Waterbury evening Democrat. [volume] (Waterbury, Conn.) 1887-1895, 1895-02-21
THE WAY IT IS DONE.
Town Finances Have Been Juggled
and the Taxpayers Kept i'm the Dark
Greene KcndrIck's Town Meeting

Town Finances Have Been Juggled
and the Taxpayers Kept in the Dark
Greene Kcndrick's Town Meeting
Disproyed.
Editor of the DEMocRAT:
Permit me to correct some of the figures
given by Attorney Kendrick at the adj ourn-
ed town meeting last Monday night. He
produced figures purporting to be taken
from the selectmen's report, 20 show that
the liabilities of the town up to October l,
1895, would be SIG, 900, and the assets
sSl $40. leaving balance of almost $685.
900. OF course this amount includes the
SS3, 900 outstanding temporary loans. He
| also opposed the laying of q two-mills tax,
claiming it would practically amount to
nothing toward liquidating the liabilities
| of the town.
Such figures as produced by Attorney
Kendrick are certainly very misleading
and the report of the selectmen does not
show any such calculations. He also
claims that the $50. 900 temporary loan
orders were not figured in the selectmen's
| recommendations for 1895, which is not
the fact. The temporary loan orders ap-
pear in plain figures in their list of ap-
| preparations, which anyone can see by
referring to page 1873 of the report, the
last item on the list. Their estimate covers
each and every department, and the total
| amounts to the very round sum of $685.
| 80.
Although the selectmen neglected to re-
| port the outstanding Indebtedness of some
| SIS, 900 or $40, 900. ian Insignificant item
nobody has the faintsst idea that the Sc
Iectmen had forgotten all about contracting
these bills, but they did know just ex-
| actly what bills were outstanding, and
omitted them for the purpose of making
more favorable showing in their accounts.
| have no doubt that in their estimate of
expense for current year 1895, that they
| intended to make the appropriations lib
| eral enough to cover all of this outstanding
Indebtedness. The same plan was tried
| last year and it worked to perfection, but
the taxpayers we're ''on to it" this year and
it did not work as well.
propose to show that Attorney Ken
bricks statement is absol Itely incorrect;
that instead of the liabilities of the town
being SIG 900, in reality the liabilities
are $115. 800. I discovered by examin-
ing the selectmen's report that they ne
| elected to mention the following resources,
VIZ: The military tax, amounting to S.. 900;
| collection of back taxes, which averages
IS. 900 per year, and cash on hand, So. 1885,
| 81. which appears in the treasurer's report,
IN all amounting to SIG. 1885, making
the ass.ts SOS. 36O.Os. instead of ss1:570.
as stated by Attorney Kendrick. This
amount more than covers the deficiency
received from licenses. Such omissions
seriously interfere in making correct APP
preparations, and it makes a difference OF
acne and one-half mills tax, so that in
stead of the tax being two mills, it is in
reality three and one-half mills. The ap-
preparations of 1929. $40 can be out coh-
si1erably, as they are excessive, and can
with consistency be diminished several
thousand dollars. append below the
amounts appropriated by the selectmen
for several departments, viz: Almshouse,
bridges, outside poor. roads. board OF
health, legal expense and miscellaneous
and have allowed liberal sum for
each department, which lessons the orig
Inal Recommendation of $129, $40 to the
amount of $1S.3s0, leaving the
liabilities of the Town Sis, 800. The
amount l have allowed for these depart
ments is ample to run them to the salts,
sion of the public. and with hard times
still staring US in the face. not one cent
ought to be spent unnecessarily.