Bonners Ferry herald. [volume] (Bonners Ferry, Idaho) 1904-current, 1921-02-01
WHAT OTHER EDITORS ARE
THINKING
WOULD CATCH TAX DoDGER

Bingham County News: Here is
the suggestion that the taxpayers have
been wanting, needing, though not all
of them have recognized it as the So
luton of their difficulties:
Publish the full tax roll showing
precisely what every man pays taxes
upon. Make every man swear that this
is all his property and that the valu-
alton is correct.
Pretty revolutionary, what
The Idaho Republican State Press
association, in session at Boise, Satur-
day and Sunday, agreed unanimously
that such measure would remedy all
the inequalities and relieve the burd
ems of the men who have no desire or
means of hiding their property-and
through them such a bill will be in
troduced into the legislature for i'm
mediate action.
Inequality of taxation where one
man has many interests that can be
covered and not properly visualized or
located by the assessor, while another
has to pay on everything he owns be-
cause it is all there in plain sight, is
the most glazing defect in the present
taxation system. To make every dollar
pay it's proper share, is to so distribute
the load that it doesn't hurt anybody.
Take needle and poke a man with
| it; it hurts Take your finger and it
doesn't hurt a fraction as badly; take
a wide, flat board and give it the same
actual energy. and it won't even throw
him off his balance. Take high
power bullet at full speed, and it will
drill deadly hole through half
dozen men, yet one good stout man
could carry weights equal to the total
energy of me bullet and laugh at tie
| load-and repeat the feat a million
times, where the one bullet would have
killed the whole crowd forever.
That's the difference in distribution
of load!
Economy is essential, too; spending
less than one earns, eating less than
one produces, leaving a margin for
emergencies. But making the load
equal is the biggest problem in taxa
ton, and this new measure aims to
equahze it.
If you pay taxes on $1,000 worth of a
little home, and your neighbor with a
place that costs five times as much
pays only $4,000, and conveniently for
gets his live stock or his corporation
stock or his cash in hand, he's not
toting fair; he gets a long start of
you that you can't ever overcome.
The Oregon Short Line railroad has
Just entered suit in Minidoka county
for a reduction of more than $4,000
in its taxes. on the claim that whereas
the state board of equalization ordered
. a uniform assessment of 80 per cent
of the gross value of all railroad prop
erty in the state, Minidoka county lev
led at the rate of SO per cent; which
takes almost three times too much
money from the railroad, letting other
property escape by just that much
Certainly that wasn't fair or square
Perhaps the same grounds for endless
litigation might exist in every other
county, by personal taxpayers who are
f laggrieved if not actually robbed
! having to paw heavy assessments
where others go light or even entirely
free because they can conceal theii
valuables.
5 II would beat all this litigation. tC
publish full tax report. and let tht
whole public be a detective body tC
see that no guilty dodger escapes. i
would be an interesting game! Per
haps the law can never make all mer
= honest-but il can make some of then
r honester than they now are in tai
matters.
Here's the law that will do the trick
: Write and demand that your legislat
t ors pass it; that they put teeth anC
/ claws and a soul into it. so that prop
= erty assessed at given figure shall
= be subject to forced sale at the as
sessment figures and see If It doesn'
d work