Show W ELM C 0 JIMA r L HER ti effes instead of calling a mass meeting and rim the sh e A e fiats 4 nd alid U someji in apt about ik if 7 P I 1 IN thurston county in northwestern nebraska where I 1 live ave wo we have found a way to cut our local taxes it la is it a very simple plan find one that you can call eastly easily apply in ill your our own com community when the depression eslon of 1020 1920 21 lilt us ua wo we were in in just about tile same tax situation as tiny iny other county in tho the middle west wo we were really worse olt off because in 1020 our county suffered a cloudburst and scores of bridges were destroyed and had to bo be rebuilt and paid for before I 1 begin to tell about tho the remedy for tile tho tax disease lot let me show allow right hero here it fit the start what the remedy accomplished it saved the county around on the ono one item of bridges alone it secured cuts of from 8 to 20 per cent in the local taxes in individual precincts it increased the amount of property returned from 12 to 20 per cent in years when the valuations were generally falling thereby reducing taxes for the man inan who had always been honest in making his return best of all the not net result was a feeling of confidence and general satisfaction instead of mistrust unrest and suspicion hero here Is how it was done during the lie year or so that the depression lasted in earnest people tended to become radical but being behig radical Is more or less a state of mind when wo we began to got get radical about our taxes it simply meant that we know where our money wits was going and consequently know how low to stop atop tho the money from going A farmer would see the school maam spinning along in her jitney well hooky there he would exclaim where all our taxes gol another firmer fanner a few miles further on would see BOO the road graders at work hump ill 1 ho he would exclaim ill bet taking all our taxes 1 it all depended on which way a follow fellow looked ns as to what he bo blamed lits his taxes on the fact was that most people know ignorance of where our money went bred suspicion and suspicion bred radicalism A few people were already making themselves heard when it wits was suggested that the farm bureau might take a look into the matter william wiiiiam wingett president of the county farm bureau and a little group on tile the tax committee were handed tile the job some people were for calling a countywide county wide meeting to protest vigorously find and noisily against nil fill manner of taxes but befort wo we had a public meeting it was considered proper for someone to find out where our money did go so wo we went over to tile the county offices odices and went through tho the books and determined just what our money was being spent for and it a little later we did tills this for every school district in the county on this his page Is reproduced the poster wo ire got out ShON showing VIng what every man mail paid on 1000 actual valuation in school district no 18 13 there was not any hedging or guessing hero here wi waa IF everything every tiling in black and white for state taxes for county taxes 1550 for school district no 13 and 1 walf for the village of f 1111 and each of these wits subdivided off to show oven even somewhat minor expenditures tures at the first public me meeting et there were around farmers and n R few bustness men present we began to told hold meetings nil all over tile the county and nt at every meeting we passed iness around circulars that showed where tile the money went in fit that school district we lind wall charts and maps A 1 f tile the upshot of nil fill this was that for tho first time it suddenly dawned on people that most of the tax expenditures were for things directly under their control politicians luul had sometimes talked ns as it if the v fhate capitol tile the state the universia sIt y rind normal schools the state institutions for de pen dents state roads us if these things were taking the money but if we had cut out till of these things altogether where I 1 lived it would have decreased our tax bill only about 10 per cent the largest were concentrated ight down in us pay H sm rt an ante is sant fr fr vm avah ri craword jn iak atry m our own communities muni ties la in matters over which tile people had bad the most moat intimate 5 control t it e in selves k we found that thero there were wide variations varl attona in different parts of our own county and that taxes in individual school districts varied oil all tile the way f from rom 1050 to on 1000 valuation t when people IMF began jo to find these things out tile the attendance nt fit at the annual meetings of tile the school districts increased from four to live persons to forty or fifty in some districts it was found that things had not been managed in some cases it was found advisable to cut flown down on one teacher where she wits was teaching only a very few pupils and increase the size of classes for other teachers although in some borne cases tho the salaries of these other teachers hod had to be raised in most cases there was also a disposition to economize on other matters such as the purchase of coal at the time of year when it was cheapest etc in this way cuts varying from 8 to 20 per cent were effected in the taxes of individual districts the next big thing was to discover hidden property which was escaping taxation throughout the county our tax system has always been so constituted that the man who Is honest about turning in tits his property at its rightful value indirectly pays the tax of the man who just forgets that ho he Is quite so well oft off