The log cabin Democrat., 1914-02-05
TAXES IN CONWAY.

Cabin Democrat believes that Judge Prince is in error when he states that taxes in Conway are about five per cent and that man who owns a home worth S2,000 will have to pay IS100 year taxes on it.
 There are two classes of taxes Tn Conway. One is the general property tax for state, county, school and mu. nicipal purposes. The other is not properly a tax, but is an annual par lial payment of the benefits supposed to be derived by real estate within certain districts by reason of the con- struction of two public utilities, the waterworks and the sewer systems. But for the purposes of this explana- ton both may be considered as taxes.
 Let us see, then, what would be the total taxes on a residence situated within both the water and sewer dis tricts and worth at a fair cash valu- ation $2,000. We may safely assume that no piece of property is assessed for the purpose of general taxation at more than one-half it's actual val ue, as this is the maximum require ment of the State Tax Commission and the county assessor. The great majority of both real and personal property is assessed at less than 50 cents on the dollar. Assuming that the $2,000 residence is assessed at $1,000, the total general property tax upon it would be $2675, divided as fol- loves: State tax, for general rev. enue, school, pension and state cap itol, $6.75; county tax, for general revenue and for roads, $500; district school, $70O; city tax, $500; total, $26.75.
 Now for the special taxes. We are informed by the assessors who levied the benefits" to be paid by each par eel property, that the total amounts assessed against residence property within the districts and adjacent to water and sewer mains are seven and one-half and five per cent, respective ly, of the estimated actual cash value of the property These assessments were divided into annual payments running for a period of II years in the waterworks districts and 20 years in the sewer district. The city council levied for the waterworks district an annual payment of seven and four fifths per cent of the total benefits not total value-and for the sewer district, payments of four per cent of the benefits in 1914, two and seven tenths of the benefits annually from 1915 to 1921, inclusive, and five and one-quarter per cent of the benefits annually from 1922 to 1888, inclusive.
 With this data anyone can carry out for himself the simple calculation which will show that in 1914, on residence worth $2,000, the water tax will be $1170 and the sewer tax $4.00, or a total of $15.70 in special taxes. From 1915 to 1921 inclusive, the sewer tax on the same property will be only $2.25; in 1921 the last of the waterworks assessments will be col lected and in the following II years there will be only the sewer tax, amounting to $5.25 per year.
 
 The general tax of $26.75 and the special taxes of $15.70 would there fore make the total tax on $2,000 residence for this year $42.45, which may be further reduced slightly by the discount on county scrip, amount ing to nearly $2.00.
 Instead of the taxes being $100 on a $2,000 home they are somewhat less than $41, and instead of about five per cent they are actually only about two per cent.
 We have made this somewhat lengthy explanation in order that the may not be conveyed to people who might be considering the matter of locating here that taxes are so inordinately high as five per cent. The are high enough, perhaps too high, without being magnifed in the least. And it is also doubt less true that the assessors have made mistakes; that the taxes on some residence property amount to more than two per cent of actual value and on other residence property less than two per cent. But the figures given are the basis of the assessments and, we think, may be fairly taken as the average.
 WATER RATES AND PROFIT.