Jerome County times. (Jerome, Idaho) 1919-1920, 1919-09-11
BOARD INCREASES
VALUATIONS TEN PER CENT

The county auditors office has re-
ceived from the state board Of equal
ization an abstract OF the actions of
the board as far as it effected Je-
rome county.
Agricultural lands in the county
were increased ten per cent and bus
mess lots were increased ten per cent
over the value as returned by the
county assessor.
Among the public service corpora
tions, whose values are set by the
state board, the North Side branch
was increased from s12, 200 to s15.-
600 per mile or TO q total valuation
of S576,370. The Mountain States
Telephone and Telegraph company
was increased from S11, ,5O7 to $780,
$40; the Western Union was de-
creased from S4,O44 to S2,536 and
the Idaho Power company was de-
creased from total value of $685.
725 to sS24,11S in the county.
In talking with County Assessor
Hardwick about the above valuations
he stated that he was disappointed
with some OF the valuations as set
by the board In the first place,
had anticipated that our values we're
entirely too low and in making the
assessment this spring / gave a ma
terial increase in ell classes of pro-
perty within the county. The state
board il equalizing the land values
as between the counties put them
into separate groups according to
the class and value of the land Good
ing, Minidoka and Jerome counties
were placed in one group and it was
my understanding that Governor
Davis placed the varuations in this
group. Gooding county was given
an increase of ten per cent, bringing
its value up TO an average of $500
per acre; Lincoln county was given
an increase of 35 per cent or to an
average of $500 per acre; Mini
doka county was given an icrease OF
20 per cent, bringing its average val
ue TO S36 per acre. My assessment
was an average of s3525per acre
and according TO the other values l
thought it should not be given an in
crease, but it was the opinion of the
governor that an increase of Is per
cent or TO s40.50 per acre was right
In comparison with Gooding and
| Lincoln counties our increase in val
uation to $40.50 per acre was per-
haps right, but in comparison to
Minidoka county's valuation of s36.-
90 per acre it was all wrong, when
it is a we'll known fact in southern
Idaho that Minidako county land is
worth considerable more than land
here.
"By persistent effort 7 finally got
promise from the board TO recon
slider the valuation on our land and
we were finally given an increase of
ten per cent instead of fifteen per
cent as previously set.
In setting the valuations on the
public service corporations the state
board had to be guided by the re-
ports as submitted under oath by
the different companies Very few
of these companies claim to know
what the real value of their property
is and some seem to be ignorant as
to what and where their property is
situated For insance to my knowl-
edge there are companies owning
property in different taxing districts
in this county and that have submit
ted reports but their reports do not
show any valuation in these districts
The boards attention was called to
these matters before the reports were
accepted
THE North Side branch was only
raised $4,000 per mile. even though
the report of the special examiners
sent out by the board recommended
that this line be raised $4,000 per
mile. whereas the Twin Falls branch.
which runs through Minidoka. Cassia.
and Twin Falls county was raised
from $4,000 to $4,000 per mile.