The border vidette., 1923-06-30
MAY CALL SPECIAL SESSION..

In letter to the State Tax
Commission, Governor Hunt in
Inmates that he may find it, ne
cessary to call a special session
of the legislature to deal with
the corporation tax situation.
Phoenix, Ariz, June 18, 1923.
Gentlemen matter out
lined in your letter of June 7th
is Of such vital Importance and
raises SO many questions of such
far reaching import, that | have
taken several days to study it.
I am impressed with the seri
BUSINESS Of the condition which
confronts the financing of our
state and county governments.
The more I study the situation,
the more ] am convinced that
the Federal Court in assuming
jurisdiction in these tax cases is
adopting a policy wholly un
warranted and without authori
ty, especially so by flagrantly
ignoring paragraph 1889 of the
Civil Code of Arizona and the
decision of the supreme court of
the state upholding it, which
provides that mo person, com.
pany, firm, partnership, associa
ton, corporation, bank Or public
utility upon which assessment
shall have been imposed under
any provision of law relative to
the taxation of real or personal
property shall be permitted for
any reason to contest the validi
ty thereof either as plaintiff Or
defendant, unless the amount of
such tax shall first have been
paid to the county treasurer"
I am also impressed with the
fact that the Federal Court does
not have any constitutional au.
thcrity granted to it. It's sole
power is derived from legisla
tive act of congress. The cor
porations who have started this
litigation are basing their claim
to have their assessment review
ed the Federal Court under that
por tion of the Fourteenth Amend
ment to the Constitution of the
United States which reads No
state shall make or enforce any
law which shall y = deprive
any person of life, liberty or
property without due process of
law nor deny to any person
within its juridiction the equal
protection of the law"
I believe these tax cases are
based upon the fimsiest kind of
a pretext and I can find no lang
uage strong enough to charac cter.
ize the action of the court in
assuming jurisdiction and at the
same time ignoring the law of
the State of Arizona and the de
cisions of our state supreme
court and permitting the liti-
gants involved to- first pay what
taxes the corporations think are
equitable, instead of taxes fixed
by law.
The power to tax is a power
vested in the legislature. The
assessment of taxes is not a ju
dicial act and partakes of no ele-
ment of judicial character. 1t
is a legislative act and requires
the exercise of legislative power
whether the legislature assesses
direct or appoints an agent, as
it does in Arizona-the Arizona
State Tax Commission = to act
for it. It's functions are legisla.
tive and in no manner partake
of a judicial character.
If these cases are maintained
twill mean long period of liti
CATION. 1t will mean that our
fiscal system will be upset and
our schools, roads and public
institutions crippled. If these
are continued in the courts 1t is
impossible to say how many
years it will take before the liti,
CATION is settled. To the mean.
time [ presume that the court
will permit these corporations to
continue to pay what they deem
to be reasonable taxes" and it
will be an indueement for other
corporations and large taxpay
ers to adopt the same course.
This cannot be tolerated. The
sovereign state Of Arizona can
not surrender the power to regu
late taxation to any institutions
or court that knows nothing Of
values, that is incompetent of
assessing values and that has
no constitutional authority to
assess values.
[ have pursued the last two
DaraUraDhS of VOur letter with