Omaha daily bee., 1896-11-25
our TwO CHARTER FACTORIES.

OtR Nv - tHlRIER FICIORiES.
lust now Omaha can boast surplus
of charter makers. Two different bodies
are actively engaged in patching and
mcndng the charter, plugging up leaks,
brushing off barnaclcs and furnishing
up rusty spots. One of these charter
making bodies is composed of heavy tax
payers and real estate owners: the other
of city officials, councilmcn and Nom
berS of the Commercial club Being
largely in the majority the councilmcn
and city officials will practically pre-
dominate. The product of this charter
factory will be therefore practically
the offspring of Taylor Wheeler Has
call and company. While there is no
doubt that these men know by cX
perience just where the leaks are and
what sinecures could be dispensed with,
it is IN open question whether they will
dispense with tax eaters whom they
have put on the pay roll or abolish
the methods by which their political
co-laborers and the boodling contractors
have been able TO loot the treasury.
What the heavy taxpayers charter
committee will recommend will be
known in few days. It's aim, rs far
as we can learn. is not so much to re-
form the present inequitable methods
of assessment and taxation as to curtail
municipal expenses by dispensing with
all officers that are not absolutely
needed and cutting down the pay of
,ps i,,l
scheme Of retrenchmrnt will, however,
fall far short of meeting the demand
for charter revision. The biggest leaks
in our treasury are by no means the
ovCrpaid officials and sinecure office
holders but the overpaid contractors,
the enormous wastage on public works,
the inferior quality of work and
materials and the excessive bills of
bogus claimants and Swindles perpetra
ted upon the city by connivance of pubic |
officials.
To dispense altogether with public |
works ut the very time when we con-
template an exposition that is to bring |
two million of visitors into Omaha t. |
out of question. And so is any scheme |
that cOntemplates Il material reduction |
of the fire and police force. Omaha |
must not be allowed TO lapse into :; |
village government if it is to keep up |
with the progress made by rival cities |
What we must do is to simplify the |
machinery of municipal government, |
provide for more efficient public service |
that VIII give the city an honest and |
economic administration in all its de-
partments. 1t is also absolutely |
essential that the burdens imposed for |
city government shall be equitably dis
tributcd upon all owners of property in |
proportion to the actual value of their
holdings. The greatest drawback to |
equitable taxation has doubtless been
the pariiality and criminal negligence
shown in the assessment. The remedy |
for this must be sought in II revision of
the state revenue law rather than in Il
new charter. A uniform change in the
method of assessments must be brought
about through II radical change in the
state revenue law and the methods of
property appraisement and limitation of
tax levies.
With two separate bodies fabricating
n revised charter there is no likelihood
of an agreement on Il document that
could be supported by the public gen
orally. The heavy property owners
charter is liable TO be Il straight jacket
which Omaha is expected to put on for
Il few years to come and the charter
prepared by the city council combine is
liable to be like Il lawyers brief, through
which you can drive coach-and-four.
The charter makers should really have
been citizens who are not on the city
pay roll and men in no way connected
with schemes of public works or fran
chised corporations. Such n body might
have asked suggestions from city Gf-
iicials. but the city officials should have
had no voice in the adoption or rejection
Of proposed charter amendments. In
the progress of discussion the public
should have been taken into the con-
lidrnce of the charter makers, so as TO
enable the representatives of Douglas
in the Legislature TO know what
or reforms the people favor, and
what features of any proposed change
10 not meet with their approval.
-
The sugar cane growers of the West
indies who have been seriously crippled