The Bureau of Indian Affairs announced plans today to change the assessments in the San Carlos Indian Reservation Irrigation Project in Arizona. The new proposal would comply with present policy that assessment rates should reflect the full cost of the work required.
For more than 10 years the annual basic assessment rate has been 50 cents an acre. It was only a token assessment. The project provides subsistence truck gardens and the Indians are unable to pay the full cost. The Federal Government paid most of the cost from appropriated funds.
The new basic assessment rate will be $14 an acre, which was the cost of maintaining the 365 acres of the project land under cultivation in 1956.
Under the proposed plan, the Indians would continue to pay only what they are able to pay. The Government would continue financing the deficit from appropriated funds and such Federal contributions would continue to be reimbursable as a lien against the Indian land. It is estimated that the Indians' payments and the Government contribution will continue on approximately the same ratio as in the past.
Interested parties are invited to submit their views in writing to the Area Director, Bureau of Indian Affairs, P. O. Box 7007, Phoenix, Arizona, within 30 days after publication of the notice of intention in the Federal Register.
