The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1875-01-16
Tho Condition OF tho City Finances
Points for Investigation.

In his budget for 1875 Comptroller Green
asked for interest on $21, 791. 372 OF temporary
debt, of which $1,000, 900 is at six per cent
and the balance at seven per cent. The total
amount of interest asked for on this portion
Of the public debt is $3,O72, 1872, all of which
is included in the estimate for 1875, and is to
be raised by taxation. The temporary debt is
made up as follows: =
Assessment bonds payable in 1874 to
Street Improvement Iund bonds, pay
able IN 1874 TO 1873 451O,1OO
Central Park Commission Improvement
bones, payable IN 1874 TO ls76......... 1,27O.OOO
bonds, payable In 1874 to 1878. ..... ss41,472
Improvement bonds, payable l874...... 500, 000
Total $21 791, 372
Of this amount $7,S17.50O falls due on or
before November 1, 1875, yet the Comptroller
asks for and receives the interest on the whole
amount for the entire twelve months, or I'D to
January 1, 1876. He may calculate that the
bonds falling due this year will be paid by the
collection of assessments, but that their place
will be filed by new bonds issued for new i'm
provements. But, meanwhile, what becomes
of the interest received from the payers of
assessments, and what use is made of the
money received on assessment rolls until it is
appropriated to redeem the assessment bonds.
as they fall due? The interest collected ON
assessments not paid within the allotted timed
can only legally be applied to reduce the
amount to be raised by taxation to pay in
terest on assessment bonds. It is not so APP
piled Where does it go?
The Comptroller is authorized under chap
ter 756 of the Laws of 1873 to issue CONSOLE
dated stock of the city, to pay assessments
upon the real estate belonging to the city and
to meet the amounts fastened on the city by
reason OF deficiency or vacation of assess
ments. How much stock has been issued for
that purpose? and is there any portion of the
twenty-one millions of outstanding temporary
debt thus payable by the CITY and properly
belonging to the funded debt?
The Comptroller reports the amount of debt
payable from the sinking fund on which in
terest is due in 1875 to be 500, 841, 1926. He
asked in the Board Of Apportonment that the
interest on $13, 1894, gu of this amount should
be raised by taxation, and the required sum,
$3.50, 052, is included in the $9,300,000 ap-
propriated for interest in the tax levy of 1875.
This leaves interest on $40, LII, 155 only, or
on less than half the sinking fund debt, to be
paid from the receipts of the ''sinking fund
to provide interest on the city debt" Should
not the interest on the whole of the sinking
fund debt be paid from this interest fund?
What are the receipts of the latter fund? Is
there any surplus there? Why is it that it
only yields enough to pay interest on less
than one half of the sinking fund debt?
How much interest does the Comptroller
really pay out Of the fund in question and, if
there is q surplus, what becomes of it?
Of the debt on which interest is paid by
taxation, five hundred thousand dollars is at
five per cent ffty-three millions at six per
cent, and lightweight milhons-b besides rev.
enue bonds and newly issued stock and bonds
for the current year-at seven per cent. A
competent 6nancier would not have continued
for three years to pay seven per cent interest
on nearly two-thirds of the debt, and on all
new bonds and stock, when money could
easily have been had at five per cent. But
tho trouble is that Mr. Green is not
financier. He is charlatan, who uses his po-
sition in the city government for his personal
purposes, and who is altogether too small for
the position he assumes to fill
spain.
His gracious Majesty Prince Alfonso has
arrived in Madrid, and is now probably at