The Idaho Republican. [volume] (Blackfoot, Idaho) 1904-1932, 1913-08-08
YOUR TAXES WILL BE HIGH

lAcy W0IS pIOIIy Ai6h ie'"I JOs'i "Aiu
they will be high next year. Look
ing back down the line of years they
were less as you look farther back,
and they increase as they approach
the present time.
They are going to keep on increas-
ing, and we are going to tell youwhy.
It will not be because you become
more wealthy, not because you be-
come so affluent that you can enjoy
more things at time; you may get
more of this worlds goods, but you
will not be able to eat but one meal
at time; you can only sleep in one
bed at time, and so on down the
line of comforts, but supposing that
you retain the same property through
out the coming years, your taxes will
be higher, and you might as we'll get
reconciled to it in 1913 as at any 9TH
er time.
If you live in Bingham county, you
can begin by studying questions that
are SO close that you tread upon
them. Every time you go out upon
the roads you observe new grades
and new culverts. 1t is a popular
movement that everybody approves
OF and especially in the summer time.
At taxpaying time it will be different.
At the July meeting of the board of
commissioners the bills allowed for
roads and bridges amounted to about
$4,000 more than for the correspond
ing period of 1912 The bills for the
same quarter for 1912 made a total
of about $21 900 while in 1913 it was
about $4,000 and the county is Just
little smaller this year than last.
The roads and bridges are needed,
and the officials cannot make them
without spending money. At a mass
meeting of the taxpayers held last
December, it was agreed that too
much had been spent on bridges in
1912 and that there must be are
trenchment, but the same men who
talked and resolved at that meeting
have since been joining in the popular
demand for better highways, and get
ting them. Next December there will
be more mass meetings of taxpayers
because it will be time to pay, and a
vigorous protest will aid greatly in
relieving the pent-up feelings.
Last year the levy was high for
school purposes, and this year the
state apportionment is not so large
as last year, so the counties will
need to raise more. There is no OBJ
lection to having plenty of school
money, but it has to come from some
place, and necessarily you will be
called upon to pay, and pay in plenty.
What is true of the management of
county affairs Us true of state and ma
tional affairs. The same lines of &C
ton are followed, and the same men
who write platforms demanding econ
omy, join in asking for larger appro-
priations of public money.
A few weeks ago terrible tragedy
occurred at the Blackfoot asylum be-
cause of the crowded condition due
to lack of money for extensions.
Looking back to the time Idaho be-
came state, it will be remembered
that large land grants were made for
the maintenance of the insane asylum
and it was represented that these
lands could be gradually sold off and
great fund created, the interest of
which would support the institution
without taxing the people much II
anything for maintenance. The same
was said of other state institutions,
but each succeeding legislature has
greater troubles with the appropria-
tion bill, because of the great sums
needed by direct appropriation to
sustain them. Even now the govern
or shudders when he hears the name
Pocatello, because the academy is
there; the mere mention of Black
foot recalls the insufficient asylum
appropriation, Moscow needs more
money for the university, and Lewis
ton and Albion and sundry other
places have other needy state institu-
lions not taken care Of in the appro-
priatfon bill because you object to
paying taxes.
There was a long time when opti-
mistic people thought that when the
losses of the Civil war had
been paid off, that taxes could be
reduced, but in 1892 congress appro-
)riated billion dollars for the vari
JUS things needed, and it created a
scandal that brought about a change
If administration for one term. The ;
'eformers are again in power now,
nd the appropriations have exceeded !
billion and quarter for a single