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Show oo 1 CLAIM THEY FOUND A Salt Lake, Aug. 15 As the result of the discovery of what Is believed by tho city commissioners to be a "joker" clause In the franchise which was to have been awarded to the Merchants Light & Power company of Ogden at the mooting of the city commission this morning a radical change will bo made in the grant before its final passage A clause of the proposed franchise which was drawn by attorneys for the lighting company submitted to the city and approved by City Attorney Harper J. DInlnnv provides: As an occupation or llconsc tax the grantee. Kb successors and assigns shall pay to Salt Lake City for tho use of the privilege granted by this franchise First For the first five years no license tax shall be charged. Second For the next twenty years one-half of one per cent upon the gross revenues of the company derived from the sale of electrical energy for lighting purposes pur-poses within tho corporate limits of Salt Lake City Third For the . remaining twenty-five years one per cent upon the gross revenue of the company derived from the aalo of electrical energy for lighting pur-posesj pur-posesj wlthlu the corporate limits of Salt Lake City Myers Makes Discovery. In reohccklng the franchise a few days ago preparatory to Its final pas-ange, pas-ange, Assistant City Attorney Aaron Myers, who 1b In charge of the legal department while City Attorney DInlnnv DIn-lnnv Is on his vacation, compared tho . clause quoted in the foregoing with the stale laws rolativc to taxation i of corporations. At the conclusion of his investiga- tlon. Attorney Myers advised the commissioners at a secret sosslon . held a -few days apo that If tho claiiEe was allowed to stand that the Utah Light & Railway company I could not be taxed any greater . amount than that fixed for tho new company. Attorney Myers bases his opinion I on paragraph 87 of Gectlon 206 of the 1 Laws of Utah, which reads in part J that "all such license fees and taxes shall be uniform in roapect to the class upon which they aro IrapoBed." The only permissible interpreta-i interpreta-i tlon of the soctlon, says Mr. Myer, Is that what ono electric concern Is taxed fo may tho other be, and tho limit of one Is automatically the limit lim-it of taxation of tho othor. The state law, whloh Atlornoy Myers refers -to, ho says is based on a well-known section of tho stnto constitution and It In turn Ib in accordance ac-cordance with a provision of tho federal fed-eral constitution The effect of tho clause quoted, would, according to Attorney Myers, hae constituted n bludlng contract between the city and the company for a period of fifty years nnd would unalterably have fixed the amount of tax which that concern would have to pay the city and would render the administration powerless to collect any further tax in the regular course of business Effect of the Chango. Not only would the clause havo affected af-fected the now company, but, according accord-ing to Attorney Myers, it would have placed in tho "hands of the Utah Light Sz Railway company a weapon which would have meant unquestionable unquestion-able defeat for tho city in a lawsuit now pending In the Third district court against the latter for the collection col-lection of mctor taxes aggregating nearly $20,000 At the secret conference of the commission at which tho matter was discussed at length a "repealing" ordinance or-dinance was drawn which was passed pass-ed without discussion at the meeting of the commission Tuesday morning. This measure was to repeal a franchise fran-chise granted the power and light company on May 1 last, which con-fnliiml con-fnliiml ihfi clnusn In ouestion. The light company had never formally accepted or rejected the measure, but had petitioned for tho substitution substitu-tion of another measure cutting In half the amount of license tax. The latter measure Is the one that was to have been passed at today's session. ses-sion. Fear that the officials of the Og-dpn Og-dpn companv might discover that tho city attorney's office had discovered the alleged "joker" and would accept ac-cept tho first franchise before the repealing ordinance could bo published pub-lished and be legal. Is given as the reason for the secrecy of the commission commis-sion meeting at which the action was determined upon. Will Amend Measure, It Is now proposed to lay over the measuro and to pass it in amended form, wholly omitting tho license tax feature at a session of the commission commis-sion next week Attorncv Myers is preparing a written opinion on the nuestlon, which will bo submitted to the commissioners at the meeting of next Monday night. When asked about the clause F. M. Parry, general manager of the Ogden concern, disclaimed all knowledge knowl-edge of any such intent on the part of hio company. Mr. Parry said that his company had felt that the city should rccel o some compensation compensa-tion for the franchise and that It had stood willing to pay such amounts as might be agreed upon. Tho financial fi-nancial backers of the concern, said Mr Parrv. had rcfusen to pay the amount originally determined upon. but had agreed to the amount fixed lu the measuro that was to have been passed today. "All wo ask," said Mr. Parry, la an opportunity of coming Into bait Lako on n fair and equitable basis with our competitor. We felt that we had been more than fair to the citizens citi-zens of Salt Lako in tho measure we proposed. We certainly havo no objection ob-jection to tho entire removal of A license tax." |