Albuquerque morning journal. [volume] (Albuquerque, N.M.) 1903-1926, 1915-04-04
PROPERTY SLOW
IN COMING FROM
HIDING PLACES
With Assessments Nearly All.
in, Practically Nothing Has.
Been Done 10 Reach the.
Tax-dodger.

ESPECIAL CONSEQUENCES 70 MORNING JOURNAL
santa Pc, April S.-Most of the cor
porauon and individual assessment
returns are in the hands of the as
SCISSORS, and IN accordance with re-
ports, hardly any of the property sup
posed TO be IN hiding in New Mexico
has put in It's appearance 1t is true
the tax commission has imposed a
blanket raise Of something like u
per cent on practically all railroad
property but that is not finding new
property. The railroads are always
first to be assessed az full value, they
are first to come across with their
taxes and many counties could not ex-
ist were It not that the railroads pay
all the way up to rs per cent of their
taxes.
OF course every time the railroads
are lacked up few notches. the small
real estate owner gets II in the neck,
100, for his little home and his little
farm stand out before the eyes Of the
assessor and like the railroads they
are assessed at fun value and even
more than their property would bring
on the open market The same way
with the railroads. The New Mexico
Central railroad would be glad to sell
out any day TO any party that would
plank down in cash the amount at
which it is assessed The A. T. a. s.
p. would perhaps sell several of It's
branches for one-half the sum of the
assessment and if most of the rail-
roads were not part Of transcontinen-
tai systems but independent entities
IN New Mexico, they could no doubt
be persuaded TO sell their holdings for
one-half the hundred million dollars
at which the tax commission has
placed their assessment.
No Railroad Building.
No wonder there has been no rail-
road building in the state to amount to
anything since Governor Otero's adj
ministration and that whenever COM
munties like Taos, or Roswell, or AL
huquerque, or Pennington, ask for new
railroad facilities or new lines, that
the railroads answer. Yes, wen
build you a railroad, run it at a loss
for ten or twenty years before there
is sufficient revenue to pay the merest
running expenses and in the mean
while You make MS pay more taxes
than YOU give us revenue None for
us any more Of that kind Of railroad
ingl"
II wouldn't be so bad If this stopped
railroad is cinched for more taxes, |
every business man, every bank, every
home Is oinched in the same proper
ton for it wouldn't look Wen. even
for "a tax commission to sock ii only
to one kind Of property and not to a
few other kinds and the few others |
always within easy reach are the |
business man, the home builder. the /
banker II may be surprising to some
people 10 learn that scores Of county
officials yea. state officials. who draw |
big salaries do not pay a cent Of tax |
es are not on the tax rolls al all and |
yell like stuck pigs when asked to pay /
dollar poll tax or SO road tax But
such is the case. Then there is the |
other class which says; II am not I
fool enough to build a house, plant ami
orchard or establish a business, when
the taxes eat up so large q portion of /
the possible profit or income I can /
have from them Whenever ! have a I
thousand, OF ten thousand or hum !
bred thousand dollars salt them /
down with an III Paso bank or trust \
company which sells me perfectly (,
good fret mortgage notes giving me
per cent interest every six months,
and ! do not pay a cent Of taxes.
That's better than owning a house, or
q store, or a farm"
Sheep Not Assessed.
Then there is the stockman He
paws approximately on Is per cent /
valuation, or a so per cent valuation. /
hut il the department OF agriculture