The Bismarck tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, N.D.) 1916-current, 1919-07-22
BIS N ARCK n. P.
BOOSTER ENTERS
TAX KICK
Hotel Proprietor Advises City
Commission He Must Pay
$4,000 This Year
MAKING AN INVESTIGATION
NOnpartisan Boss Commits
County to Paying Half of
Norris Travel Budget

The Bismarck city commission, sit
ting as board of equalization. re-
ceived only one protest last night
against the new Nonpartisan tax
scheme under which business proper
ties, city lots and dwellings not used
as homes will be assessed at 100 per-
cent of their full and actual value.
This objection, which was a very
lusty one, came from the league boss
of Burleigh county, who also is pro-
prietor of the league hotel, and who
rented 5000 worth Of committee rooms
in the old Northwest hotel to the
league legislature last winter.
$4,000 a Year ~ g..
Under the league plan, the master
Of Mr.. Townley's organization in Bur-
leigh county advised the city COM
mission that he, the local league
hotel-keeper, will be compelled to pay
SIS, 900 this year in taxes. He left
with the city board the impression
that this is considerably more than
he has paid in the past. t.r
The league valuation Of this mans
several properties aggregates some
thing under 100000, which is said
to be in the neighborhood of their true
and actual worth. If the city and the
county and the school districts hold
their levies down to an absolute mini
mum, and the whole does not exceed
37.5 mills, this league leader will pay
SIS, 900 in taxes this year.
Enthusiasm Wanes .
The gentleman in question had been
quite enthusiastic over the league pro-
gram of industrial democracy, the new
freedom and all that. Although he
was trifle late in climbing aboard
the band wagon, none had more Justify
footed Mr.. Townley's horn than he
during the two years he has held a
seat on the chariot. And, so far as
can be learned, he is the first in Bur
leigh county to set up wall when
asked to pay his share Of the cost Of
the emancipation of North Dakota.
Every farmer in North Dakota is
in exactly the same boat with this
Nonpartisan boniface. So, too, is each
and every one of Bismarck's business
men and the city owner Of vacant lot
properties, and of homes which are
occupied by tenants. Not all of these
men have been so quick as he to en-
brace the league doctrine, but not one
of them has been so prompt to protest
when the thorns concealed within the
crown Of the new democracy began to
prick.
Spends County Money
Burleigh county's new messiah not
only thinks that his hotels and other
properties shouldn't be valued at any
hundred percent that is going to ex-
tract 5000 from his pocket, for the
good of the cause, which wasn't the
way he'd planned it at all, but he is
willing to spend some of the farmer
taxpayers money to pay the cost of a
iunket about the state to be made by
City Assessor E. E. Morris to discover
how other municipalities are assess
ing their property.
Had Planned to Act
In view of the confusion which has
resulted from a complete reassess-
ment of all property under the new
order, the city commission had plan
ned to thoroughly investigate the mat
ter, and to make the assessments in
Bismarck uniform and in conformity
with those of other cities in the state.
Therefore the plea of the league hotel
man had no other effect that to fur
nish the board with some amusement
at the thought that he, the greatest
Lacquer of them all (note his own pro-
testations) had been so early and so
thoroughly smoked out.
The city commission will do every
thing in it's power to safeguard the
taxpayers interests. Local levies will
be shaved to the bone in order that
the total burden may be reduced to the
greatest possible extent. But, to a
large degree, the commission is help
less in the matter, as the method of
making valuations is fixed by law,
and, whatever that valuation may be,
the state levy and the school levies
are to large extent stationary and
cannot be altered.