The log cabin Democrat., 1920-10-27

l nave SIdlSuy we're CIGdIeu UN IHS 1 legislature and the assessment of the taxes were levied by the legislature and neither the county court nor the county judge had anything to do with the making of the assessment. Under the law, it became my duty to appoint commissioners for these districts and in exercising this duty I tried to pick capable business men who were large property owners in the district and who pay considerable portion of the tax and who, therefore, were inter- ested in seeing that these roads were honestly and economically built I am told by the commissioners that they are keeping complete set of books showing every item of expense in building these roads so that the tax payers will have complete record to show the expenditure of every dollar , of their money. These roads are very expensive Improvements and the com missioners hesitated for many months after they weer authorized to do so before letting contracts, hoping that material and labor would become cheaper, but it was finally decided by the commissioners that it might be more wasteful and expensive to wait another year than it would be to go ahead and let the contracts. The taxes in these road districts will be very heavy and it might be well for land owners, as soon as the tax books are made up, to find out what their taxes are so that when the taxes are collected by the sheriff for state and county purposes the tax payers will be ready to meet them without any in- convenience.
 While 1 have done everything in my power to aid these districts after they were created by the legislature, l feel that there is considerable in- justice in forcing real estate to bear the whole burden of these taxes, and l think there ought to be an amend sonal property can be taxed and help pay for these improvements. It is not too late to do this now, and if such an amendment should be adopted it would materially hel p the real estate owners of these districts in the future. 1 understand that the taxes as levied now are somewhat larger than will be required to be collected throughout the 20 years during which the bonds are payable, for the tax as now levied is l n of bo required, this 10 per cent being made to cover any delinquencies. and it ought to be possible after the first year or two to reduce these taxes. The matter of taxation for these dis tricts, as have said, is one over which the county judge has no con- trol, but 1 merely make these sugges- tions as they have occurred to me.
 These districts also expect to obtain considerable sums from the state and federal government and have already been promised over $50,000. They have hopes of getting several times this amount before the work is con- pleted, and if they succeed in getting tiilS ctlU HUH Illc oldlt anu ISutI al government, this ought to work re- duction of the taxes. The taxes were estimated on the estimated cost, and the commissioners are hopeful of do- ing the work for somewhat less than the estimated cost I am informed that in at least one of these districts the grading is being done for consid- erable less than the estimated cost. If this work is maintained it ought to work reduction of the taxes. How ever, none of these things would affect the tax for the first year.
 The commissioners have complete control over all of these roads-not only the ones that are now being inn proved, but the ones which have not let any contracts-and thereby the legislature busted the county judge in a way from control over these roads. However, 1 felt that because of the fact that the commissioners did not see fit to let contracts for this work the people should not be per mitted to suffer and I have kept all of these roads passable.
 A number of new bridges will be built by these improvement districts and this will enable the county to take the steel bridges that are now in place on these roads and put them on other roads where they are badly needed For this reason I have merely been keeping bridges like the bridges at the Narrows, Pierce Creek and Muddy Bayou near Holland repaired, expect ing to put steel bridges there which would not be used by these road dis tricts. During the last two years only built one new wooden bridge, the bridge across Mill Bayou near the Arkansas river. The taking over of these main roads by these districts will enable the county judge to keep the dirt roads of the county in better condition as he will be able to concen- | |