The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1890-08-18
RING FINANCE.
How the Salary Account
Compares With the Fund
for Improvements.
From the Nesg York World of Today.

F
tions for the fiscal year Of 1S90-91. 1t is a
formidable list Of figures, chiefly remark
able for the ingenuity displayed in
separating the various items.
The.total amount of the appropriations
is 81, 1854, 415.0 3, and the items fill two col
sumns of the local papers. BY aggregat-
ing the scattered elements that make the
total this cumbrous table can easily be
condensed into Il more comprehensive.
1t shows this RESULT
Salaries. ....... $60f,S61 90
Interest on bonds. .......-...--. G9o,S60 90
Printing and stationery. ......... 24,950 90
5iilKlng fund -....--.-.......... saS54 q
street OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES. l95oO0 20
All other purposes. ............... 13l,369 O6
Total ................ 81, s5s,st5 %
This exhibit shows what gives cohesion
to the Ring. That item for salaries af-
lords a living for a great many political
experts. It fails to show all of the money
spent for salaries, or all of the money
handled by the Ring. It omits the money
received from saloon and other licenses
and ali the money collected for water
rents, items which produce another $780,
900 In round numbers. This money is
largely spent in salaries. In fact the two
serious items which the taxpayers have
to ilquldate are salaries n interest on
the bonds made necessary by the number
of salaries.
There are a few noticeable appropria-
tons which must nave been inserted in
advertently. For instance, insurance,
500; Decoration Day, $500; city health,
$500; horse and wagon, $500, and care of
public grounds and buildings, $3.50. These
items would have provided another sal
airy II combined, and they appear to be
wasted.
Many of the items are below what the
work for which the APPROPRIATION is made
will and has cost. The only way in which
the shortage can be covered is by the is
sue OF more bonds. The people have to
pay interest IN these bonds. and some day
Will pay the principal, but that doesn't
appear in the present tax levy and it es-
capes the taxpayers eye.
The amount allowed for cleaning the
streets Is only $50, 900, and that includes
the remova of ashes and garbage. This
item covers a good many laborers' sal
aries, not included in the total of salaries,
but each employee OF the streets is sup
posed to help his employers al election
times.
If the paved streets were swept every
week the total amount for street cleaning
would average less than ten dollars a
mile, without allowance for removing the
garbage from the houses. There are
nearly twenty thousand houses IN the
city, and the total sum would allow one
dollar a year per house for removing
ashes and garbage. How can they do it
so cheaply? They do not do it. They
create @ deficiency. The deficiency
creates bonds.
The expenses of the city go along con-
%tinuously. The financlers borrow money
in anticipation of the receipt of taxes.
The assessors put values IN unproductive
and unassessable property, and no taxes
are paid on these returns; that adds to
the deficiency, and the ~so-called revenue
k0VdcU a pn nNr1Ynrfn.1 into IOpo r. ~ M hnndS
at the end of g year.
The budget fails to mention the Water
Department, yet 1t is one OF the most
costly branches of the city government.
For I'LL years it was said to be self
sustaining. That was before the Ring
secured control. IL has such a big pay
roll now that it creates an annual deficit.
1t produces a revenue of about $500, 900
annually and every dollar of it is spent,
vet it does not figure in the annual bud
get.
The budget is clearly published with
budget of 1889 80 was 81, 799, 851. IS and
this one is 81, 1858, AIS. 0S. but neither of
them showed what the city's income
amounts to or what is done with the
money. The Ring has made no exhibit
of the city's financial condition for sew
eral years. The only attempt made in
that direction was a garbled and untrue
exhibit made by an official whom nobody
would believe.
1t is scarcely worth while to examine
the items OF the budget in detail. They
are not intended for practical use. The
money appropriated for one object is Jug
gled to another account with the greatest
ease, and deficiencies are evidently de-
liberately planned.
The city will receive about $3.50. 900 in
round numbers from the State school tax,
and as much more from the railroad tax;
but it makes little difference how much
is received. The men who run the NUM-
cipal machine will find fresh salary lists
to absorb the income. Not a dollar will
get away. 1t is no wonder that the Ring
is powerful, nor that the streets are in a
bad condition, the public buildings and
school edifices old, inadequate and dilap-
idated, and the city burdened with debt
and a big tax levy.