The Yellowstone Journal

THE COUNTY TREASURY.
The Delinquent list is Larger Than Usual This Year.
From County Treasurer Savage we have obtained the following statement of tax payment and delinquencies on Dec. 1st the date when taxes became delinquent:
Taxes collected Dec. 1 '94. $10,885.24.
Taxes delinquent Dec 1 '94. $43,178.03.
Total tax roll. $145,063.37.
The delinquent taxes are as follows:
C. w Reservation $19,098.56.
N. P. R. B. Lands. 6,290.17.
Cont. L. & C. Co. 5,432.64.
Home L. & C. Co. 825.63.
Mortgages. 4,376.90.
Scattering 7,134.16.
Total. $43,178.03.
Of the main items shown in the delinquent list it is to be said that the validity of assessment of personal property on the Crow reservation is and has for some years been a question before the courts in a test case the last and perhaps final hearing of which was in the U. S. court of appeals at San Francisco last summer, the decision not having been made public yet.
The Northern Pacific lands delinquency is a new item in this list, as the company have always paid promptly before; their refusal to pay now is based upon the fact that the recent decision in the supreme court of the United States in the Barden case, so disturbs the question of title that they do not care to pay taxes on lands until a more definite understanding is had.
The mortgage item is the tax on mortgages which the mortgagees claim was wrongly levied and assessed and it is probable that this item will not be collected as, if we are correctly informed it is based on a double assessment—property and mortgages.
The reasons why the Continental and Home Cattle companies have not paid are possibly not proper subjects for discussion here. The county officials have their reasons for assessing them and demanding the payment of taxes, and the cattle companies have their reasons for refusing, which if not reconciled by mutual agreement, must be settled in court.
The "scattering" item is the sum total of amounts due from Tom, Dick and Harry who through improvidence or misfortune found themselves unable to "dough up" before the last day of grace.
This amount is no larger than usual, and will nearly all be paid before the property is advertised for sale. With the "reservation" and "mortgage" items deducted from the total amount of taxes to be collected—by reason of their not being available assets, and probably not assets at all—the collections show up over 83 per cent of the whole, and 10 per cent of the whole is in delinquents who are withholding payment on some legal point, so in reality the net tax roll leaving out the reservation and mortgage items, is not more than 7 per cent delinquent, which speaks very well for the business habits and prosperity of the people of this county.