Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-01-12
PITTsRuBG. TUESDAY. JANUARY 12.
TWELVE PAGES
1 TIMELY MESSAGE.

Mayor Gourley's message deals almost
exclusively with the subject of city taxa
ton and finance 1t makes suggestions
which commend themselves with peculiar
force to the popular judgment, and which
Councils should take into careful consider
alton. If the conservative policy which
the Mayor outlines is adopted for the COM
ing year the causes of complaint which
have been recently foreshadowed in pes
simistic views of the city future will be
well-nigh removed.
Briefly summarized, the Mayors argu-
ment starts out with the fact that during
the past five years the city expenditures
have increased IS per cent. The most
sanguine view of the increase in popu-
lation cannot suppose it to be over half
that ratio, so that expenditures have gone
ahead of the gain in population by an in
creased ratio of two for one. The in
crease the Mayor points out, is not in pay
ments of city debt and interest which are
slightly decreased; it is not in the Depart
ment of. Charities which, notwithstanding
the gain in population, keeps its eXpendi-
lures within a fixed limit; and in edu-
cational purposes the increase has been
about commensurate with the growth of
school population. OF the 100000 in
crease over the expenditures of 1856, not
less than 81. 500, ,900is in the Department of
Public Safety and the Department Of
Public Works, and makes an amount al
most equal TO the entire appropriations of
SIX years ago for 3ll the expenses of mu-
nicipai government
With these facts in mind the Mayor
points out that under the increase of as
sessments a thirteen-mill tax will proba-
bly, produce about as much revenue as The
fifteer-mill tax of last year, while the in
come from licenses will make an increased
revenue of S20a, ,0G0. Reviewing the eSti-
mates of the different departments, that
of the DEPARTMENT of Charities for the
same amount as several years past is noted
with approval. The estimate of the De-
partment of Public Safety, asking an in
crease of about $4,000, is discussed with
the conclusion that as the increase is nee
essary for adequate fire and police pro-
lection, the city can well afford the ex-
penditure. 1t is in the estimate of the
Department OF Public Works that the
Mayor criticises the proposed enlargement
of expenditures by the sum s5O4, ,721, on
the face of the figures, ard of S655, ,0S5 ac-
cOrding to the views of the Mayor.
With the Mayors remarks on the neces-
sity of cutting down this estimate, THE
DISPATCH is in full agreement except that
he does not go far enough. Most citizens
will agree that the large expenditures in
that department during the past few
years have been of great value and were
such as the city could well afford to make
during prosperous era. But the time
has come when it is not only necessary to
halt the increase in city expenditures, but
TO lay aside portion of the revenue to
meet impending contingencies. To do that
requires retrenchment in items of eXpendi-
ture which can be postponed without
detriment to the public welfare. The
work contemplated by the estimates for
public works, contains numerous instances
of that class The Mayor recommends re-
ductions aggregating nearly half a million
dollars in the items of parks, water supply
and highway bureau, and he might have
made material addition by proposing a
radical reduction in the estimate for
repaving.
No one can doubt the propriety of re-
paving when the city is in financial cir
cumstances to do it. But in view of pos
sible complications in the city's finances
on the one hand and on the other the fact
that most of the streets proposed to be re-
paved are already in possession of pave
mentS antiquated in character, but solid
enough to perform their function of keep
ing vehicles out of the mud, it is plain that
this expenditure can be largely cut down
without serious injury. Wherever there
is pavement so worn out that 1t does not
perform its work, it should be replaced;
but the necessity of replacing cobble
stones with Ligonier blocks is not SO gen.
orally urgent as to forbid its postponement
till the city's finances are in a more as
sured condition
If the estimates are properly cut down,
thirteen-mill tax will meet the city eX-
penditures and the deficiency from last
year; while the fifteen-mill rate, if main
tanned, will yield surplus to be laid aside
to meet the still indefinite contingencies
of the mUddlp ahOut the street acts