The New York herald., 1875-01-22
The Mysteries or the CITY Finances.

IUARY ~, lS75.-WITH S
The Mysteries or the City Finances.
The evils of Comptroller Green's financial
policy-if the reckless, witless, siipshod man
agement of the past three years can be called
policy-are forcing themselves into greater
prominence every day under Mayor Wick
hams administration. The recent proceed
ings of the Board of Apportionment afford
an illustration Of the injustice to which the
honest creditors of the city have been SUBJ
jected through Mr.. Green's obstructiveness
and obstinacy. There was money in the
treasury only awaiting legal transfer to pay
the poor scrub women their December wages
and to meet the salaries of the clerks of the
Courts. But Mr.. Green regarded the settle
ment Of these bills as a matter altogether too
insignificant" and "triaing" to require at
tention, and argued that in city where SO
much money is paid out for salaries it can be
of no consequence if few employees remain
unpaid. With the common sense and honesty
Of business man the Mayor reminded the
Comptroller that the clerks in the public
Offices and tho women who do the cleaning
are entitled to be paid as promptly by the
city as they would be if employed in private
offices and stores, and that it can be neither
just nor logical to argue that two or three
hundred persons who have honestly
earned their salaries or wages may, without
injustice, be left to suffer or starve because
two or three thousand have been paid.
Through the firmness of the Mayor the neces-
sary transfer of unexpended balances was
yesterday authorized in the case of the clerks
of the courts, and the Comptroller was in
structed to make the payments without any
further delay.
The controversy over tho question of trans
ferring une1pended balances appears to throw
some light upon Mr.. Green's management.
In mis- anxiety to prevent such transfers the
Comptroller stated that they exist only
on paper, and that there is no
money in the treasury to meet
them. This leads to the inquiries,
what is done with the arrears of taxes and rs
sessments of former years as they are col
lected; where does the money to meet the
years current expenditures come from when
such expenditures exceed the amount of taxes
collected, and how is it that no provision is
made for deficiency in taxation and no def
cheney is ever reported at the time the esti-
mates and appropriations are made, if any
exists? The unpaid taxes on real and per-
sonal estate for the year 1874 are in the neigh
borhood of seven million dollars. Are there
seven million dollars of the appropriations of
last year still unexpended2 If not, out of
what funds has the excess of appropriations
drawn from the treasury over and above the
actual amount of taxes collected been paid?
Has the Comptroller been using the money
realized from the arrears Of taxes and assess
ments Of former years to pay the expenses Of
the current year? Does this explain his un-
willingness to Equidste old debts, his anxiety
to delay payment by factious defences, taken
through every stage of the law up to tho
last appeal? Is this the secret of his constant
''bridging over of assessment bonds as they
fall due by the issue of new bonds to take
their place under the authority Of law
secured by his own lobby agents at Albany
Does he pursue this illegal and reckless course
for the purpose of covering up and concealing
the fact that heavy deficit exists in the city
treasury and in order to escape the necessity
of increasing the debt or adding five or six
millions to the years taxation? It seems
clear that the arrears of the taxes of 1872, or
of any other year, when collected, should be
devoted to the payment of the outstanding
indebtedness Of that year, and that any sur
plus remaining after those debts are paid
Apportionment. 1t also seems clear that the
arrears of assessments should be applied solely
to the redemption of assessment bonds. If any
different use is made of the money derived
from such sources where is the law to au-
thorize it? These matters should be scruti-
nized at once. 1t is criminal neglect of duty
to suffer the city finances to remain an hour in
their present intricate, incomprehensible and
suspicious condition. Dishonesty alone fears
the light. We repeat what we have before
said, that resolutions calling upon Mr.. Green
for information are idle. A full and search
ing scrutiny into every nook and corner of
the Finance Department, made by competent
persons, is demanded in the public interest
and for the public safety. Now that Mayor
Wickham has united with Commissioner
Howe another gentleman Of capacity and
energy he should at once order such an in
vestigation-
The Recent Wind and Weather ON
the Atlantic.
The wind and weather on the Atlantic during
the last fortnight have been of the stormiest
type, and have put the best navigation to the
severest test 1t is generally believed that the
Atlantic storm season is at its worst during
the equinoctial period, when the atmospheric
equilibrium is most seriously disturbed, and