The Great Tax Cleanup of 1904
Walla Walla commissioners initiate a massive effort to purge decades of uncollectable tax debt, including lingering railroad disputes.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
The county commissioners have taken up the matter of cancellation of a large amount of delinquent taxes that are carried on the tax rolls for a period of years dating from 1878 up to 1902. The amount of the delinquency is about $187,000. The board, with the assistance of Deputy Auditor John W. McCafferty and Bert Painter, commenced work this morning of going over the rolls for the years mentioned and selecting what taxes they considered collectable, and entering the amount in a new tax roll. It will be turned over to the county treasurer with instructions to make the collection as soon as practicable. All that the board considers cannot be collected will be cancelled. A great deal of the delinquent tax is for the time between the year 1878 and 1899, when a large amount of it was ordered rebated and cancelled, but the record had not been completed. This includes the taxes of the Northern Pacific railroad company, which were ordered compromised after a hard fight in the courts.
“A great deal of the delinquent tax is for the time between the year 1878 and 1899, when a large amount of it was ordered rebated and cancelled.”
The struggle to balance public books while contending with powerful corporate interests like the Northern Pacific railroad remains a familiar theme in local governance and fiscal administration.
From readers
No comments yet. If you know something about this story — a correction, a family memory, a source — it belongs here.