Omaha daily bee., 1883-03-26
A COLLECTIONS
A Close Cleanup Of Delinquent
Taxes .sAs.n
Omaha's Credit Ranks as High
as any City in the Union.

"a tax gatherer's Office Is not
very good place to collect Items Of
news or l should be vary glad to fur
nish them to you," said City Treas
urer Buck In reply to our inquiry for
anything of interest In his office.
Mr.. B.--The fact Is that people dc
not come to this Office very much, ex
cept noe or twice q year for the pur.
pose Of paying their taxes, which Ia
not always the most agreeable bust
ness. However, knowing as I do how
difficult It sometimes Is for people to
pay, I am surprised at the promptness
Of our taxpayers and the small amount
Of grumbling that I have heard during
the last year.
Reporter--Are collections good
now2
Mr.. B.-This Is the dullest lime OF
the year, and just at present there are
but few taxes coming In. The 1882
taxes begin to come in lively next
month. The 1881 taxes are very
closely collected; in fact the delin.
quency Is reduced to about 3 per cent,
and a large share of that Is made up
of erroneous assessments personal
taxes of those who have for some time
been bankrupts or non-residents.
In addition to the taxes of the cur
rent year I have collected In tho last
fourteen months between forty and
fifty Thousand dollar, Of old taxes that
were delinquent before my day. My
success In collecting Is more crafty.
ing to me from the fact that 80 very
few have made any dissgreeable objec.
lions to paying when urged to settle
up. There r q great many old per.
sonal taxes against people who are now
too poor to pay and who are entitled
to indulgence.
Good collections OF taxes also help
the credit of the city, enable us to
carry on work upon a cash basis and
really make taxes less.
Reporter-What would you say Of
the city's credit7
Mr.. B.-Much has been printed Of
late In regard to our credit and bonded
debt. Without going into figures at
present I will say this: Add together
the city's bonds and those school dis
trict bonds that are guaranteed by the
city, then deduct the value of the
city's sinking fund and the school
sinking fund, (part of which Is In
vested In bonds), and the remainder
will not be one per cent. of the real
valuation of Omaha. Ought. not our
credit to be good, especially when the
city is increasing so rapidly In popula.
ton and wealth.
Reporter--In q recent communica.
ton to the council you expressed the
opinion that you could sell five pei
cent. bonds at or above par.
Mr.. B.-Yes, sir; I could have
done so q few months ago, and have
no doubt that I can still do so. In
fact, that Is no better than I did In the
sale Of the sewer bonds, which I placed
at q rate just ten per cent higher than
was offered by one of our financial
agents in New York. On the subject
of bond sales I an disposed to refer
you to q very complimentary notice
which Ii given me In an interview be
tween q BEE reporter and MI. Andrew
Rosewater, city engineer, published
February Oath.
By reference to our files we find the
following:
Reporter.-How does the city cred
1t stand at this time.
Mr.. R.-No city has any better.
Through the careful and, I must say,
patnstaking management Of Mr.
Buck, our last 6 per cent sewer bondI
brought q premium of nearly $40, 900
and even our one, two, three, foul
and FIVE year district bonds were dis
posed of at par, despite the opinion
expressed by the Omaha banks that II
could not be done.