Ellsworth American. [volume] (Ellsworth, Me.) 1855-current, 1925-02-25

Ellsworth closes the municipal
year financially embarrassed because
of failure to collect the Bar Harbor
& Union River Power Co tax Of
S32.7S2 Because of this, the city
must now go into the market and
Ynire money to pay its State tax and
meet other obligations.
AS has already been reported in
this paper, the contention of the
power company is that the valuation
of $799,573 placed upon its property
ln Ellsworth is too high as compared
with other valuations in the city, and
ut has filed with the city assessors
"a petition for abatement on that
ground. The assessors called into
consultation an expert engineer ia
miiar with the power company's
property in Ellsworth, and after go
ing over the matter carefully, made
a compromise offer to the power
company 10 abate the tax to valua-
tion basis of 100000, The power
company was so informed, but no
direct reply has been received from
it or it's officials, and the municipal
year closes without a settlement.
The attitude of the power company
throughout has seemed to be to IN
wife a suit at law to collect the tax,
1t is stated that the company threat
ems to drag the case through the
courts to the limit, even into the
federal courts if possible, and thus
further embarrass the city financial
ly.
This may be mere propaganda on
behalf of the company for which it
is not responsible. We cannot be-
1ieve that the company, through its
officials or legal representatives,
would make such statements as a
threat, as a club, to drive the city to
"A settlement advantageous to the
power company. 1t is the language
of a picayune bickerer, not of men
big enough to speak responsibility for
"a large corporation; it is the lam
guage of pique or spite, not the lam
guage of great corporation honestly
feeling itself aggrieved and desiring
early court decision to Justify its con-
tention.
The power company might have
taken the initiative in court action.
1t might have appealed to the county
commissioners or to the supreme
court for a hearing on the valuation,
II might have paid the tax under
protest to save the city embarrass-
ment, knowing it had redress if the
courts decided in its favor 1t did
none OF these things. Now the city
is face to face with expensive legal
proceedings to collect the tax.
And there is talk of compromise.
Compromise what? And where does
this talk come from?
Our contention is that the munich
pal officers have no legal right tC
compromise this tax If the assessors
honestly believe that the valuation
may be too high compared with other
valuations, they may-yes, should
abate the tax to an equable level
but if the property is not overyalued
if the tax is legally assessed, the1
the tax is collectible, and should be
collected in full, with every cent OF
interest due To do otherwise would
De to discriminate in favor Of the
mower company and against the 9th
er taxpayers of the city: it would b
compromising with the taxpayers
money. the city OHicldlS Woulu ID
violating their own consciences an'
doing an injustice to every taxpay
ser in the city.
Law suits? Expense? Need thu
money? Yes; but if the city is RICH
in law and right in principle, we be
1ieve the taxpayers will hold up thu
hands of the city government in tn
fight. If not, if we are going to 'ac
ecept terms" from the Bar Harbor 1
TJnion River Power Co, if we are go
ing to bend the knee to a rich cor
poraton, then we had better shut u
shop and go out of business as
municipality.
/ "Know Maine Products" Week.
Next week is "Know Maine Prod