The Daily Alaska empire., 1951-02-09
30 MILL
 TAX LEVY
 PASSES
Senate Approves New At- lion for Cities-Much Busi-
 ness in Upper House
By JIM HUTCHINSON

The Senate passed 9 to ' today a bill that would remove all doubt of cities rights to boost their prop erty tax to 30 mills.
 The only outspokcn opposition came from Sen. Anita Garnick CR- Juneau after the author, Sen Steve McCutcheon (D-Anchorage) had explained that it was just a clarifying act to allow under terri ,orial law what Congress already has allowed by specific act.
 The Senate saw these other de- velopments before recessing to 1:3C 9. m:
 It passed Sen Frank Barr's bill to put teeth into the law" against writing or passing bad checks. The vote was 16 to o.
 It approved unanimously Sen Gunnard Engebreth's joint memor- ial to congressional land committees for action to block private stalking under the mining law, on gravel yielding public school lands. It is a hot issue at Anchorage because of stalking on valuable land adja- cent to the city.
 It passed Sen. Gerrit (Heinie) Snider's memorial for suspension of annual assessment work on unpat- ented mining claims in Alaska. It is addressed to Congress and Presi- dent Truman. It asks the suspen- sion due to unsettled conditions in Alaska because of the national emergency"
 Bond Issue
 It opened arguments over Enge- breth's memorial to Congress for the right for the territory to issue up to $12,500,0 ,000 in bonds for school construction needs.
 Engebreth and McCutcheon car ried the brunt of the argument for the bonding proposal, while Sen John Butrovich (R-Fairbanks) ano Snider did the main arguing against it.
 A vote was postponed until after noon after Sen. Howard Lyng O. Nome) said he wanted to speak al some length on the issue and Enge- breth was waiting to close the de- bate.
 In the Senate's opening action or the 30-mill city property tax enab- ling act, Senator Garnick said she opposed it even though she recog- nized it was just giving cities per mission to raise the tax, not saying that they should.
 Any tax increase or anything which might increase the prospect of a tax increase would be inadvis- able now" she declared. If tho territorial property tax law should be held valid in the courts, then l( more mills could be added on. Il property were in a school district it could go for another 10. If taxes keep going up and up, people cant continue to live in the territory"
 McCutcheon replied that costs o. government operations keep rising with everything else and, if city opposes a sales tax, and the 30-n.u provision is not allowed, the only alternative is for the cities to re. assess property.
 That would cost $20, 1000 to $75, ,00O' he said. Tt would be much more reasonable to allow municipalitie! to raise the rate instead of having to reassess."
 The memorial against stalking or school lands was moved up fol ahead f-schedule action undel suspension of the rules on McCut. cheon's motion. He emphasized it il "of more than usual importance because of the stalking at Anchor age.
 If this situation is allowed tt stand, it is going to establish pre- cedent that will be detrimental tt Alaska schools for many years tt come," he declared
 Engebreth added that 1t was no a problem for Anchorage alone be- cause this land belongs to tht school system of the entire terri tory. It will be the loser"