Omaha daily bee., 1890-01-19
The New City Building.

To the Editor OF THE Bee: Permit me to
address a few words to the public with re-
gard to the proposed submission 10 the voters
at the spring election of the question of
issuing $l5O,000 in bonds for the purpose of
erecting a new city hall in this city. l have
been asking the opinion of quite a number of
prominent citizens and taxpayers on this
subject, and in almost every case they were
opposed Tn the measure but expressed them
selves as of the opinion that there il hardly
any use to fight it, as an obiector would only
be set down as an ''old fogy." Now this is
all wrong, and ] for one think every one
should express himself freely on all ques.
tions of such high Importance as this one to
our citizens, for there are enough voters
anyway who pay no taxes and who
do not : consider such questions in
any other light than that the spending of
money for public improvements is a good
thing. whether needsd or not, and they will
vote Tor II on that account, not caring where
the money is TO come from. | think that to
vote for the issuing OF these bonds at this
present time would be the height of folly.
Tor IL would considerably increase our taxa
ton, which is already burdensome beyond
the abilities OF our citizens to bear. Our
REGULAR taxes for the last two years have
been about ~ per cent and will be for the
coming year only about III per cent less, the
bridge tax having been paid. Now, who
does not think that such taxation Is onerous,
especially since nobody denies that business
Is dull, times hard and money scarce, and
why pile on burdens more and morel do
not think this is the way 70 build up our
city. On the contrary. it will only dis
courage business men and prevent enter-
prises from locating here, of which had
practical proof a short time ago, when par
ties who were looking for a location, after
ascertaining the high taxation here, decided
10 look further.
Now l viii admit that the accommodations
Tor our city government are none of the best
just now, but i do believe that q few thou
sand dollars iudiciously expended on the
present quarters would put them in condi-
lion TO answer all reasonable wants for quite
q number OF years TO ONE and in five or ten
years from now we would probably be in o
better condition to erect q comfortable city
building. i have heard the opinion expressed
that a fine city building would be a good ad-
vertisement for our city. j say yes, provided
you are able 10 pay for IL; otherwise 70 I'M
duly load down our citizens with taxation by
II will create q drawback, as IL will keep new
corners away from here. Now II we must
load down with debts, let us do
u SO as to get some good from
II. understand our sewer system
is incomplete, and In order to make IL
complete will require the outlay Of q consid-
cradle amount Of money. No doubt the
sewer question Is OF vital importance TO our
city. Let US look at 1t and see what II re-
quires before we rush into aebt to build or
namental city buildings which do Us no good
and which we can dispense with until we are
better able to pay for them. Even II we had
no building OF all TO accommodate our city
.olons, and had the means at hand TO erect