterwards it was decided that the. board had not followed the statues in making this outrageous increase in the aSsess ment and the eonhscatory increase in the assessment was thus annulled.
 other raises in the mining assess ment have been of sach 9 drastic na- ture as to cause cur local board oi supervisors to ignore the action oi the territorial board of equalization in making up the tay role. Two years ! ago Joe McCabe went before the ter ritorial board and plead for the mine owners of the county, but without avail. Only last year tho assessment of the non-produciug mines of Co ehisc county was increased coo pei cent.
 We believe that the people of Ari zona would much pefer to have th'
 assessments Of the territory equal ized by men elected by the peopl' than to trust to a board appointed b.
 the governor or anyone else. A ney
 system of equalizing the assessment
 of the territory should be inaugural ed by the coming legislature and VI believe no better plan can be sus gested than that the board be cor
 posed of the several ehairmen of tn
 boards of supervisors Of the territorl