Weekly journal-miner., 1911-11-29

tion was $7,411, ,OOo. Today the as
 sessed valuation of this county is
 $1l ,942 ,0O0, or an increase of 60 per
 cent. I have heard this, yes, the
 taxatiOns in this county has gone up
 and the tax rate has gone down but
 the extravaganza of the board of su-
 pervisors has been such that there is more money expended today for
 county purposes than there was five years ago and the people are paying the same proportion of taxes
 ''I want to ask you men and wom- en here who are taxpayers and who were assessed upon your awnings in 1906, if your taxes are not less today than at that timei
 "As to the extravaganza of the present board. Do you people ap- preciate what the present board of has expended in the pub lie improvements in this eounty-in it's jail, in its plaza, which today is the finest plaza in the territory and a credit to this county (applause); and in your county poor farm upon which they have expended $25,0O0. In all they have expended over an hundred thousand dollars, which stands and always will stand as a monument to that board. And vet in 1906 the levy for county purposes was 1925 while now it is $1.15. An other thing, you people who are old timers here and have known me from the time I was boy packing milk around here-all of you know that I have usually been on the square. (Great applause).
 "When I accepted this office it was hidden away in a bank building because they did not have room in the court house, and my predecessor gave me four field books which I could put under my arm. Those were the records which ] started with. To- day the county assessors office of this county is the best appointed as sessor's office in the territory and I am glad to say is the standard for all the other assessors offices in the territory
 "I spent five weeks going over the domain of land grants in the north ern part of the territory, taking and attempting to class ify them with the result that we re- turned to the board recommends ton for their raise. That reeOmmen- lation was not carried out altogether. However. we did obtain raise of about 1O5 per cent, so that these land grants now pay $sl,oOO every year n taxes to the county.
 "The city lots and improvements which particularly interest you peo- ,le here in Prescott were assessed in 1906 at s1,474,OOO; today they are assessed at $1,754,OO, or a per cent increase of 19. In other words there las been less increase in the value If city lots and improvements in this county, which covers such places as Mayer, Congress, Ash Fork, Selig- nan, Jerome and Prescott, than in my other class of property, and why! The answer is that the property is lot worth any more today than it vas five years ago aJ which time 'ound it assessed upon a basis which | thought was reasonable and equit- | Ible with other classes of property. | That is the story.
 Heretofore banks were assessed | in this territory and in l his county. I am believer in the l act that no assessment that is ar ived at arbitrarily is good assess nent, and since the first year of my | in office I had attempted | with other assessors throughout the | erritory to get together on the equit- i Ible assessment of the banks, with | he result that through the forma- ion of the Arizona Assessors asso- | iation we did decide upon what we believed an equitable assessment of | banks, with the result that the banks lave been raised s4 per cent.
 "The exemption of $2oO worth of for heads of families, who | lave only a little furniture and lot f children, is to my mind proper. 1 | relieves a hardship upon you, upon he assessor and upon the tax agents. The revenue derived therefrom is not worth the trouble and the expense equired to collect it.
 "'If you think can handle the im- ,ortant work of the assessors office which will come with statehood I