The producers news. [volume] (Plentywood, Mont.) 1918-1937, 1921-12-16
Continued from Page One)

:; NV ,yo,,ld cost to run the County for
another wear, and after obtaining the
BUDGETS of expense from all Offices,
and also the estimated amount OF
General fund warrants which would
he issued during the year, they had
+o f;o1re the levies accordingly.
In former years the Board OF Conn
roiss;oners. cooperating with the
rIerk e Recorder would make an es-
t;mafe Of what they GUESSED it
would cost the County for the next
twelve months for operating expenses
and would make a levy accordingly.
They would figure that it would cost
SIC. 10000 for the Clerk q Recorders
office. s25, 100000 for road work and
machinery, $1OO0O.OO for bridges,
s12 .OOO. 90 fol. the Clerk Of Court and
ali Court expenses, ETC., 100000 for
County Commissioner salaries and
expenses for viewing roads, and so
on down the line, and they would add
the whole amount together and make
a lew Of, SO many mills on the tax
able value of all the property in the
county. and the property would be
assessed accordingly. However, after
a few months time it would be found
that it was costing the Clerk & Re
corder $4,000 to $1,000 per month
for salaries, high priced furniture, ex-
pensive trips to Great Falls, Mime
apolis or other points, and other in
cidents that the Board had not
| THOUGHT enough about to include
| in their levy for taxes, and OF course
the Office could not be closed, and as
the $4,000 or so appropriated to that
Office had been exhausted In four OF
i five months instead of II months
/ they merely continued to issued war
rants to pay for all this added ex.
pense, and the same thing applied
to each and every Office as well as
such added expense for other pur
poses which they forgot to guess al
when they made the levy for take:
for that year, that they would dis
cover the astounding fact that it hat
cost about One Hundred Thousand
Dollars more than the original est
mate. Well, what did they do then
They decided the only way the.
could get out of it and get tn
county back on a paying basis thr1
taxes. would be to sell County Fund
ing bonds to take up this extra hun
, bred thousand dollars Of outstanding
warrants, which would be done, an
, then the board would just make an
! other levy for the following year an
! they would again find themselves i
the same kind of a predicament, an
would merely take up some NOR
, outstanding warrants by bonding
, This is very evident from the fae
that the County levy was 16 mills fo
1913, 1914, 1915 and 1916, and
y 1917 added another u mill for &C
a pher determination. In 1918 the
J again dropped back to 16 mills, br
e as the balmy days Of graft WEI
r coming on when contracts for built
= ing bridges were let to high bidder
! and as they required the cash c
q their warrants without delay, instes
of having to wait until these wa
: rants could be taken up through
n funding bond issue, they increased Il
a levy by adding 5 mills for the roo
S fund and also one mill for that n
torious. land classification fund, ma
# ing the total levy Fl mills. You s.
n they cut down the purported coun
t levy to Is mills and then stuck the
: other two items in below on the t;
$. notices. In 1920 they made anoth
d raise and made the county levy II
# mills, land classification fund 1 m
! and five mills for road fund, or t
tai county levy of 271a mills.
J. You see by this time the people
le the county had awakened to frau
te that had been perpetrated and wor
At not stand for much more of that so
to Included in all this extra indebte
r ness was the $245,OOOOO Seed Gre
1e deal, whereby the farmers paid frt
re- Is4.5O 70 $500 per bushel for Sc
Of grain and they they came to harvt
n and sell their grain, they found tt
or they could get less than half t
Sc price for their grain that they p;
in for the seed, besides they discover
the deplorable fact that lot of t
at seed which they had been forced
n take through necessity, was so
or of foul weed seed that their land "
A. practically unfit for farming in
en- future, unless they could kill off
weed crop.
In 1921, the State Legislature pa
ur ed a budget law, which required tt
to each and every county officer, incl7
as ing the Board of County Commissi,
o. ers, and the heads or persons in c.
10 troll Of County Institutions or ag
-e- cies, which included every officer
,f- any sort that draws pay from
or county, and including an estimate
on General Fund expenditures, etc,
II maintain such Office, branch or
be stitutfon for the next IL mont
he This had to be published, and the