The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1878-03-09
CITY FINANCES.

We confess, some two or three weeks ago
when approached by the irrepressibe tax gath
erer with demand some % per cent in excess
of any taxes we had ever before paid on the
same amount of property, we felt indignant
and decidedly like pitching INTO somebody
whoever it might be, that was responsible for
this excessive taxation. Naturally, like many
others we jumped to the conclusion that the
chief fault lay with our city council, and as
they had never given us any reason to be par
ticulary in love with them, we decided to give
them an overhauling and raking down. Com
ing to look up the facts and figures, however
upon which to base the assault, we were surpris
ed and decidedly taken aback to find that they
would bear the closest scrutiny and that in re-
ality the finances Of the city had been fully as
well and economically managed under the adj
ministration of Mayor Nicholson as under any
that had preceded it. Especially did it com
pare avorably with the administration imme
diatcly preceding it.
To illustrate this we gave the figures as we
found them in the annual statements roughly,
but We believe correctly, and showed that the
present council, during It's year about TO close
really expended some $4,000 less for ordinary
city purposes than had been expended during
its year by the preceding council
The Ottawa RepuJiicdH for some reason
grown exceedingly sensitive in regard to the
council of two years ago, controverts our fig.
urcs, and publishes a statement of the eXpendi.
lures of the present council for all purposes
amounting TO some 100000, including an item
of $4,000 Tor temporary loans refunded that OF
course has no business in the statement at all
and otherwise wholly muddlcd and perverted
Without however, stopping to analyzc that
statement and show its true bearing, it is enough
for our purpose TO say that Mayor Nicholson
in statement in another column, goes into
the figures of the year infinitely, and bears out
! fully what we said, that the ordinary cXpcnd
lures of the council for the past year have beer
some $4,000 less than those of the preceding
reform" council
Yet the city taxes this year have been nearly
doubled, and surely this needs explanation
Now the explanation is this: When the pres
ent council came into power they found that
besides the ordinary expenses of the city. the,
had to make provision for an cXtraorlinar,
debt of nearly $4,000 left over by the preceding
reform council, and for city indebtedness,
of some $4,000 with interest, falling due dur
ing this year.
When VI. H. Swift was mayor, he forcsiu
this Indebtedness and began To make provision
for il, so that we find when he went out of offc,
he left in the treasury not only $9,jj37i, but
had also laid aside $1,000 rs a sinking fund t,
meet the bonds falling due this April. Iii,
plan was that the next council should lay
aside the same amount which would have lcf,
So 800 to bc raised for the same purpose by
the present council. The next council. how
ever, came in ON 'ivtorm" basis and plctlr,
to reduce taxation. Consequently, instead 81
pursuing Mayor Swift'S plan To add to the
sinking fund they not only spent the SD,5j3.1 a
he had left in their hands, but also his sinking
fund, and plunged into Improvements that car