The Ocala banner. (Ocala, Marion County, Fla.) 1883-194?, 1894-06-15
Shall We Build New Court House2

- La, june Sth, 1894.
To the editor OF the Banner.
Say, you Marion county. crackers what do Won
say about building new court house, Here's a.
you. Outside of ocala we pay, or we are asses
Cd - soo,ooo, and oeala $4,000, and as Won are
called on to pay FIVE times as much as the peonIe
q ocala are called on 70 pay what do YOU think
about ita
ABOUT Twelve years ago you paid about FIVE
sixth OF the cost to build a new court house then
You gave the sub-Tropical of Jacksonville FIVE
sixth of the 5000 paid to her: YOU then paid Ave
sixth OF the cost of building new iail followed
by giving fve-sixth of the 5000 to the Ocala
semi-Tropical. aud last year Won paid fiye-sixth
OF the cost of the new JAIL and now new court
house is wanted aud now do Won like to nav I've
sixth of its cost2
Whom viii new court house benefit the most,
YOU who pay fve-sixth Of its cost, or the dozen
OF 50 lawyers and half dozen Of our county
oticials, who would not pay towards the building
Of the court house the one thousandth part of its
cost, and whom would get nearly all the benefits
derived from ii.
say, how would you like to make it more con-
venient torour lawyers and county officials, Sc
curing for them nice rooms, costly furniture, and
making everything as pleasant and comfortable
ior them as possible, while you foot the most Of
the bill out of your earnings in making long sta
pie cotton at fifteen cents pound, or in getting
nifty cents box for oranges or out of dollar a
day or less for your labor, out Of wool less than
six cents pound out Of cotton which sell almost
for nothing, out of hides that wont bring three
cents pound when dried. and ont of your land
which will not sell for fifty per cent as much as
It did several years ago, and then under these
circumstances spend many thousand dollars to
build new court house
say, how would you like to look at what you
have been paying in the way of taxes, etc, say
since ISSoe Your assessment amounts to both
county and state to s2o,sIzI7 in 1880, last year
1898, the amount assessed for county and state
was SS89o9.29, add to this the licenses collected
,ooo and you have total of $4,000 7o or it took
more than $4,000 to run the same business last
year. In 1880 you paid out of the $4,000. about
$4,000, property owners of ocala about 81 900.
About 1880 you began to build, since then our
county officials and others have so arranged that
last year the total assessment and licenses
amounted to $4,000 and You were called on to
pay out of the $4,000 about $4,000, and Ocaa
about $4,000, and our lawyers and county officials
their part of the $4,000 hardly amounted to 600
and some OF them only poll tax, thereby en-
abling them to vote and hold office
Say, don't you think it would be nice to build a
s5oo 900 or 100000 court house, or one as fine as
the Gainesville, or the court house at Tampa,
aud add to your burden from $4,000 to 500, 900
more, and especially now when everything is so
prosperous u Especially now, when the tax
collector has extended for the second time the
time to pay taxes, and when the ocala Banner in
its spring advertisement of taxes on property for
March payment numbered as high as 1850 differ
emf tracts.
Don't You think it is time for you green
country crackers to open your eyes and ask,
where are You at, and where are you going to be
led and how long are you going to meekly and
quietly submit to it, and when are you going to
put stop to this heavy taxation and spending of
your money!
Some persons will say there is not enough room
IN our court house for our county officials, etc.
and they may say rightfuily. But ask is there
no rooms that can be had outside of the court
houses can hire rooms as large as those in the
court house in buildings the square from fifty
cents to one dollar per month, and it seems to me
il our authorities Pay $40 month rent hire
for room for the benefit Of the Ccala Rifles to
drill in and give parties in, and we pay FIVE sixth
Of this expense, they might rent rooms for our
crowded officials if they must have more room
for the present.
If ocala, or our county officials or our lawyers,
or whoever wants to build new court house and
they foot the bill I'll not kick one bit about it,
bat 1, for one, if 1 am compelled to help pay for
it, will do all l can to defeat the building of
new court house, and to lessen our taxes to at
least were they were Eve or six years ago
Yours truly,
l. 6 LIGHT