Flooded Out, Then Taxed: Assessor Asks Relief for the Calispel Farmers
High water wiped out the grain fields of the Calispel valley this spring. The county assessor says the survivors should not have to pay for land that gave them nothing.
County Assessor Frank F. Bottorf writes the Miner the suggestion that the Calispel valley farmers whose crops were totally or partially destroyed by the unusually high water of this year are, in his opinion, entitled to some exemption from taxation for the coming year on account of this loss. Mr. Bottorf writes that the county commissioners will be in session as a board of equalization from Aug. 3 to 24, and that if those who have suffered loss will petition the board for exemption he will lay the matter before the board and do what he can in their interests.
The matter is up to the ranchers. Reports from the valley indicate that the hay crop is better than ever this year, but that those who had in grain and were reached by the high water suffered the total loss of their crops. More than usual land had been plowed up this year, and the suggestion that taxes be exempted for this loss is eminently proper.
“Reports from the valley indicate that the hay crop is better than ever this year, but that those who had in grain and were reached by the high water suffered the total loss of their crops.”
A county official arguing that a farmer whose crop drowned should not be taxed on it is disaster relief in its plainest form — no agency, no program, just a petition and a board of equalization. The Calispel valley still farms the same bottomland, and the argument over who absorbs the cost when the water comes remains exactly this local.
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