Arizona republican., 1912-06-28
Valuation of Mines for Pur- poses of Taxation Have Quadrupled According to Reports From Assessor of That County
BASIS OF VALUATION
 AMOUNT OF BULLION
But This Year It Is Being Put in at Its Full Value Instead of Twenty five Per Cent As Heretofore Assessed

There is strong probability that panies will enter a vigorous protest against the assessments made against their properties by the coun- ty assessors, and to obtain relief from what, in at least one or two instances has been termed an in equitable assessment" they may car- " the cases to the state tax com mission.
 At all events rumors to that ef- feet have been floating round for the past day or two; and while none of the companies has made a direct statement as to the intentions it is known that considerable dissatisfac ton exists And as the state tax commission is the court of last re- sort in this matter it follows that if an appeal is to be made it will be made to that body.
 The members of the commission themselves were inclined to be non committal when questioned about this matter yesterday. No formal notice of any intended protest had come to them they said. They did say how ever. that some of the assessors have turned in their reports and a glance at these reports shows that there is quite a wide margin between the figures for this and for the preced- ing year That is. there is such mar gin except in the case of the big Tombstone Consolidated mines where the property is rated substantially as it was rated last year. This valua- tion is something in excess of S1O2. .OO0
 A few figures, however, taken from those already in, are Illuminating As an illustration the returns from Yavapai county may be cited. In 1911 the assessor thought that a mat ter of $1.6O4. .O00 would be about the right kind of valuation for the pro- ducing mines of that Bailiwick. This year the man with the lead pencil and the tally sheet made the figures s5. .260,0 900. which is something of an increase if anybody happens to ask you or not. An increase of approxl- mately $50 per cent is noticeable. to say the least.
 And the same thing holds good in Cochise county. whose mines are more valuable than those of Yavapai. Wherefore. if the assessors figures stick and nobody has been found who says they will not-the states eXchequer is in a fair way to profit immensely by the policy now in force
 It all came about in this way. There used to be, as everybody knows, bullion tax That is. the mines were assessed on the basis of D per cent of the value of the output. But when the legislature came along it repealed the bullion tax and put the matters of assessments in the hands of the state tax commission. The commits sion. of course passed along the de- tails to the various county assessors. The principal change consists III the rate of valuation. Instead of a D per cent rate a 100 per cent rate was adopted. this matter being now part of the statute law of the state. Then. as no other basis for making a valuation Ceemed handy, the valu- ation of 1911 was adopted from which the figuring was to be done This explains why the assessed val nation of the producing mines in the state is now, in most cases. just about four times what it was year ago This also explains why some of the mining companies are objecting If the states eXchequer is to be en- riched as indicated above it follows that somebody has to furnish the money. In this case that honor has fallen on the mining companies. There are some other advances too, which will affect local corporations. County Assessor John T. Bone has 1 been authorized to raise the assess ment against the local street railway | tcompany from s50.000 to s75.ooo, which is just a 50 per cent increase.
 Some other increases are also prob able. it is said but details regarding them are lacking.