Elmore County Republican. [volume] (Mountain Home, Idaho) 1910-1915, 1910-08-20
WHO PAYS THE TAXES.

uor question, and treating 1t solel
/ as an economic problem as it relate
to the material welfare and prosper
| ity of Gilmore County, and of Noun
| tain Home in particular, a resum
of the figures gives much food TO
thought A year ago Gilmore Count.
voted, by an extremely small major
ity, in favor of saloons, and that yer
! iict cannot be reversed for at leas
another year Unquestionably thu
voters will again be called upon t
register an expression of their view
just as soon as the period prescrib
ed by law has expired, unless in tht
meanwhile the present law shall
have been repealed and other legis
lation enacted.
A year ago the business interest.
of the county were almost solidly
aligned in favor of the saloons, ant
the vigorous campaign conducte,
by them undoubtedly prevented {
victory for the ''drys" Many argu
ments were advanced against put
ting the saloons out of business an,
seemed at the time to be sufficient.
~ weighty. 1t was urged that a heav,
Ter burden would be placed on the
taxpayers II the county should be
deprived of it's liquor licenses, and
also that trade legitimately belong
ing to Mountain Home would be at
tracted to ether towns where liquor
was sold; the theory being that
traders from the outlying districts
would go to the town that presented
he greatest attractions, and that
the merchants of Mountain Homo
would thereby lose a Large volum,
of their business
With a view to testing the sound
ness of these arguments, and allow.
ing the readers to draw their OWL
conclusions, brief abstract of the
tax roll and the revenue received by
Gilmore county and Mountain Home
is given herewith there being no in
tention to comment one way or the
other on the situation The figures
used are for the year 1909, as tn,
tax levy for 1910 will not be set b,
the county missioners until Sep
TENDER.
The assessed valuation of Elmor
county property was, in round mum
bers, $l,300,000, exclusive of rail
roads and telegraph lines. The fou
saloons in Mountain Home were as
sessed for merchandise and fixtures
"a, 1875, so that the proportion of tn
state, county and school tax born
by the saloon interests of Mountai
Home, so far as taxes directly lev
led are concerned, Is three one-hur
dredths of one per cent an amour
which, If the county should be dc
prived of 1t, would add PRACTICAL
nothing to the burden of the taz
payers. To be more exact. the totf
revenue derived from the levy fc
state, county and school district N,
6 taxes was $93.917.81 and of thi,
amount the stock and fixtures in tn
four Mountain Home saloons yielde
$175.31.
The four saloons in Mountai
Home pay annual licenses of SIS
each, or a total of $4,000. The mon
is apportioned $500 to school di
trict No. 6; $500 to the road fun
which goes to the village of Mou.
tain Home for street work an
$500 to the state.
The total amount expended for Il
last school year was $4,000. {
this amount the four saloons cor
tributed $500. The assessed val
alton of property in the district is.
in round numbers, 100000, so if
this license money was not available
ope-fourth of one per cent wor Id be
added to the tax levy provided the
money was needed.
The four saloons pay an annual
license of $500 each to the village
of Mountain Home. or a total of
$500, in addition to the $1,000 de-
rived from the state licenses, max
ing grand total of $4,000. The as
sessed valuation of property in the
village of Mountain Home was, in
round numbers, 1891 200 and the
tax levy was s110. If it was neces-
sary to increase the tax levy in or
der to produce revenue to take the
place of the $4,000 now derived from
the saloons, the tax levy would
have been made $l,l6, which would
increase the burden of the tax payers