The Idaho Republican. [volume] (Blackfoot, Idaho) 1904-1932, 1921-03-03
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The Tax Forum
Everybody's Comments

mark or two on the tax question CIV
ing new and unique angle on tn,
| situation. In our last issue W,
stated that since the assessment wa
drawn on basis Of about one-thirt
the real value of the property ant
since great deal of the propert!
was not assessed at all, we reached
the conclusion that If all property
were assessed at its full cash value
the total assessed valuation of thu
county would rise from $4,000, OO(
to something more than $4,000, 900
That would enable US to raise a.
much money as at present by cutting
the rates down to one-third of wha,
1t has been or If we cut 1t down Il
about half what 1t has been, W.
should raise considerable more money
than we have had and that woult
meet our obligations and put oul
warrants back to par. The man who
has been paying his share Of the taxes
would pay less hereafter and those
who have been paying less than theil
share or paying none at all would be
paying what is right.
Mr.. Biethan's observation is thai
the men who fix the rate of taxation
would fall into the temptation oil
keeping the rate up to about where il
is on the higher assessed value, col
Letting more money than is neces.
sary and then looking around to find
something to spend it for. They
would also fall into another tempta.
ton, seeing that they could bond the
county for more money If people
wanted to, borrow another $4,000.
600 or so and spend it for roads OF
something. Mr.. Biethan suggests
that spendthrfits will be spendthrifts
anyhow and the more rope you give
them the more they will spend. 1,
We had to admit that that very
thing might happen; probably not
with the present board of commits
sioners, but with their successors.
You know that when fellow is
cornered in an argument, he begins
to look for way out and we re-
torted to Mr.. Biethan that if we
borrowed 100000 or any other
large sum and spent it on the roads
and then had to. pay the bill, we
should at least have the roads. We
admit that the Idaho Republican
might start another agitation for a
second bond issue of a couple of mil
lion dollars to be expended for roads
and If they put the plan across or if
1t were put across by anybody then it
might keep our noses to the grind
stone for few years to pay for the
roads. Having plenty of good roads
might have an influence in the de-
velopment of the county, attracting
population and developing more prop
erty and in that way helping to pay
off the bonds, but if it did it would
be a different story from anything
we have ever experienced before. AS
we have said before, it has always
been the theory that that kind OF
thing would happen, but in practice
the expense of administering the
county government has steadily in
creased faster than the amount of
taxable property or of the property
Iho. was dSIudlIy doScSSOu. IL HAS
now been shown that the increase in
actual values has been tremendous,
but that the increase in assessed
value has been almost nothing. If
another road bond issue were made
we should have to be very particular
what kind Of an assessor we elect.
We also asked Mr.. Biethan if he
would like to have the present as
sessing program continued. We said
to him, "You have considerable real
estate around the business blocks
and the assessor never fails to find
you and bill you for your share of
the taxes, but scattered around be-
tween these buildings and in some of
these buildings are firms doing
business that are not assessed
at all. Do you want us to
keep quiet and let the present
system go on, you paying your share
and the share of some other fellows
or do you want us to try to apply the
remedy and get everybody to paying
their share?" Mr.. Biethan said he
was afraid it was getting out of the
frying pan into the fire. There il
at least food for thought in the
matter.
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