Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-02-13
WILL BE HELD BACK,
Not Much Chance for an Early Ap-
preparation Ordinance.
ONE WARD CAUSES THE TROUBLE.
The Finance Committee Fears to Move
Till All Is Certain.
ASSESSORS REVISING VALUATIONS

The prospects are that the appropriation or
| dinance will not be passed before the middle
of March This will leave about two weeks in
which people can pay city tax, with the 3
per cent discount. The Fourteenth ward
Assessors, who abandoned their task, have
caused this delay Until their work is
| completed the various city departments
will have no money to carry on their opera
! tions
The Finance Committee must have an es-
| innate from the Board of Assessors as to
the taxable valuation of city property be-
fore it can frame the appropriation ordi-
nance and fix the millage.. This
year, when all valuations are changed
by the triennial assessment, it is not safe
to make any estimates until the work of
the assessors is complete. In other years it
has not been deemed absolutely necessary to
await the completion of the assessment, as
the only increase in valuation came from
new buildings, the number and value of
which was not difficult to estimate on. But
now that the whole thing is undergoing a
revision none but the final figures of the
assessors can be used
Afraid of Making a Mistake.
To endeavor to fix basis of taxation on
what the members of the Finance Commit
tee think the taxable. valuation will be,
would be nothing but guess-work, and the
result of a mistake would be so serious
that it is scarcely probable any member
of the committee would care 10 try it.
There is little reason to believe that any
thing will be done on the appropriation Or
dinance until the assessors are through.
Had it not been for the unfortunate affair
of the Fourteenth ward this would have
been soon-possibly within week.
With the exception of the Fourteenth all
the ward books are in and the appeals have
been received. Nothing remains but the
revision OF the books by the Board of AS
SCISSORS, studying the appeals and granting
the reductions asked wherever the board
deems them right.
Even this has been done in IA wards of
the city already, % remaining to be gone
over. 1t is stated that by working night
and day the assessors might finish the re-
visions in a short time. But the County
Commissioners men can scarcely get the
Fourteenth ward books ready before March
1, and the result will be delayed until after
that time When the books are ready the
City Assessors will have finished all other
wards and will be prepared to finish up the
Fourteenth in short order.
Likely to Be Repeated.
Last year the appropriation ordinance
was DELAYED until March %, owing prin-
cipalIy to the street law muddle Accord
ing to law it should be ready by March 1,
and the collection of taxes should be started
at once, with 5 per cent discount for pay
ment during March. The delay last year
left only a week in which taxes could be
received with the discount. An extension
of time was granted, but even then it was
very short, and disarranged things greatly
in the Treasurer's Office. This year prom
ises to be little better.
The assessors yesterday were at work re-
vising the books of the Sixth and Eighth
wards. Neither were completed, and the
reductions could not be learned. While the
reductions are expected to be pretty gen.
eral, they will be greatest in outlying
wards. On property in the downtown
wards and the Seventeenth the valuations
will not be changed much. Property there
has regular and steadily-increasing value,
easily ascertained, and on which the as
SCISSORS cannot make errors as easily as in
the suburban sections
Alterations in the classification of prop
erty will materially affect the valuations on
which taxes can be collected. As has been
stated, the change from rural to full valua-
tion will be made wherever streets have
been paved. This will be principally in
the Fourteenth, Nineteenth, Twentieth,
Thirty first and Thirty-second
wards. Changes from agricultural will be
mostly in the Twenty-second and Twenty |
third wards