Arizona republican., 1913-07-30
Supervisors from Over the Hills Want Some Return on Wealth and Value of Roosevelt Dam, Canals and Power Lines
SUBMERGED AREAS
 IN CELIA COUNTY
Once Was Agricultural and Grazing Land Upon Which Taxes Were Paid. Matter Explained to the Supervisors

That GiIa county is jealous of the rapid strides ir prosperity that have been made in MaricOpa county because of the erection of the Roosevelt dam, was a sentiment voiced by Hon. Pat
 Rose, of Gila, a member of the board
 of supervisors, and attending the tax conference now being held in the house Of representatives, during yesterdays
 session. Not that MT. Rose and his bretheren in Gila are actually jealous because every man or woman who lives
 in the Salt River Valley is getting
 along well, but speaking from the
 standpoint of Gila county. the building
 of the Roosevelt dam, and the sub
 merging of a vast area of agricultural
 and grazing land thereby. in order that
 the Salt River valley might be made a
 prosperous place, had deprived Gila county of all the taxable wealth that had been created in the Tonto district prior to the erection of the dam.
 In addition to this. MT. Rose eX- plained that the boards of supervisors and county assessors the state over had made assessments against every little private dam over every little stream in the stated assessing it for full cash value, but the biggest one of it's kind in the United States, project costing ten millions of dollars, which the farms in the Salt River valley were mort tagged to pay for had not been assessed q single cent. In addition to this he drew attention to the value of the canals. and the power system all of which were income producing prop erty, and which the farms were mortg- aged as security to secure payment.
 Mr Rose went on to say that prior to the erection of the Roosevelt dam. there were large numbers of settlers along the Salt and Tonto creeks who were paying taxes upon their property and that there were numbers of sheep men on the grazing land there who also paid into the coffers of Gila county taxes upon the property they held Since this area had been submerged no cent of taxes had been paid to Gila, in addition to which during the cOnstruc-
 tion of the dam the county of Gila paid out of it's funds for the purpose of policing the camps.
 In connection with this statement.
 which was made by the unanimous consent of the meeting, it was eX-
 plained that the subject really had no place upon the calendar of subjects for
 discussion, but Frank Luke for Mir
 Roses information said that while it
 was true that the property in the val- ley had been and is mortgaged to pay the cost of the Roosevelt dam, the cen-
 tral government has not yet made any
 demand for the payment of the cost or
 the project. so all the money spent m
 it's construction has been government
 funds He drew attention to the fact
 that before the dam was built and reg
 ular water received on the land, Mari copa county was assessed under $9.000,-
 600 whereas this year, with regular supply of water and assurance of good
 crops the assessments in the county had climbed to s65,000.000 and might
 possibly go to $75,0OO,00O.
 Assessor j. T. Bone of Maricopa county asked if it was not true that GiIa county was being benefited by the prosperity of Maricopa county, for it was certain that Gila county would obtain from the state certain funds derived from taxation in Maricopa county, just as all other counties shared in the general funds of the state in matters of disbursements that were made through the proper and justified channels.
 William Riggs of Cochise suggested that as the discussion had not place on the calendar it be discontinued and the regular order be taken up, which was agreed to. Prior to this. however it was brought out that when the Roosevelt project is completed and turned over to the farmers to operate under the Jurisdiction of the water us- CTS association, that being corpora ton and possessing this property, 1t ! will be subject to taxation just as all | other corporate property is subject to i taxation, but at present it belongs wholly to the federal government, and 1 the states have no power to collect or l even levy taxes against federal prop erty.
 i The whole discussion was agreed to l have been a very interesting matter.
 Under the regular order yesterday as soon as the meeting convened in the
 morning. the Apache county list was ! taken up further and discussed. The l sheep, cattle, merchandise stocks, and 1 all sorts and classes of property in the 1 county Cochise followed Apache and | GiIa followed Cochise. Graham coming next All went through the same cate- (Continued on Page Three)