The Sidney herald., 1963-07-31

August 5.
The meeting came about as a
result of some heated discus
sion at the last meeting of
The Sidney Kiwanis Club. It
was then decided that the Pub
lie and Business Affairs Com
mittee should arrange a pub
lic meeting to discuss the new
valuations. The meeting will
be held at 7:30 pm. at the
Lalonde Hotel with Rex Smell
ser as chairman.
Smelser said that Rich
land County Commission
ers James Spurgeon, Mel
vim Bakken and Alfred
Candee will be at The
meeting. 1t is hoped that
representatives of the Jus
tin Haynes Co. of Denver
who re-classified build
ings and improvements in
the county will be at the
meeting.
The new valuations and
how they were arrived at will
be explained and questions
from property owners will be
answered at the meeting.
A representative of the Hav-
mes Co. will be in Sidney Aug
ust 5 to begin sessions with
taxpayers making appoint
ments to discuss the new
values.
Budgets now being consider
ed by both Richland. County
and the city do not make use
of the new valuations on i'm
provements, but farm lands,
whose re-classification was com
pleted earlier, have their re-
viSed valuations included in
the tax base for the new coun-
ty budget.
The M0ntana Legislature
passed the re-classification law
in 1857 forcing all counties to
reclaSsify county lands and
Improvements. Richland county
had reclassified the buildings
in 1858 and felt this would be
adequate. However, am apprai-
sal was made by a representa-
tive of the State Board of
Equalization and they didn't
agree with the civilizations of
the county.
"The state has been after
us for years because of our
low valuations" Commission
er James Spurgeon pointed out.
In 1853 the county COM
missioners got IL Sidney
businessmen together TO go
over the value of the lots
in Sidney. They began
their check at the center
of the city and worked to-
ward the edge of town.
The recent reclaSSification
just this year found these fig
ures low and it was then the
new valuations were arrived
at. Appraisers. arrived at the
value of a city lot and then
in order to get the lot at a
comparable value of the county
farm land they multiplied this
figure by five. Using a simple
figure, a lot at that time worth
$1O0 is now valued at $500.
A spot check by the Herald
of the map used in 1859 with
the valuations revealed city
I lots valued considerably lower
than the current sale price,
1t was pointed out by two
of the commissioners that the
mill levy next year was al
most certain to go down as a
result of the increase in valua-
tions.
I'VE realize any increase
in taxes is certain TO bring
complaints and that's why
we're holding these hear
ings so that the properly
owners can have full
understanding of the
reclassification proceed
ures." the commissioner
said.
THE possibility of higher than
ordinary values on some rural
buildings was discussed and
the commissioners felt this
could be a possibility. They fell
that the appointments with
the appraisal firm would pro-
vide farmers with the oppor-
tunity to present their case.
eve want everyone to un-
derstand just what has taker
place, so we'd like to see Z
: good turnout at the public
: meeting and at the appoint
r ments,' the commissioner
said.