Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1889-08-21
Bailey's Stump Speech Report
from the Finance Committee.
He Pumps Hot Soup into Certain Alder
men who had been interviewed
by the City Press.
Nieks and Fry Make Remarks of More or Less
Observation-Disclosures COnsideredand
Business Transacted.

HlahSIy NlChS, JdChSOA, DdSS6Llr 4Ilp-
petit, Bailey, Mes, Smith, Fraser and
Clements.
The mayor asked the courtesy of being
! allowed to present q petition covering the
hack ordinance, which he said was too
mum erousIy signed to be read. No OBJ
lection being made the petition was re-
Ceived and referred to the committee on
streets, alleys and sidewalks.
The finance committee reported that
the $4,000 note for the Baptist church
property could be extended to January,
| 1890, by paying the interest to dare,
| amounting to 800. The committee
recommended that this course be pursued.
The report was adopted.
The same committee also reported on
the petition of - Burns, assistant TO
the city secretary, recommending that
the petitioner be instructed to look to
the secretary for his salary. The report
was adopted.
Mr.. Bailey, for the finance committee,
further made the following report:
To the Honorable City Council:
GENTLENEN-W When your finance COM
mittee were first placed in charge we
found as was embodied in 4 former re-
port TO this council, the finances of the
| city in the following condition: There
was outstanding S97 900 liz nOn-inUerest
bearing scrip, nine-tenths of which had
been discounted by brokers and specu-
| lators at an average of T5 cents on the
/ dollar. We further found that the city
! paid her IabOrers in scrip 81. rs per day,
| % cents more than was paid by the prI-
| vate citizen. In addition TO the S97 900
non-interest bearing scrip the city had
! outstanding So ,S66 40 in 10 per cent.
! interest bearing notes, which become due
| rs follows: S9549 in 1889, 81 ,0t7 in 1890,
| SD ,269 in 1891, $1,000 in 1892 OF the
! foregoing mentioned notes there are two
| aggregating SSlG6 Sc, part payment of
/ the S25 900 which the new bridge to North
| Fort Worth cost the city. The other
| notes are mainly on account of the sewer
/ built on the East side. Whether said
! notes were legally or illegally
! issued by the former council
| it is not our purpose at this time 70 DIS
/ cuss. However. we recommended, IN
order to place the city on a cash paying
! basis. the issuance Of about one hundred
! thousand dollars in bonds to pay the cur
| rent expenses from date of the report
| until the collection of taxes for the year
! 1889. The report was made the special
/ order for several evenings. we discussed
| il both i'll caucus and i'll executive Ses-
| sion, the bone of contention being as TO
| whether the nOn-interest bearing scrip,
| nine tenths Of which as has already been
| stated was in the hands of Spectators,
| should be paid off in full before other
| bonds should be issued which were need
! ed to pay the current expenses for the
remainder of the year '69, and for sewer
| and high school improvements. The ma
| jOrity OF the finance committee insisted
/ that the uOn-nterest bearing scrip be let
| alone; that it be paid only in its regular
| turn of account from the collection OF
taxes as was expected by the
! seller and the scrip buyer
at the date of his purchase.
We reasoned that to issue bonds bearing
| interest at the rate of or per cent. per
! annum to pay of non-interest bearing
| scrip eight or ten months in advance of
| its exDectant payment would be lnjudl-
cious, imprudent and like
| that it would be a lottery prize for the
scrip-buyer, but death to the taxpayer.
/ The other gentlemen differing with us
/ argued that the city's credit was below
par and that it would be necessary to
| pay of this scrip in order to be able to
| cash our bonds. In refutation of this
| argument the finance committee claimed
| that the city, credit was all right but
| that the finances had been run down
| by an eXDeDElLuIS 1OI ltl prov cLLCLlt9 LC-
| fore there was provided money in the
| treasury for the payment OF the same.
This discussion ran along for period
! covering more than two months, until
! the outstanding contracts made by
! the outgoing council and the cur
rent expenses of the city had in
| creased our scrip 10 over one
! hundred and thirty thousand
| dollars, which, together with the
! interest bearing notes made tOta! in
| debteduess of over two hundred
| thousand dollars. 1t was at this
| iuncture that the finance committee
| made the following oral statement to the
! council: That iuasmuch is the books
! OF the assessor showed that there
was only IS, 800 900 worth Of assessaDle
values. and our charter only permitted
us to borrow per cent. of that amount,
which would be $50 600, that the city
already had a bounded debt of S275, 900,
and deducting this amount from 500, 900
would leave us a balance of only 1913 200
m nav off the floating debt Of
over two hundred thousand dollars,
to build a sewer on the West Side
costing SIPS 900 and to build q high
school costing SO, 900, and TO
nrovfde for the current expenses
for the remainder of the year
1889, estimated at $50 900. In other
words we could only raise by an issuance
OF bonds S235 600, when the works and
improvements desired by a majority OF
the council, and urged as q public neces-
sity, demanded that over four hun
dred and sixty-fve thousand dollars bJ
placed in the city treasury.
1t was suggested By the chairmaP Of
the finance committee that the lawksov-
erning boards of equalization foGr cities
and towns required them to asse5f prop
erty at its true market valve; that
although other cities IL the gate had
complied strictly with the lag, yet the
boards of equalization for EErt Worth
had only assessed property at 70 per cent.
of what they considered its ISL marker
value; and that if our pr sent board
would comply with the la1 we would
have an assessment Of over '1fteen mil
B