The New York herald., 1876-07-09
what 1t Cost. to Govern New York.

from its ], ZOO, 600 of inhabitants from taxes
and other sources, for all purposes, was
$50, 367, IA rs, or S36 36 per capita
The expenses for the municipal govern
ment of London, with population of not
less than 1000, 0OO for the official year end
ing in 1873, amounted to e7, 7,03S, S44, which,
at the rate of fourteen per cent premium. is
$40, 121, 40 so in our currency, or SO O3
per capita The Commissioners Of Taxes
and Assessments have recently made state
ment to the Board of Aldermen, sitting as
Board of Supervisors, of the valuation of
taxable property in this city and county
for 1876-he total for real and personal
property being Sill, ,054, 343, as against
81, 100, 943. 500 in 1875, showing an increase
of $40, 10, GA, the major part of which in
crease-namely, SS,7S4, 620-falls on real
estate, to wit
Total real estate valuations for 1876 1892 42s los
Total real estate valuations for 1875. ss36f3 $40
Increase from 1875 to 1876 ss,7S4, $40
The greatest increase in any one ward
Nineteenth ward, which is bounded north
by Eighty sixth street, east by East River,
south by Fortieth street, west by Sixth ave-
nue.. In point of fact there is not one inch
Of ground in this or any other uptown ward
but what has declined steadily in value
during the last three years, and yet the valu-
ations are substantially the same as they
were in 1873, with the exception of where
they have been increased. In 1873 the rate
of tax was two and half per cent, 50 so on
$780, In 1874 it was So so on 500 in 1875
it was 50 "a on 500. The rate for the
pres mt year is not yet fixed Meantime the
amount of taxes imposed by the Board
of Supervisors has increased from
$28, 22S, 400 81 in 1873 to $36, 367 744 IS in
1876 an increase of S6, 7S4, 62O in two years !;
and yet that eminent statesman, William NJ.
Tweed, had exhausted his public usefulness
prior to 1873. Only the very rich have been
able to bear up under the crushing burdens
SO wantonly imposed upon vacant real es-
tate in this city. Thousands of industrious
poor who had invested the savings of years
in the purchase of An uptown lot, on which
they paid, say one-half cash, leaving the
balance on mortgage, have been utterly
ruined by assessments and taxation practi-
cally amounting, as far as their interests
were concerned, to confscation. And we
make this statement without taking
into consideration the great decline
in uptown real values Even the man who
owns land free and clear on the line of public
Improvements done by days work very often
finds that assessments and taxes consume
the whole value of his property if he is
obliged to force it off at present market rates.
Any one who keeps pace with the melancholy
record Of foreclosure sales which for two
years have been daily taking place at the
Exchange has ample evidence of the truth of
what we advance. Few of our mechanics,
traders or working men, those who pay the
taxes by the labor of their hands and the
sweat of their brows, are aware of the i'm
mense sums yearly consumed in the payment
of the salaries of our city officials. At the
beginning of the present year, say
February 1, the records of the Finance
Department showed the total number of
city employees to be 8,6S5, receiving an
aggregate of salaries for the year 1876 Of
$40, 2S1, 1856, AID this, too exclusive of
mechanics and laborers employed by the
city. Let the workingman ponder on these
figures.
Many Of the Offices to which goodly sala-
ries are attached are merely sinecures,
created by the ordinances Of the Common
Council, the Board of Supervisors, or be-
slowed by certain officials on personal favor
ties as a reward for political services of q
personal nature. The great political and
property interests of the city of New York
are in the hands of agents, who seek to en-
rich themselves from the treasury they are
set to protect. They quarter themselves,
their relatives and their friends upon the
taxpayers and workingmen, who are thus
forced to support in comparative idleness a
horde of officials and their political retain
ers. For years these people have been feed
ing at the public crib. This system is fast
eating away the commerce, life. activity,
vitality and prosperity of New York; it has a
most pernicious and demoralizing effect
upon the public service, and has done as
much toward bringing about that utter pros
tration in every branch of trade in every
industrial interest in this city, of which we
hear on all sides such universal complaint,
as the financial crisis Of 1873 January /,
1869, the city debt was s36, 1893, 929 so. By
the recent semi-annual statement of the
Comptroller we find the city debt on the
30th of June, 1876 as represented in stocks
and bonds, amounts to total of
s161, 165, ,299 So; deduct sinking fund,
$40, 139, 1888 IS /; balance, s132, 026, 361 40.
Stocks and bonds have been issued
by the city during the past six months
of the present year-1S76-for the fol-
lowing purposes and to the following