Arizona republican., 1913-08-13

1 Total raise --.......... ..'.. The announcement was made by tre state tax commission yesterday | tG the county boards of equalization l that the tax rate for state purposes will be this year. as announced in l the morning issue of this paper l forty nine and onc-haf cents, but l this did not interest the citizens of 1 Phoenix and Maricopa county half as much as did the information that | there had been q raise of $3.9l6.073S0, 1 included in which were the following | items: cultivated land, which received 1 the brunt of the raise, $3,02--14S. This raise was q flat ten per cent raisa | on the entire acreage of 4Sl,9S1 acres | rcga rdIess of the equalizinE value of 1 the land. or whether some of the land would thus be placed above cash val ue A five per cent raise was made cn town and city lots for $So3,19125. Work horses in the county were raised 20 per cent. making $61.956.7O Jacks came in for raise of twenty per cent, making $fGS. The Boston Stores stock of merchandise was raised from $25.oO0 to $70,000, making 1 a difference of $15.oO0 Ezra W. l Thayer's stock of merchandise was raised from $75,000 to $S0 900, diff l ference of 5000. NJ. GoldWatcr and | Brothers stock of merchandise was raised from &66.2"Q to $70,ooo, a diff | ference of $&,71O.
 As soon as the news became noised around town some of the taxpayers were in favor of resisting the raise, and defying the tax commission. There were plenty of statements made to the effect that the thirteen other counties of the state assisted by he | railroads and the mines had con | spirod together to make q heavy rai~c
 on the valuations in Maricopa county They claimed that this had been | brought out in the tax conference that was held at the state house some 1 two weeks ago.
 At the instance of some of them Frank Lyman. county attorney and 1 legal advisor to the county board of | supervisors, was wired asking his | opinion of a horizontal raise of ten per cent. and he replied that he did not th!nk it was legal However tt was decided to hold an informal I meeting of the larger of the tax | payers in the city at the office of l the county supervisors last evening | to discuss the matter.
 | This was done and about thirty of l them assembled and went through the 1 details of the matter with the super l Nisors Quite q number of IIe men l jolled about it and said that they were glad they had been made richer l by the tax commission. It was eX- | Jlained to the men present tlat at | the tax conference there was enough | evidence furnished which the mem | bers from Maricopa were in no DO | sition to refutc because first, it would l take too much time, and second, it 1 would cost d large amount of money which the supervisors were not authorized to eXpend for that pur- 1 pose. to completely convince the tax 1 commission that a raise was needed
 in Maricopa county. The raise vas l forthcoming in consequence.
 The consensus of the meeting was 1 that nothing could be done and that | the county board of supervisors had l better go ahead and submit to the l raise. but at Brady O'NciI expressed | it, they won't catch us mapping next 1 time" The tax commission is em- 1 powered by law with full and com plete power over all the taxing bodies of the state, and can do as it plcascs l in the way of giving orders to the I assessors, or county boards of equal | ization, and can at the annual meet | ing of the state board raise or lower l assessments in the various counties as in it's judgment seems necessary. There are other counties that were ! 1aised by the board of equalization, l and there are counties that were low | cred as q reference to the table here with printed will show. In speaking 1 of the raise yesterday the tax com 1 missioners said that they decided l upon flat raise of ten per cent only 1 after consulting with a board of 1 prominent real estate men who went all over the assessed values for Mari 1 copa county, and expressed their
 | opinion that the raise ought to
 amount to twenty per cent In order 1 to thoroughly equalizc the values it l would have been necessary to take | each parcel of land in the county, ap- 1 praise it and assess the value, then | notify the owner. then devote some
 | time to hearing the individual pro
 l tests upon the prospective raise. The
 chief argument of going to all this
 end in obtaining the actual cash value | as required by law, was that the
 | time between now and the time the
 | tax collectors must begin getting the
 money was entirely too short to per l init of it.
 | MariCOpa county board of super
 visors yesterday expressed their opin-
 hn tN- to yxrfI h. i,