when the tax assessor comes around you know an assessor hates to raise a rumpus with his next door neighbor and too often a whole jot lot of things do not appear at all on the tax books so the tax committee decided to give the community another shock and sOme something tIlIng to talk about for months afterward we hired a couple of men to go down to ao the county offices and copy off of the books tile amount of property which each man in the county had turned in we had blanks printed printe a whore where each mans name could bo be listed with the value of his cattle horses automobiles jewelry in fact everything that ho he owned according to tile the figures lie he had given the asses sor these blanks were compiled with the names in alphabetical order then we proceeded to paste these blanks up in the post postoffice office banks stores and other public places right in the mans own community you can imagine what interesting reading they made war bulletins bulletin from froni the tho world war var never proved halt half its as interesting te what do you suppose happened a year or so later N the actual returns of property increased in the various precincts f from row 12 to 20 per cent notwithstanding that it was between yc ars when everything was supposed to be going down this simply meant that the honest man had ceased to be penalized for being honest in turning in his property theres one more chapter to our story I 1 mentioned to you that wo we were unfortunate fortunate enough to have suffered buffered a severe cloudburst in 1020 1920 which it hod a d wiped out several score bridges in our county following a countywide county wide insistence si on replacement the commissioners declared an emergency levy for or new bridges here Is where we saved around and since have caused other counties to scrutinize matters of this sort more carefully after the bridge contract had been let find and tile the bridges were going in there was a frequent allowing of county warrants on tho the contracts in excess of funds on hand and these warrants were naturally registered at 7 per cent interest finally these amounts grew to an excess of and people began to get a little alarmed it appeared that there were no definite records available which showed just how things stood some of the county officials and taxpayers began to ask how an accounting might be secured when the farm bureau took hold of 0 the matter there had been a rather tentative settlement on sixty cimpl completed eted bridges on which the total cost ap feared pear edat tat A reduction of had been made from this athla amount and warrants to the amount ot of issued leaving a li alance of unpaid on these particular bridges the farm bureau appointed a committee of sixteen taxpayers to investigate the matter an engineer from the state department was secured during five days more than eighty bridges were visited bolts washers and it might even be said spikes and nails were counted then the charges made by the bridge company were calef carefully ully checked in some cases where the bridge company appeared to have charged too little something was added addesi but in most cases deductions were made here the deductions exceeded what was added by ro BO bear in mind that wo we were not finding any fault with the bridges but only with th tb cost the bridge company agreed to this reduction A little later we discovered statements for twenty incomplete bridges we went through these in the same way and here we made a net reduction of the bridge company again promptly agreed to having tills this reduction allowed H i i M M M H I HH H H 1 I IH I H HOW YOUR TAXES ARE SPENT thurston thuraton county nebraska taxes paid on actual valuation in school district na no 13 STATE TAXES V an fn for state cowton 0 23 22 for fo state co eminent 44 for to state 04 60 for to state mute li loads etc J 88 fur to education if total 1 I COUNTY TAXES for OP county Gers general ernI fund 9 for or county bridge fund AO 80 for connar road DIn triet 40 S for local focal imond Dix triet 10 40 for fund alfund 0 05 llasos lla aOS for Moth PenA tork 0 for co agricultural society OB 05 for old indebtedness for bridge 0 20 o 4 ot 01 tor for county allond faud 20 total p n 9 ii of alike attio of tax levied let led lu in the basto named by law for li SCHOOL DISTRICT NO 13 1550 1550 for Ten chero 1147 1 12 for repairs 10 Z 1184 03 fur for fuel 29 0 for 11 ook 08 for text book i 4 2213 for furniture 17 am for all other 11 for Iti milN CH total IBO 1550 1 VILLAGE OF WALTHILL gereral 9 6 bond ard and Inter In terrt ext 20 0 azo TOTAL TAX vat jia l 4 tt i I 1 II 11 1 t I as mt 1 and then ali en we were able to secure another reduction of 11 because we were able to show that the cost of material had come down since the first of the bridges was built baill tills this made a total of M 33 since our bridge experience other counties in nebraska have been doing some borne checking up lip and we have been building bull dlug some bome of our own bridges our experience shows I 1 think that people in the county should take something more than a merely perfunctory interest in their tax affairs you determine your own taxes if you check up to see what you are spending your money for either cither you are going to admit that you are satisfied or aou are going to find a way to make a reduction the biggest thing that we accomplished in our county wits was not the saving of more than on the bridges nor the cuts in taxes tabea in tho the various school districts nor the resurrection of much hidden property the biggest thing was that the people found out that the question of taxes greeted rotted with ym |