The Idaho Republican. [volume] (Blackfoot, Idaho) 1904-1932, 1921-03-03
Equalizing the Tax Burden;
Five Million a Year
Chapter XII

| u0pOTlo are COluluS Ill from dAi
over the county that men want tc
pay their taxes; they want to be as.
sessed for whatever Is right as com.
pared with their fellow property
owners and they want to pay just
about their proper share Of the taxes
Last week man wrote in from Shell
ley to say that he had $4,000 worth
OF, furniture that had never been as
sessed and was ready to be assessed
and perfectly willing to pay. That
is a sample of the expressions that
are coming to this office In verbal
form practically every day. A flrm
in Chicago conducted an investiga-
ton to see If people were honest
They made a nation wide test; a test
of people of all classes and condi-
tons and found that Is per cent OF
the people are honest even to the
point of making sacrifice to act out
real sure-enough honesty. We be-
lieve that Is per cent of the people
in this county are honest; we be-
lieve that nearly all of them want to
pay their taxes on the one condition
that the other fellows pay theirs.
That condition has not been present
and people have been tempted to let
things slide along in such way that
they will not have to pay theirs or
not have to pay too much, so it has
been tempting people to become tax
dodgers or if they are not assessed
they feel tempted to lie low so that
they may not be assessed Just at
this time when so many people are
saying that they want to pay their
share of the taxes and that they want
to be assessed for whatever is right,
is good time for the assessor to
start in and take them at their
word.
Roasting the Editor
You would think that after all that
has been said in the Idaho Republi-
can, this man Trego, editor and
owner of The Republican, would be
consistent in having his own property
assessed, especially the newspaper
property. You would expect to find
on the, records that he was assessed
for just about his proper share. This
man Trego claims he laid all the
cards on the table face up, so to
speak, when dealing with the asses
sor he claims that he opened up his
book of information and told the as
SCISSOR what things cost him then left
it to the assessor to put him on the
roll on level with other people. He
does not claim that he asked any odds
of the assessor or that the assessor
offered him any advantages.
Assessing the Newspaper
The ground The Republican office
stands on was bought in 1916 for
$4,000 and in 1920 it was assessed
at $4,000. The building cost $40, $50
and in 1920 was assessed at $500.
The machinery and equipment in the
building were inventoried at $4,000
in 1920 and was assessed the same
year at $4,000. This makes a total
of $21,360 worth of property on
which the assessment is only $4,000.
The assessed valuation being only 81
per cent. Trego claims he gave the
assessor full information and then
left it to him to assess it on level
with the other people, therefore the
rest of the folks must be assessed at
about 81 per cent.
Residence Property Dodging
Taking the records for it, this man
Trego is also tax dodger as to his
residence property. A residence that
cost $1,000 twelve years ago and a
few hundred dollars Of additions dur
ing the time, brings it up to an actual
cost of about $500 plus the work
that man puts on place if he is
continually improving the grounds.
Just how much of these matters
should be counted in the value of the
property is problem. The rise in
the cost of building materials and
labor necessary to produce piece of
property now as compared with
twelve years ago brings in another
problem. Taking these things into
consideration and the sales of prop
erty near it, it would appear that the
residence and grounds are now worth
about $4,000 and then he has
library and some furniture that
would probably raise it to $4,000.
That would be counting the real
estate at something near the boom
or peak price. In the year 1920 this
property was assessed: Ground,
$1,000; improvements, $3.50; house
hold goods, 5000, total $4,000 or
about rs per cent of the peak value
of the property. Trego claims he
gave the assessor full information
and then left it to the assessor to
record it as he chose. If this is true,
then the assessor must be assessing |
residence property at something like
one third of it's true value. If the |
most Of the property in the county is
assessed at about the same percent
age of its true value then the total
assessed valuation of all the prop |
erty in the county should be $780,
100000 or more instead of $4,000
900.
When we started this series we
chose the heading, "Equalizing the |
Taxes Five Million Year" It now |
appears that we did not set our mark |
high enough. Now that we have con-
Information about the con-
ditions and the mode of assessment,
1t appears that if the assessing shall |
be done in 1921 according to law as
the assessor says he wants to do it,
the total assessed valuation of the
should be no less than $685.
100000 this year. 1t would be an