The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1891-09-06
4 HEAVY. TAX
II Aggregates ITS Per
Cent.
WASTEFUL EXPENSE
Claims Due to Negligence of
City Officers.
CLUTE'S PRINCELY INCOME
Fortunes squandered on the Joint Public
Building, in Sewer Construction
and Waterworks.
WASTEFUL EXPENSE
Claims Due to Negligence Of
City Officers.
CLUTR'S PRINCELY
INCOME
Fortunes Squandered on the Joint Public
Building, in Sewer Construction
and Waterworks.

me 10 DeLeEe Inat LaAatlOn was Certain
just and equal method of exacting contri- |
buttons from the people by the govern |
ment,o and that 1.-The ideas of consideration
and particularly of burden to benefit are
essential parts of taxation" In Salt Lake
city, as elsewhere the taxing powers do
not consider our ability to pay taxes when
imposing them. Our system is arranged so
as TO take from the suffering public its sub
stance in homeopathic doses with power of
Infinite repetition. The channels through
which the revenues are drawn, are various
and mostly irrational. Some are taxed be-
cause engaged in a business we are all
proud Of. Some are taxed because engaged
In business supposed TO degrade women.
Others degraded women) who are engaged
IN degrading men, are occasionally taxed
by way of fines for a continuous permits
eive violation of the criminal law. Some
ere taxed because of good health and others
exempt because of bad health. Some are
taxed because of being of one sex and ex-
empt because of another. Some are taxed
because poor enough to own a dog (of
course no one will claim that a licensed
dog is less dangerous than an unlicensed
dog or enjoys more privileges). Some
are taxed on interests they own here be-
cause they live here, and nonresldents are
untaxed on similar interest. In one in
stance our learned [D liberal o. Republ1-
can city council attempts to say man
shall not tell the truth without q license.
SOME AT THESE IRRATIoNALITIEs
can be remedied, others cannot; some are
due to territorial legislation, others to alb
surd city ordinances. These taxes are
none the less irrational because some of
them are universally tolerated. l refer TO
these matters at this time only for the pur-
pose of showing the ways and means of
our taxing power. My inquiry shall be
directed to the amount of taxes drawn from
the taxpayers and their expenditure
According to Mayor Scott's report of
January l, 1891, the city's disbursements for
one year amounted TO 1917, 615.52. To this
should be added the poll tax of about 5000
persons at $500 each. who did not pay
their poll tax in cash, amounting to
Sl5,00000, also one years expenditure of
the school board amounting to Sl59 So. 80,
making total of Sl.092, SOP 50, that being
2.03 per cent. of $54 100000, the assessed
valuation of property for that year. To
this should be added o. per cent. county
and territorial tax, thus showing the var
ious government powers TO have expended
2,73 per cent, of the peoples money in one
year.
But perhaps this is all right if well ex-
pended; so let US enquire into the business
methods of our tax disbursers and the re-
suits thereof. There was expended for
49,
were pending on January l, 1891, suits
Ct aiming SIS, 900 more of
DAMAGES FOR NEGLIGENCE
of city officers and by this time lam in
formed the amount of negligence claims
sued for amount to nearly 100000.
This litigation, together with numerous
injunction suits and increased criminal
business, necessitated a very material in
crease in the salary of the city attorney.
OF the taxes collected, 1872, 200.43 came
through the Office of the collector, on which
be is entitled by the grace of the city coun-
Gil to receive % per cent, or IS, 3O5. In
addition to this the collector makes profit
of zoe. for each DELINQUENT advertised, and
gets very remunerative fees for advertising
and selling property for delinquent taxes.
The city, besides paying this handsome
salary, paid for postage stamps and clerk
hire ETC., in the collectors Office during the
year S7,056.S7.
The city and county building foolishness
cost Sl0,S10.4, and after this expenditure
and all the cussing we heaped on the old
council for its hardness in the matter of
the city and county building, we after two
years Of patience are not as far along as
when the Liberals took the reins.
The report Of the expert water commits
sion, which will be useful in years to come,
but is now filed away for safe keeping to
await its usefulness, cost So, 2S9.S3.
An unlawful city ordinance providing
for prison labor was allowed to continue in
force These prisoners work about hall
the time of paid labor, and while they
work accomplish about half as much; sc
the work of l,676
PRISON LABOR DAYS
are worth about SS9S. In order to keer
good the promise of "Salt Lake work for
Salt Lake workmen," the city paid s, 300
in thirteen weeks for guard hire while
securing SS3S worth Of this work.
l believed that an easy manner of deter
mining whether or not the disbursements
Of the administration were made upor
economical business principles is to make
comparisons of cost Of public works; so |
turned my attention to sewer construction,
but found the opportunities Tor comparison
very unsatisfactory. In the first place, one
mayors report shows sewer construction
to have so per cent Of its sewers on piles
the other 20 per cent. Then again, am in
formed that the cost of this piling depends
upon the depth of the sewer, as does also
the cost per cubic yard of excavation.
also remembered that the sewer work under
the old administration was done in mid
winter at q needlessly increased cost and
as we alleged, for political PURPOSES find
in the reports. however, two items very
nearly alike and from these we can make
some comparison. In the report for 1889
find one item of GAL feet OF
sewers all on piles in clay anc
water, trench 10.5 feet deep, 3 fee,
wide, costing 49, "a per foot. To make il
exactly correspond in depth with an
item in the report for $780, there
should be added the cost of increasing the
depth to 1l.9 feet, or in other words, the
cost of excavating cubic feet for eact
lineal foot. or about &c., thus making the
cost 1897 per lineal foot. In the report fol-
$50 l Ii nd 1,l30.1 feet of sewer construc.