Weekly journal-miner., 1918-08-21
YAVAPAI BUDGET IS MATERIALLY
 REDUCED
RECENT SUPREME COURT DECISION HITS COUNTS FINANCIAL ATE FOR THE YEAR 1919 TO THE TUNE OF $27,481.
(From Thursdays Daily)

Navapai county is going to have to ge: along with. just $27.S3S less dur ing the coming year than the amount the board of supervisors had hoped to raise via the taxation route, the board having been appraised of this fact yesterday following a conference with II. M. Fennimore. secretary Of the State Taxpayers Association, and (. F. Jewctt. tax agent of the Santa Fe coast lines.
 The reason for the abovc-mention- ed shortage of coin in the annual bud get is that last February the Arizona Supreme court handed down deci- sion which vitally affected the com pilation Of the budget in all of the II counties. the local board of super visors having heard nothing regard ing the decision until after all of the estimates for the year 1919 had been gotten up. According to the budget which was published in the Journal Miner last week, the county was to have the sum Of S2S2,3l9 for its opera ton. This figure was secured by fol- lowing the usual method of ascertain- ing the total amount of taxes levied during the preceding year, adding the estimated amount of the fees to be collected during the year by the sher- iii. the recorder. clerk of the court. etc. and then adding 10 per cent of .T, O1a 70 gist of the Supreme court ruling IS that the county has not the right to add the miscellaneous fees above mentioned to its estimate, but must base its budget solely upon the tax levy of the year before plus the ten per cent raise. The elimination Of the fees which have heretofore been counted in on the county's income will mean that the budget for 1919 will be just 27,S3S less what it would have been had not the ruling from the high court interfered.
 Clerk R. T. Belcher of the super visors stated yesterday that the de crease in the budget will have the effect Of saving the taxpayers about two cents and a fraction on each hundred dollars worth of property. The school fund will, however, not be affected by the decrease m the budget. the cut applying only to the road and general funds According to the Supreme court ruling the limit Of the taxes which can be raised by Yavapai county for 1919 will be S254,- 42l 20, and as this sum is whole lot smaller than the original estimate. the county will be compelled to retrench in great many ways so as to make I'D for the difference involved. While no particular department will suffer materially. the pinch will be felt in number of ways, as the board will be compelled to eliminate many projects which were already under considera- ton.
 The fact that the local board had not been informed of the Supreme courts ruling is not to be wondered at inasmuch as very little publicity was ever given the decision. How ever, the representative of the State Taxpayers Association and the Santa Fe expert were quick to seize upon the ruling in an effort to hammer down the tax rates in the various counties. and since the ruling was made, nearly every county has beer visited. and the supervisors made cognizant of the matter. Consider ing the number Of counties in the State in which the Santa Fe railroad company owns property, the road will be enabled to save consider able amount of taxes, and for this reason, the corporation was not at all backward in getting its representa- tive out to inform the various boards of the pleasing decision.