The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1884-02-20
COST OF COUNTY GOVERNMENT.

COST OF COUNTY GOVERNMENT
The Journal has already noted with pleasure
and cordial Endorsement the fact that the
board of this county has called State con-
vention of county commissioners, to meet in
Indianapolis for the consideration of plans for
the better conduct of county business, or, as
it has been expressed, to see how money can
be saved to the taxpayers rather than how it
can be spent. That the government of Marion
county costs the taxpayers very much more
than it should is fact thoroughly known by
the people, who for years have seen the stead
Embarrassing expenses of local administration.
It is to be said to the credit of the present
Board Of Commissioners that they have mani
Tested disposition to retrench, and it is stated
that so far, they have abridged the Running
expenses of the court house establishment be-
tween $50, 900 and SAC, 900 year. But the
cost of county government is still far beyond
what it should be- and what it must be if the
county is not to go into bankruptcy, or the
rate of taxation increased to point where
it will be cheaper for owners of real estate to
sell it under the hammer than to attempt to
keep il. AS it is now, real estate is so heavily
burdened, in comparison with other species of
property, that its value is depressed and the
market for its sale practically Frustrated.
strated than that the prosperity of commu-
nifty is in the direct ratio of the economy Of
its public expenditures and the low rate of its
taxation. Therefore, every one, property
owner, artisan, mechanic, day-laborer, man,
woman and child, is vitality interested in the
question of city and county government.
Another fact to be considered with respect
to the enormous fees and emoluments of the
principal offices, not only of Marion county,
but of all the other larger counties of the
State, is the fact that the places which give
fortunes to their incumbents during single
term are a menace to the purity and stability
of government, a prolific source of that cor
ruption which has made the bargain and sale
of nominations and elections at once notori-
Gus and dangerous. What the people of the
State think about this matter is evident from
the vote cast for what is known as the fee and
salary amendment. That amendment received
the largest vote and majority given for any of
the seven propositions submitted. The pur-
pose of the amendment, and of the people in
voting for it, was to enable the General AS
sembly to do away with the fee system and in
its place inaugurate the plan of salaries. That
amendment has never been acted upon by the
Legislature for reasons which probably every
one understands. The next Legislature will
be called upon to do something practical in
this direction, and if it be Republican it will
be expected to answer the emphatic demand of
the people for the extirpation, root and
branch, of the system under which so much
extravaganza and corruption is possible and
the substitution of system which will give
ample and just compensation for faithful and
efficient service in the employ of the public.
As an indication of the cost OF the govern
ment of Marion county, and as an intelligent
basis for the formation of sound public opin-
ion upon the necessity of radical reform, the
Journal presents elsewhere record of the or
ders drawn by the commissioners, and paid out
of the county treasury, simply for the Office of
sheriff and the conduct of the county jail.
The sheriffs Office is, probably, the most lu-
crative of any of the principal Offices, a large
share-possibly wo-thirds-of its emoluments
coming from fees growing out of litigation
and its results, and which cut no figure in the
printed statement The amounts given are
entirely exclusive of what may be called the
regular fees of the office, in connection with
the judicial work of the county. The period
embraced is from the time Sheriff Hess en-
tered the office, December, 1882, to February
II, 1884, about fourteen months. A summary
of the orders shows the following aggregates:
Total sum paid to Sheriff Hess for four
teen months ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS .$34 lOO39
Of this amount there was paid:
For the board of prisoners at the county
jail OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES $24 6S4O0
Supplies for the county jail.............. 6,676.52
Summoning juries, conveying prisoners, in
sanity fees, etc ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 2395.2S
Unenumerated. Observation-Disclosures. 344.59
Total $34 lOO,39
The supplies for the county Jail include
almost every possible thing, except food. 1t