The evening herald. [volume] (Albuquerque, New Mexico) 1914-1922, 1915-06-11
uses PER CAPITA
TAX TO PROVE
SIERRA HAS
WORST OF IT
Edward D. Tittman Asserts
Little Mountain County
Pays Almost Double Its
Proportion of the Burden.
CITES AND
SOCORR0 AS PROOF
Sierra per capita Tax Is $3.50
as Against $3.50 In Luna
and $l40 In Socorro; Calls
the Advertisers.

the Advertisers.
Hillsboro, n. NJ. June ~s.--Edward
u. Tiiimann. former district attorney
here aud a member of the National
TAI association. asserts that N all
counties we're assessed in the same
proportion as sierrn county In as
HesAed the tax commission need not
have to worry about where TO get lts
raises.
In support OF his assertion he sub
mits some startling figures which
show that private property In n large
number of counties must have either
been concealed from the assessors or
muat hive been deliberately over
looked by those individuals. Mr..
Tittmann starts with the premise that
Sierra county Is not an abnormally
rich county. Its n are rather
less than the average. at least In 10
far az they have been developed. It's
agricultural lands are small In acre
aye mainly because Of lack of water
In the Rio Grande valley. II has no
producing mines. no coal lands. and
its chief industries are cattle. sheep
and goat raising. It's largest town
has less than 500 people. Its popula-
tiOn II G5 per cent Of native stock
and largely Spanish speaking. Yet
its assessed valuation In 1913 was
ft,675,i9i. not counting the rail
roads, telegraph n telephone lines.
banks or other property valued by
h state board ~ equalization. He
uses the figures for that year because
ne has not available those for the
past year. In which there Ia not n
great deal of difference except In the
valuation OF corporations. Sierra
county has o population OF about
r7s0. figuring the ircrease pince the
1910 census a. the same rate M for
n previous ten years That makes
It's valuation per capita about s2ao
n right here comes n surprise
laws Mr.. Tittmann:
The county OF Luna, advertised
IN the official souvenir Of the state
building at san Diego az having the
largest per capita wealth of any
county In the state shows up with
an assessed valuation of only about
Ei5O per capital These figures are
arrived at by dividing the assessed
valuation outside Of railroads. etc,
by 1890. which appears To be the
present population based on the same
hAAiblllN p HAhAfiltHA NNhA ltlllih
has 1000 people. Deming nae but
1854 people In 1910. and the county
population was 3gi3. Recent election
returns indicate thnt the county's
population is over 1000. According
To the chamber of commences secre-
tary In the souvenir there are three
companies developing n total Of 20i.-
$50 acres Of fines agricultural land.
That ghnmlu ha wrnNHh ~ "a. l...F
sac nm acre or tG.OIa,4OO. and Vet
the total assessed valuation In 1914
was ti.13S, 272t
"socorro county. the largest in the
state. -four times the size OF sierra,
with "a population five times as great,
with the richest producing gold. sill
Yer and zinc mines In New Mexico.
with great cattle companies. sheep
ranches Of vast size. with five towns
larger Than Hillsboro. had in 1919
an assessed valuation outside Of rail
roads. etc. Of only S~2.it9,1g7, or
about $40 per capita. or less than
half the assessed per capita OF Sierra
county.
Rio .Nrriba county, twice the size
OF sierra. with not less than 1850
people, had an assessed valuation In
- AhllNNIAN VI NNfWNaH-
$40. or n little over $50 per anita.
Are we 10 believe thnt the people In
Rio Arriba county are only one-nuh
as wealthy NJ the people Of sierra =?
Is that vast empire peopled by pau
pers? For II they are one-nuh
poorer than our people IN this county
Trey MUST be paupers,
"Bernnlillo county. with the splen
ala atfs. 81 A1kYaat,aW..s. Az. I'll.
homes, business blocks. rich institu-
tons and men. great nearby farms
valued AZ from t25 to $1,000 per acre
tsee souvenir was assessed at So
50s.f9s in 1919, when the county's
population was at least $4,000.
which would mhke $3.50 per capita.
no that the people 81 TINT wealthy
community are taxed AZ fiiO per
capita less than the people of the re-
mote mountains 81 Slerral
Using the same basis the per cap
TIA valuations In the other counties
work out In approximate figures M
follows. Chlves. S2eO: Coifax. $3.50;
Curry. $40: Donn Ana, t213; Eddy,
S20G: Grant. S270; Guadalupe. ti22:
! Lincoln. St35, Mckinley. emitting
Indians. seas: Mora. 500; Otero. ft4i:
Quay. tiiO: Roosevelt. fteO; SQndo-
val. s97; san Juan. $40; San Miguel.
siO7: Santa Re. sfeb; Taos. ssi; Tor
rance, 500; Union. tiG7. and Va
lencia, SEQ.
THE basis for all assessments are
those made ny the assessors before
changes were made nv the state
board. and from these fig II APP
pears hat this county Of sierra II
~. ar..NaLNuaN l.. 49,. a.. NuNNmA q
do not believe. because know ita
Raanla ana thalr raaaUraaa