The Bemidji daily pioneer. [volume] (Bemidji, Minn.) 1904-1971, 1912-10-30

| James L. George has been the aud
itor of Beltrami county for two years
and during that time has conducted
the Office in a manner which has
aroused the admiration of all who
have come in contact with it.
Officials of the state pronounce his
Office one of the best kept in the
state. Such an endorsement takes on
additional weight when the duties
of the auditor are considered:
1. He is county bookkeeper.
| 2. He is member of the county
board of audit.
3. He is the chief executive OIL
Ger of the tax levy and collection de-
partment of the county, which in
cludes meetings at least once a year
with all of the town assessors.
f.. He is an ex-oficio member and
secretary of the board of county COM
missioners
5. He is entrusted with the rec
ords of the bonds issued to cover
ditch Improvements and must charge
the interest and principal of each
year against the lands benefited.
6. He must watch all ditch mat
tiers to see that surveys are properly
made, reports submitted and est
mates filed correctly.
Z. He must enforce the collection
of delinquent taxes
8. He must certify that all taxes
against any property have been paid
before deed to that property can be
registered with the register of deeds.
g. He must register and counter
sign every mortgage on which the
registration tax is paid
10. He must prepare the pri-
mary and general election ballots,
seeing that each candidate received
square deal" He must also watch
the expense accounts of candidates
to see that they are filed on time and
that they do not show expenditures
in excess of the legal limit.
II. He. must care for the Office
correspondence which amounts to
from twenty to forty hours work
| each week. This consists mainly in
answering questions as to the state
of county work, statistics, ETC.,
/ u. Every financial transaction
to which the county is party orig
mates and ends in the Office of the
county auditor. He must also ac-
count for every cent paid into and
out of the county treasury.
Increase In County Business.
When Mr. George became county
auditor two years ago there had been
no records kept of the receipts is
sued for tax sales and no set of tax
levy books. Mr.. George had to open
both sets of books and check up the
work from the time the county was
| organized. Up to 1910 there had
been 546 receipts of all kinds issued
while there have been 1920 since he
assumed his Office. The figures show
that the work of this one depart
ment has trebled since he has been
auditor. The amount of work neces-
STATED by these 1920 receipts is in
Dictated that each receipt has nine
different entries before the work is
finally completed and that each in
wolves considerable correspondence.
/ The personal property assessment
book is also kept by the auditor.
This book contains the amount of
tax levied on the personal property
in Bemidji, the nine villages, the
ffty-two organized towns and all of
the unorganized towns in the county.
The book contains three entries to
each description: the first is that of
/ the assessors; the second is that of
the county board of equalization;
and the third is that of the state
tax commission Each set must be
Figured and balanced by the auditor
before the books can be closed.
The auditor is also a general as
CONTINUED on lasr paSo).