Looking Back to 1959: County reduces taxes, local cigarette vendor on probation

Excerpts from the Wednesday, August 26, 1959, Paso Robles Journal

SLO County taxes reduced

Rates for cities set at $2.12—unincorporated areas lowered to $2.36

A seven-cent cut in county tax rates for incorporated areas, and a five-cent reduction in “outside rate” was approved Monday afternoon by the San Luis Obispo Board of Supervisors.

The reduction brings city rates to $2.12 per hundred dollars assessed valuation, and the unincorporated sections to $2.36. (The differential between “inside” and “outside” rates stems from a 12-cent library and a 12-cent road tax assessed on property in unincorporated areas).

The cut was made possible by elimination of $92,400 from the unappropriated reserves, which leaves the county a balance of $297,000, according to supervisors who claimed that “a good part of the tax reduction is traceable to good government and the conservatism (in expenditures) displayed by all departments.

“In a year when there are increased demands for county services,” the board said in a joint statement issued this morning, “it is little short of remarkable that we are able to reduce taxes. The majority of other counties are increasing taxes at this time.”

Less remarkable, observers said, is the fact that assessed valuation of county property increased some $7,000,000 this year. According to auditor Eva Hurd; “after allowing 3275 percent for delinquencies, we have an estimated tax base of $132,000 this year as compared to $125,000 for fiscal 1958-59.

Another tax cut loomed in the county’s fourth district as Supervisor Alton Lee (Arroyo Grande) was told by District Attorney Paul Davis that Lee’s “arbitrary 18 cent tax increase in your district for roads is not legal unless it is approved by the voters.”

Davis said that Lee had raised his district’s road tax “at budget time, and asserted that the citizens of his district supported the increase.”

In addition to the $2.12 county tax, Paso Roblans will be assessed as follows: High school district: $1.37, High school bonds: .57, Elementary school bonds: .41, Elementary school special: 1.66, Junio college tuition: .11, Cemetery: .07, Flood control (Zone two): .04, Paso Robles Hospital: .20.

Ken Duart placed on probation

Fined $2500; appeal denied

Kenneth Duart, 47-year-old Santa Margarita cigarette vendor who was found guilty of receiving stolen merchandise on July 9, following a two-day jury trial, yesterday was fined $2500, and given five years of probation in the San Luis Obispo Superior Court.

Duart, through his attorney, Harry C. Murphy, had requested a new trial four days after the verdict was announced. The motion later was denied by Judge Ray B. Lyon.

The Santa Margaritan has denied charges that he received six cases of stolen cigarettes last January from Jack Gordon and Gerald Parrott, two former employees of the Rand-Halpin Distributing Company of San Luis Obispo.

Both Parrott and Gordon, who have been convicted of burglarizing the Rand-Halpin firm of more than $1500 worth of merchandise, testified at the trial that they had “delivered to Duart six cases of stolen cigarettes for the sum of $370.”

Duart, who took the stand in his own defense, stated to the jury that had “never seen Gordon before his arrest, and that he had seen Parrott only once—behind the counter at Rand-Halpin.”

Duart was arrested by San Luis Obispo City police officers on January 29, along with Parrott and Gordon, but charges against him were dismissed when the two burglary suspects refused to testify “on the grounds that they might incriminate themselves.”

On March 18, he was arrested for the second time, after charges had been refiled by District Attorney Paul Dais, and was released on order of recognizance by Judge Paul K. Jackson.

At his preliminary hearing in May, G.B. Halpin, of the burglarized firm, testified that the stolen cigarettes had a market value of $105 per case.

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