Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1886-06-19
MUNICIPAL ECONOMY IN THE UNITED
STATES.


MUNICIPAL ECONOMY IN THE UNITED
STATES.
The San Francisco Bulletin refers to the
Berlin system of municipal government,
and compares ii with the American meth
cd, with verdict in favor OF the latter.
In Berlin there are classes of voters who,
according TO the amount Of taxes they
pay, elect certain grades of public admin
istrators. With us the non taxpayer casts
as powerful vote as the heaviest prop
erty-owner. Under our system Of govern
ment property qualification would be
intolerable We proceed upon the theory,
and il is true, in fact, that the poorest
man pays taxes, and proportionately more
than the rich. Every necessary of life to
the poor man, when purchased by him for
money or labor, pays tax contribution to
the support of the Government. The
real fault in our municipal systems is the
case with which control may fall into the
hands Of the few-not by any means the
rich, but rather the INSCRIPTIONS How
to prevent this is the vexed problem. 1t
is the old question, how to secure honest
and economic administration The reform
in this direction must begin back of NUM-
cipal government itself; it must have its
genesis in the party divisions of the citi-
zens and advance from that beginning to
final separation of party politics from town
and city government altogether. The
municipalities of the country are but
larger family groups, and should be con-
Quoted upon precisely the same plane of
economy that obtains in the well-regulated
I business or the well-managed household
This really involves one of the most i'm
portant problems of the age. NUM-
cipal Indebtedness in the United
States is out of all proper
ton to State and county liabilities,
and testihes to our uneconomic methods.
1t is an alarming feature that the in
crease of municipal Indebtedness and cost
of maintenance is disproportioned to the
increase of population and augmented i'm
portance of towns and cities This show
ing is made by the census report:
1870
State $3.50 sec cas-
County - lSI sos $40
Municipal township and school dis
trlct S2S 2li,520
1850
state s226 5g7 .59i
County 124 027 $50
Municipal, township and school dis
trlct--. 69f Hos SOL
Thus, while State and county economy
had in the decade been subserved, munich
pal extravaganza had more than doubled
municipal debt, though the growth of
cities has not been disproportionately in
excess of the general growth of the coun-
try In California in 1880, we had State
debt of So, 3O6,614, n county debt of 81 ,3l2,-
4S9, and municipal, township and school
district debts aggregating Sc, ,5S5; but
in 1870 the debts of the latter class were
but little over 100000, while county
debts aggregated nearly Sl4,000,000. So
that while in one case we decreased liabili-
ties in decade nearly 100000, in the
cases of cities and township we increased
our Indebtedness over S5,000,000, while
our State debt remained about the same.
The per capita of the whole debt fell from
S32 90 in 1870 to $40 So in 1880.
This gain was to the benefit of
rural jewellers more than to the gain of
metropolitans. These figured statements
speak for themselves. But more start
ling exhibit is that which shows that in
cities of Z 800 population and over through
out the United States, the aggregated city
debts give an average per capita of SOL.
| The exact figure for California is SIG 81.
The years 1872 and 1874 appear to have
been most prolific OF city debts; from 1874
to 1873 a spasm Of economy prevailed, but
on the incoming of 1879 there was a
frightful enlargement of the Indebtedness
of cities. Such exhibits as these ought to
awaken more of public attention than
they do and suggest more forcibly to
metropolitans and townsmen the wisdom
of municipal economy and the way to
Through political reforms; in fact by
enforcement of city government from
party politics altogether, and the substitu-
ton of business management.