Arizona republican., 1920-12-19
(By J. R, Bradshawl

While a great many have been argu- ing on the road question, not great deal has been said regarding what ac- tual portion of the taxpayers dollar goes into roads, and what becomes of the other part of his tax payment
 To understand the situation thor oughly, we must first get the valua- tion in the county, which at this time is s135, ,02S,424. This is divided into farm lands which are assessed at S52,- 045,540: dry lands. $4.417.752; city lots, S23,O75,763; railroads, $11,234,022, and all other property $44,255,347.
 Let us take the books of this county and see where the taxes go. It will be much easier if We consider the farmer who pays $100 a year in taxes. Out of the farmers $100 first of all the coun- ty must pay S22 to the state for state taxes. Of course, some of this $22 comes back to the county for school purposes, but it first of all is paid to the state. Then come the county school taxes which will take s54.10 out of the $100. Then the county collects the town taxes in some of the smaller towns outside of Phoenix. These taxes must be refunded, and to do this takes $3.15 more out of the S1O0. Then one cent head for all the sheep in the county will be paid to the state for the maintenance of the sheep sanitary board. This is to protect the sheep in dustry. The very necessary task Of | taking care of the poor and mainte- nance of hospitals costs SPA and for | the courts of the county there is a fur ther call for $3.76. Irrigation districts require s350, drainage 31 cents and a further cost of 22 cents is necessary for flood-control purposes. There is by | this time a mighty big hole in the $1Q0 and we are not yet approaching the read fund. The county bond fund, in clCding redemption and also including interest, gets $2.50. The maintenance of all the county offices costs $S.24 special roads 55 cents and redemption S4.30 out of $1OO taxes for roads.
 We hear tales of big expenditures and wasted money on roads whicf
 sounds as though 99 cents out of every | taxpayers dollar went into road build | ing and road work. Whereas, th'
 money spent for the 1900 miles of high
 way in this county, as well as for thou
 sands of bridges and culverts, is les than the amount necessary to maintain
 the courts and county hospital.
 Some suggest we should leave road
 to the future and not burden ourse'>e too much. These people should keeI in mind that ten years ago the valua tion on this county was $17,s00,000 | Today this valuation is S135, 5,02S, ,424 | The increase in the past ten years vii certainly be equaled in the coming tel
 years. So that we may safely soun on the valuation of over $250, ,000,0 900 by the time the bond issue repayment:
 will begin.
 Let us see how certain this increased
 valuation Is. Today we have 2S4,6S; acres of lands under irrigation and as
 sessed at $1S2.s4 per acre. We have
 601, ,422 acres of dry lands assessed a | SY.34 per acre. Out of this big area O
 dry lands there are now 237,S72 acre;
 included under projects which are | planned or under way. The added
 value which will come to MaricopS
 county as soon as these lands are in cIuded as irrigated lands will be $41, 756, ,536. In other words, instead of S52, | 045,540 valuation, we shall have valu' for irrigated lands alone of S93,S02, ,076
 We boast of our wonderful schools ant
 with good reason. Let us be fair t our road system and spend money ol roads in the same liberal way we spent money on schools. It is safe to sa, that $70 to SIS out of every $100 zoe l for school purposes. How can we ge enthusiastic on roads when out of S1O
 we are only prepared to spend $4.S for our highway system? So it will b seen from these figures that only abou
 71s per cent of the taxes go to the sup
 port of the county government and tn