| Show TAX THE PROPERTY contributed i I 1 these are tile the day when people complain and justly too about high taxes one discouraging feature about the tax proposition is that the property owner who endeavors to improve his holdings and make his home beautiful is taxed extra heavy because of the beauty and because c a u s e 0 of the good appearance peau rance pe arance the p property r 0 p e arty presents the assessor and county commissioners lay on all they dare and then tile the state stale board of equalization drop in ili and say these improvements look good boost them up another twenty per cent now maybe this is all right and maybe it but aside from tile the standpoints standpoint of taxes we all like to see improvements and pat on the back the man who makes his i home most beautiful we have a glorious country a beautiful city and we are all ready to vie with one another in making our surroundings roun dings more attractive and beautiful locally here in brigham city there is a condition that all thought ful minded people must deplore we refer to the unimproved unsightly city lots that characterize every residence block practically one fourth ot of brigham Brig liam city is waste land yes worse than waste land tor for it lies uncultivated cultivate a unused and is covered with rubbish and weeds and renders the whole town more or less unsightly because they are unproductive taxes are light and the owners foolishly believe that they can afford to allow them to lie dormant now in the interest of a better brigham we believe these waste areas should be cultivated and improved one of the best ways to secure this result would be to raise the taxes on them so that the owners would be compelled to cultivate them or sell them to some one who will improve them the figure demanded and for which building lots are being sold in brigham Is higher than 11 in any othi citkow the state stae iba a nd salt gilt like lake city excepted and yet inmany in many cases tile the owners refuse to either sell or improve another point in this connection is that the owners feel that they can call afford to do this when as a simple business proposition they cannot do it for instance tile the writer has in mind specifically two city lots that could readily have been sold ten years ago for five hundred dollars each tile the owner refused to sell and yet bolour certain knowledge these lots have brought absolutely nothing to the owner lie ile says daring these ten years it cost much to keep them but it has it has cost him more than tile the lots are worth it he had sold ten years ago the money loaned at 8 per cent would have yielded by simple interest exactly eight hundred dollars by compound interest considerably over a thousand doi dollars as any one may easily determine in other words this land owner could more than have doubled his property in this time without a single effort can call lie afford to keep them unimproved certainly not increasing the taxes on unimproved city lots lota forcing the owners to improve or to sell to some one that will w would then prove a blessing I 1 e ssang to own era as well as to the community at large we respectfully submit this recommendation to the he county assessor we see no reason why the rule would not apply to uncultivated farm lands as well as city lots some day we shall take very much better care of our lands why not begin begill now |
