The Raymer enterprise., 1921-02-24
MAKE CONSOLIDATION
THE HIGH TAXES GOAT


County Assessor Hanna and A. F.
Peters, chairman Of the hoard of
county commissioners, are credited
by the Greeley Tribune in recent
issue Of that paper. with being deter
wined to put stop to certain al
legged abuses in the expenditure of
public money in connection with our
public schools.
The article In question is 50 close
ly related In Its tone to an editorial
publisheds in the same paper on a
near date as to indicate that one is
inspired by the ether. and the char
acter OF both Is such that they can
be classed as nothing less than an
attack on the program Of school con-
solidation that Is making such pro-
gress. not only In Weld county and
the State Of Colorado. but in almost
every other state In the Union.
The burden OF Mr.. Hanna's utter
anes, which are quoted at length
by the newspaper. is high taxes, and
the blame for the rapid increase of
the latter Is laid on school consoIlda-
ton, and the remedy therefor as sug-
gested by him is the announced pur-
pose of himself and Chm Peters to
put their foot down hard" on big
increases In school budgets.
On the issue that taxes are high
er than they should be neither As
SCISSOR Hanna nor the Greeley Tri-
bune paper will get any quarrel from
any intelligent person In Weld coun-
ty, but his assumption or the claim
that the heavy recent increase In tax
es are due to consolidation Of our
schools will not bear close scrutiny.
1t is only few years ago that a
board Of county commissioners decid-
ed among themselves. without ask
ing the taxpayers of the county con-
corning their wishes in the mater,
to build a half million dollar court
house. The Advertiser has never
criticised the commissioners for their
decision to build the court house
nor thir method of going about It,
and this question Is raised only for
the purpose Of defending our public
schools from the charges entered
against them by Mr.. Hanna and the
Tribune.
Following the completion OF the
new court house the county found It.
self paying interest on more than a
quarter OF million dollars in reg
istered warrants, or more than twice
the amount of registered school war
rants over which some OF our county
officers and daily papers are lament
ing. Clearly such condition could
not remain long without arousing too
serious criticism Of some of the mon
who created 1t. and In order to meet
the exigency without adding too
heavily to the current rate of taxa
tion the board adopted the course OF
cutting the county road levy squarely
in two and applying the money thus
saved" together with a considerable
number Of additional thousands of
dollars to the liquidation Of the &C.
cumulated court house warrants
The plan worked. but In the mean
time our highways suffered and tax
es mounted higher. Finally with the
court house debt safely out OF the
way, the road levy came back with
a bang that sent the taxes higher
than ever for the purpose Of taking
care Of the crying need for highway
improvement. Now, with these
two purposes accomplished, the court
house built and the road improve
ment measurably caught up, with
out protest from |ticians and
public economists schools be,
come the target le attacks OF
the heavy Taxpayers. who voice their
feelings through certain Of DUR coun.
ty officers and their newspaper or.
gan.
Singularly enough the protests, o,
some OF them at least, are coming
from Greeley where the rate Of
school taxation in district which
has no consolidation and will never
have need OF It. is about as high u,
the average Of the rate in eonsolldat
ed districts. Explanation Of this pc
culiar condition may lie In the fac
that In Greeley live some people wh'
are heavy taxpayers In some Of thu
consolidated districts and who hav,
no interests aside from that In any
such dictricts, other than the reve
nues which they draw from them
This condition Is known to exist II
relation to the Ault consolidated dis
trict. and there are others in tn,
county similarly situated
But to get back to the facts Of an,