Arizona republican., 1913-07-29
Representatives of Boards of Supervisors, Clerks of Boards and County As sessors Meet With State Tax Commission
MATTERS OF TAX
 EQUALIZATION
Prominently Before Body in Endeavor to Find More Equitable System for Equalizing Values-Want Uniform County Levy

i The gigantic task of equalizing values over the entire state of Ari- Zona is that has by law been placed upon the state board of equal 1 izatiOn The state board of equaliza- 1 tion is composed of the tax commis- sion, that the central taxing au- | thority has a dual power. In its I capacity however as a tax commits sion this body is now engaged with 1 delegates from every board of super ViSOrs in the state, every assessor and every supervisors clerk in going
 over in open meeting the original i tax rolls in every county so as to form basis complete and satisfac- | tory upon which to do this work. 1 The meeting now in progress at
 the state house also has another | function. than a more equitable sys- tenn for equalizing values, and that is to obtain if possible the basis of uniform tax rate for the counties, although this is regarded a task no less large than that of equalizing state values. There are fourteen counties in the state, each with
 fixed expense, and no two of the
 counties have the same population or wealth. In many cases however the
 expense per county is almost the
 same.
 Heretofore it has been a simple
 matter to fix the rate Of staxation
 for state purposes That naturally is
 uniform. because the rate is the same
 everywhere in the state, but the oth-
 CT proposition to make counties uni
 form with each, other is an entirely
 different task. In order to do this
 zz.
 work in providing that all property
 should be assessed at it's full cash value. and then gave the tax commis
 sion almost arbitrary power to fix higher or lower any valuations that
 it might find in the state.
 In the course of the work of ob
 taining the full valuation upon all classes of property within the state
 this year, last year the property was assessed at but fifty per cent, it was found that the many different ideas of what constituted cash value in the different counties brought about mat ters of conflict. and although the tax commission has full and complete power over every assessing and tax ing and equalizing body within the state, il was thought best to bring all the county officials most nearly affected by the work of the tax com mission in one large meeting so that what changes were found necessary to be made in the original tax rolls of each county could be made in the presence of all the counties, the req son for it explained, and each county treated with absolute fairness.
 In addition to this there was an other motive that actuated the com tI of ba supervisors, assessors and supervisors clerks into a series of public sessions. Since the commission has insisted upon a full cash value on all kinds of property, the railroads and mines of the state, which this year will pay a large percentage of the taxes, have been busily engaged in finding values in every county, tabulating them so as to show the full cash value there of and has then submitted full re- port of the whole state to the tax commission showing what assess ments were made, and what the val ues according to the railroad actually are. This was a measure of self-de- fense on the part of the large busi- ness interests.
 T. E. Campbell, county assessor of Yavapai had such a list at the meet ing yesterday afternoon ana COntln- ually referred to it in finding what values should be set against certain classes of property. It was found however that even though the rail roads had prepared such a report. that the raises upon certain property has been exceedingly high For in stance. city lots in St Johns were raised thirty times as high as they were last year, and Miami city lots went over forty times as high
 The method used in the meeting is to have the supervisors of the being worked over, with the clerk and assessor also up front, take up the duplicate return that is made to the tax commission and then go down every item in the list asking questions as to how the values are found on that particular class of property The officials under fire are not only subjected to questions rrom the members of the tax com mission but also from every member of the meeting. The house of repre- chamber. where the meet rgs are being held, was better filled han it was at any time during the
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