The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1875-07-03
wears, in round numbers, as folio rs:

Tax levy In 1867 81 900. 900
Tax levy in 1868 20 00O, 900
Tax levy in 1859. 81 900, 900
Tax levy In 1870. % 900, 900
Tax levy IN 1871 "a 000 600
Tax levy in 1872. 80 00O, 600
TAX levy IN 1873. % 900, 900
Tax levy In 1874. 80 600. 900
Tax levy In 1875. "a 000,0 600
The taxes levied upon the citizens for the
expenses of government in four years of Tam
many rule, from 1868 to 1871, amounted in
the aggregate to $91, 100000 Of this it has
been shown that $40, 100000 were stolen,
leaving the honest expenditure ST., 900, 000
The taxes levied in four years of the present
financial rule, from 1872 to 1876 inclusive,
reach in the total $126,OOO,0O0. Of this we
have right to believe that not a dollar has
been stolen, According to Mayor Have
meyers last Message to the Common Council,
January 10, 1874, the amount which it was
required to raise by tax for payment of in
terest on the city and county debt in 1869 was
So, $3.50 1t 1871 it had risen to So, 000 600.
In 1875 it has increased to SO, 300,0 900. We
thus find that since 1871 up to 1876, under
Comptroller Green's management, the debt
has increased $48,0O0,000, the annual taxa
account Sc, 500 900. These results have been
conveniently laid to the account of the legacy
of debt lett us by the infamous Tammany
Ring. But this does not satisfactorily explain
the continued increase of the public burdens.
Still less can we attribute our extravaganza ex-
penditures to public improvements, for the
public works have been almost abandoned and
&c ia - L..
blocked for the past four years. No one can
read the report of the Commissioners of Ac-
counts without becoming impressed with the
fact that the rapid strides we have made since
1871 toward municipal bankruptcy are due to
incompetent and reckless financial manage
ment, to financial charlatanry which would
speedily break down the business of banker
or merchant, no matter how large might be its
capital.
The accounts of the Finance Department
have been so miserably muddled, either
through incapacity or design, that the Com
missioners of Accounts find it impossible to
trace out the unexpended balance of any
single years appropriations, or to discover
what has been done with such balances. The
Comptroller appears to have disregarded the
law which makes each appropriation appli-
cable alone to the purpose and the year for
which it is made, and TO have carried forward
balances from year to year and used them at
his pleasure, without any appropriation by
the Board of Estimate and Apportionment,
which reappropriation is positively required
by the law. For instance, in 1872 Mr. Green
asked for and obtained in the annual tax levy
So, 600, 900 for interest on the public debt.
He required and expended for interest that
year only $6,900000, leaving an unexpended
balance of 81, 7O0,0 900, In the two subse-
quent years, 1873 and 1874, he misrepresented
to the Board of Apportionment the amount
actually needed for interest, asked for less
than he wanted and used this unexpended
balance for 1872 to make up the difference,
conceallpg from the Board the fact of its ex-
istence until it was unearthed by Messrs
Vance and Wheeler. We further find from
the report that of the taxes of 1872, 1873 and
1874, there remained uncollected upon Jan
uary l, 1875, $12,0O0,OOO, while the unex-
pended balances of those three years
amounted III tue hSBreRaJe al Ine same GATE
only to $4,000, 600. The question is how was
the balance of Nine Million Dollars, being
the difference between the deficiency in the
taxes imposed to meet the appropriations
and the balance of the appropriations
not called for, raised by Mr.. Green? 1t
is evident that the money has been secured
only by ''bridging over" process; that is to
say, by carrying over revenue bonds from
year to year, by renewing such bonds when
they fall due, and thus covering up, conceal
ing and driving ahead an actual deficiency in
the city Treasury of some ten million dollars.
Such a wretched policy, evident through all
the city, financial affairs, has compelled vexa-
tious and extended litigation in order to drive
off the payment Of the public creditors. Legal
expenses have been thus made enormous,
interest has eaten us up and we stand to-day
ignorant of our true condition, loaded down
With debt and taxation, with a heavy def
cheney that must one day be met with an u2-
adjusted or floating debt, the dimensions Of
which we cannot discover, and with our
finances ard our public credit at the mercy of
q financial charlatan.
THE REPUBLICAN ALDERMEN, having learned
az nfoiant wiadon fo return 70 their duties