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Show SCHOOLS REPLY TO TAX CHARGES County Board Objects to Making Mak-ing Political Capital Out of Universal Conditions With the rxplinatlon thnt thl ird objects to "misconstruction and misrepresentation mis-representation of facts, such as ha appeared hi the press lately and la heard In rallies by political spellbinders spellbind-ers who are willing to twist and contort con-tort facts for partisan reasons," the Weber county board of education, through f, W. Stratford, president today Issued a statement on the taxation taxa-tion question. The board admits It Increased the tax levy, but declared the Inrreajse Is hlchly Justified. The statement my present conditions are to be blamed and the board objects to politician! making political capital out of the universal uni-versal Increase In costs. ri wiiss SET! FORTH In glvinc: reasons why the board Increased the county levy, ihe statement state-ment s-iys: "t;real advance In cost of book, paper, supplies of all kinds 102 per cent increase since 1J1S on supplies: Increaeei In texts noted also 'Increased salarlc-- nee. -vary in order or-der to keep qualified teachers from leaving the profession. 25 to 60 per cent increase has been necessary since July. 1919 "Needs arising from new school laws enacted by the legislature of the State nf I'tah. 1919. For the;e little or no aid was supplied from state funds must be met locally. To educate bins and girls between lfi and 18 years. Before this time, the compulsory attendance at-tendance ended at 16 year. This put Into our schools approximately 'JO per cent more students, either in the regular reg-ular school or part-time school or night classes. Additional teachers, rooms, equipment and the like resulted. re-sulted. Ill Villi ! I I I Ml V I "The new h:iit'i requirements necessitated ne-cessitated the expenditure of several hundred dollars for extra equipment In first aid supplies, scales, medical examination, reports, forms, etc. Su pplvinK aid in transportation will cost the county system for all purposes, pur-poses, grade and hlKh school, approximately approx-imately $2.1,000. ' Twelve-month school program, calling for activities supervised In summer and over the entire year will Increase the cost of operation between 4,000 and $5,000. "Above and many other improvements improve-ments all seem beneficial and progressively pro-gressively desirable, but th y all cost moncv'. and every Increase meant more money up until the present time Tin peak of prices seems to have hern reached. eW trust that vye shall be able soon to operate for less, hut for the present these are the facts. K D T V l Rl M "Tax levy shows that the amount levied for state roads bOS doubled 111 19 20 over 1919. Some Increase Is chargeable here. "State Board of Equalization, as Well as County Board of Equalization, have greatly Increased valuation In Weber county as well as most all other oth-er counties. That accounts for some of the increase in people's taxes. School board of this county has no apnlogles to make. We are willing to take the responsibility for any Increase In-crease that i rightly chargeable to this source. We are opposed to misconstruction mis-construction and misrepresentation of facts such as has appeared In the prSSS lately and Is heard In rallies by political spi ll-blndere w ho are wining to twist and contort facts for partisan 1 1 loons' Just cheap political "thunder." "thun-der." SCHOOTfS WEIJL MANAGED VThe schools of Weber county have always been economically managed. That polby is still In force. They are not asking for any more money for the schools than is necessary under present conditions. Practically all counties and cities of Ttah are operating operat-ing on from 7 to 11 G mills for schools. Weber county's school levy this year Is 7.02 mills, one of the very' lowest. So It is evident there is no mismanagement mismanage-ment It is Just present conditions everywhere that Is to blame, und such conditions should be met fairly by both political parties, giving a square deal to the schools and not try to make political capital out of the unavoidable un-avoidable and universal rise in prices during the past few years. "Ogdan city taxpayers pay 30 mills on each dollar. "County taxpayers. 17 92 mills on each dollar. |