The Caldwell tribune. [volume] (Caldwell, Idaho Territory [Idaho]) 1883-1928, 1916-04-21

these officials. This work belongs
to the County Auditor, although to
our knowledge it has never been
performed in the State of Idaho. If
this plan were followed, the State
Auditor and his assistants could
thoroughly check out the Auditor,
and there would be no trouble in
Idaho in regard to the accounting
which should be performed but
which has not been in the past.
We desire to call your attention
to the balance due the County from
the Bank of Nampa, amounting to
$t767.T, reduced to Judgment
against j. A. Owens and C. E. Lore,
which has been and is still being
carried as an asset of the county,
which we believe to be poor busin-
ess policy, and we call your atten-
ton to the mater at this time that
you may take such action as you
see fit in regard to the possible COL
lection of this from the bondsmen.
This amount should be charged off
at the present time, and if in the fu-
ture a dividend should be received,
the amount could very easily be ad-
ded to the cash balance on hand.
We desire to offer a suggestion
at the present time concerning what
we believe to be a bettr method of
handling the personal property tax
collections as follows:
The county should furnish num-
bered assessment slips, the original
to be given to the person assessed at
the time of making the assessment,
and the duplicate to be turned in to
the Auditor at the close of business
each day, and from these duplicates
the Auditor should build up a per-
sonal property tax account against
the assessor. When the assessment
is completed, all numbers should be
accounted for either by the return
of the spoiled and unused original
and duplicate blanks, or the COM
pleted duplicates.
We desire, also to call your at
tention to the personal property tax
which have not been collected for
the year 1911, amounting to over
$1400, and to the doubtful credits in
the 1912 roll, amounting to $564T,
and also to the sum of $68.26 which
was under collected in the 1912 roll
and to the sum of 1880 which was
not extended into the delinquent
roll. These amounts will bear in
vestigation.
We have made the above suggest
ton because we have reason to be-
lieve that in more counties than one
the personal assessment roll is not
written up until after the money
has been collected, that receipts
have been given on pieces of brown
paper, old envelopes, and any old
thing, and it certainly behooves the
different counties to adopt safer
methods of handling this important
account.
The county officials should be
obliged to keep bank accounts in
which the County money would be
deposited. Their private account
should be entirely separate from
the county money.
The auditor and Recorder should
keep a duplicate receipt book in
which all fees received for issuing
certified copies of various docu-
ments could be entered, the origin
al being sent to the party paying the
fee and the duplicate being kept in
the office. These receipts should
be numbered.
We most earnestly suggest that
your Board use its influence to have
the next legislature change the
present lay so that the Tax Collector
or shall collect all the taxes except
the Personal property tax collected
by the assessor in the field when
the assessment is made. Our prin-
cipal reason for this is that the Tax
Collector and the checks in that Of
flee are more familiar with the as
sessment rolls and therefore, are
better qualified to collect the delin-
quent taxes than anyone else. AS
, the law now stands, it would seem
that if you paid your taxes on Mon
day, it would be to the County
Treasurer; if you paid them on
Tuesday, it would be to the County
Auditor; if you paid them on We'd
nesday you would pay them to the
assessor. if you paid them on Thurs
day they might have been fore
closed, and you would have to see
the County Attorney: if you pay
them on Friday, you pay them to
the Irrigation District; and if you
pay any special taxes on Saturday,
it would be to the City Clerk: while
Iif you pay them on Sunday, you put
them into the contribution box. The
natural consequence is that nearly
every day there are people coming
into the county court house who are
obliged to make a round of the
county offices before they find the
right place to pay their taxes. An
other reason why this change should
be made is that the people who are
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