Stevens County Tried to Tax the Railroad at Nearly Double. It Cost $12,000.
The state supreme court ruled the commissioners had no business overriding the state tax commission's valuation of the Spokane Falls Northern — and the county treasury paid for the lesson.
A decision was handed down by the supreme court of the state last week, holding that the commissioners of Stevens county erred in 1906 in disregarding the orders of the state tax commission in fixing values for taxation of railroad properties.
The result will be that Stevens county's tax receipts from the Spokane Falls Northern Railroad will be reduced by $12,000 for the year 1906. The state tax commission fixed the value of first-class or main line railroads at $14,250 a mile and other classes of track in proportion. The Stevens county commissioners raised the valuation to $25,000 per mile. The Spokane Falls Northern sued the treasurer of the county to restrain him from collecting taxes on the increased basis and won out in the superior court. The commissioners carried the matter to the supreme court and have now lost out.
“The Stevens county commissioners raised the valuation to $25,000 per mile.”
County commissioners decided the railroad's track was worth $25,000 a mile; the state said $14,250; the railroad sued and won, and Stevens County gave back $12,000 in a single year's receipts. The fight over how much a corporation's property is really worth, and who gets to decide, is still the central argument of every county budget in the state. Substitute a data center or a pipeline for the Spokane Falls Northern and the brief writes itself.
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