Santa Fe new Mexican. [volume] (Santa Fe, N.M.) 1898-1951, 1913-11-07
MAY Be
ENjOINED IN THIS
COUNTY
MERCHANTS ASSOCIATION AND TAX.
PAYERS MEET LAST NIGHT AND
NAME COMMITTEE TO FIGHT
RAISES ORDERED BY EQUALIZATION
BOARD.
WILL COOPERATE WITH
SIMILAR MOVEMENTS

At meeting called by the SAINT;
Fe Merchants Association last even
! ing in the assembly room of the oil,
,palace and quite largely attended b.
representative citizens and tax pay
ers, it was decided to appoint a con
mittee of seven with full power to ac
in the situation, and to report at
subsequent meeting
The committee consists of H.
s Spitz. H. B. Cartwright. Carl A
Bishop, Frank Andrews and II.
Kaune.
The committee was instructed Il
confer with the county commissioner
as soon as possible and consider will
them the possibility of having th'
commissioners bring a blanket suit tt
enjoin the assessor from extending
the raises ordered by the state board
of equalization on his rolls, and follow
ing that to take the next best steps
1t was also decided that If the com.
missioners did not act, an ironclad
agreement would be circulated and
signed binding the signers TO see
whatever case was started through
to the end.
Nathan Salmon, president of the as.
ISOLATION, called the meeting to order,
and after brief explanation of the
injecting called for expressions of
opinions. II. B. Cartwright was the
| first speaker. He felt that the taxes
were already high enough, and that a
raise of 20 per cent was excessive. He
thought also that it might be we'll to
enjoin the assessor from putting the
raises on his roll.
| Fl. s. Bowman, attorney for the as
sociation, said that he had not pre-
pared himself on the legal phases Of
the question as he should, as he was
under the impression that the meet
ing was not going to be held until
sume time next week. However, he
told of some of the actions which had
been brought in the various counties
in New Mexico. He also advised them
that it was very hard to get the money
back, once it had been paid, even if
under written protest.
S. Spitz thought some action should
be taken now, be said, rather than at
Ia subsequent meeting, as that would
only delay whatever steps were taken
for that long. He did not think it
advisable to wait until other counties
had had their cases decided.
Leo Hersch suggested that Arthur
Seligman speak as he had spent eigh,
years on the county board, and two
years on the territorial board of equal
ization.
Arthur Se1igman, when asked to ex-
press himself said: 'The problem is
big one I am opposed to blanket
raises on general principals. for as
rule they are unjust and inequitable
/. followed generally thev would work
\. hardship On persons who make Il
fan and honest return. The state
boards ruling should be considered
carefully and ii proper aud right
Should be sustained by us, but If Santa
Fe county tax payers are to be made
martyrs because other counties failed
to do their duty to the state ! thiAk
we should act.
Il would prefer to learn mors of rGe
details regarding the raise before ex-
pressing an opinion. The raise may
be Is or 90 per cent on the net or the
gross assessment. | have not read
the instructions to the assessor. The
school board of Santa Fe recently
made a raise of 36 per cent from II
r,lls in 1913 to Is mills for 1914, bas-
ing the same no doubt on the assess
ment rolls of last year, whereas if the
increase as proposed by the state
board is held valid then we will be
increased nearly so per cen- for
school purposes this year which is
certainly big jump in one year.
81 am confident that the state board
could not have made an investigation
of all the returns in Santa Fe county.
If they had they would know that
some have made returns at full valua-
tion as required by the law, and these
will suffer and we should fight for
these rather than for those who have
their property.
"The Santa Fe railroad recently
spent thousands of dollars procuring
data on tax assessments in the state.
and it shows that the tax payers of
Santa Fe county are as near the law
in their returns as almost any county
in New Mexico. For instance the
Santa Fe's figures showed that Santa !
Fe county was assessed at full one
third on city lots and recommended |
no raise. while Chaves county should |.
be raised So per cent to bring it to
one-third value On lands, Santa Fe |
was recommended to be raised
IL per cent, and Chaves county 1873 |
while some counties believe should |
be raised as much as 200 per cent.
Nov did the state board follow
this data, or do they reply, we only
had 5000 with which to investigate
and we asked for $2O,O0O.'
| believe that even with $4,000 they
could not have investigated all the re.
fContinued nm nape fveN